While not quite the blow out we had been hoping for, Juventus today put on an admirable performance against Fiorentina. 1-0 is a fine scoreline, indeed Fabio Capello made a career off of such scorelines, and today Juve went out, scored, and then went right to defending. Fiorentina gave us a few scares late in the game, but on the whole they were far less dangerous than in the previous meeting. That said, let’s rate these boys.
Buffon: 7. Very little work for Buffon today, most of Fiorentina’s shots were either over the bar or deflected it seems, but Gigi made a few saves. More importantly – and why he got a 7 – was when Andrea Barzagli slipped, leaving Buffon alone to stop an attacker. Gigi came off his line and made the clearance, an amazing move made even more impressive considering Buffon’s age and the lack of time he had to decide on his course of action.
Chiellini: 6.5. Perhaps this score is too low, as Chiellini assisted on Kwadwo Asamoah’s goal. However, aside from that this was a rather pedestrian performance by Chiellini. He played well, but there’s nothing to write home about.
Ogbonna: 6.5. I am maybe too hard on him today as he made a number of stops, but he always had a few scary moments. An example, he cleared a ball over the goal, so Fiorentina got a corner kick, but it wasn’t that far off from being an own-goal. It was a reckless clearance, but it was in the end an effective one.
Barzagli: 6. He wasn’t bad, but he certainly wasn’t good either today. Barzagli had maybe his worst game with Juventus today, so that means he had a mediocre to average game. Really not that bad today, but was the worst out of the three starting centerbacks. Also slipped on the great save Buffon made, hence why Buffon had to come off his line.
Lichsteiner: 6. Hustling as always, but not as effective or impactful today as he is on most days. Had a few bright moments.
Caceres (79′): s.v. Was only on for ten minutes.
Asamoah: 7.5. Probably the consensus man of the match for Juventini. He scored the goal, obviously, but even then he was just very good all around. Troubled the keeper, dribbled successfully, defended very well. It was a magnificent performance from Asamoah today. #BOH
Vidal: 6.5. Similar to Lichtsteiner here, wasn’t bad but was not as effective as he usually is. Think he was too focused on the “shared” regista role with Marchisio, and thus we saw a drop off in play for him. Wasn’t much of a regista either, at least compared to Marchisio.
Marchisio: 7. Almost purely for his passing, I have given him a 7. I have yet to be disappointed by Claudio while he is playing as a regista, and today he was just spraying passes all over. That said, he was not passing at Pirlo quantities, but then again, who else but Pirlo can? Anyway, I give Claudio Marchisio as a regista the full David Tenenbaum stamp of approval.
Padoin (88′): s.v. He is still only a Padoin he is not yet a Jedi Knight (I know, lame.)
Pogba: 6.5. No goal, but I thought he played well. He moved the ball around plenty in attack, and even made up for Vidal’s “meh” performance with his own defensive work. Definitely an improvement over some of his recent performances.
Tevez: 6.5. Always pressing, always working. That’s the motto of Carlos Tevez. He almost created a goal out of thin air today, as he dispossesed a Viola player on the edge of the 18 yard box, only for his lateral pass to Llorente to get picked up by the goalkeeper.
Isla (82′): s.v. Thought it was odd that Caceres came on first and not him, but, whatever.
Llorente: 6. Wasn’t as creative as Tevez was (he rarely is) and he wasn’t given too many chances to hold up the ball. Not Fernando’s best game, but he will scored a headed goal within the next two games, you watch.
first!
we are now the first ever team to have beaten every other team in the league in one season
no, we still need to beat Verona
already did that
nvm. i thought the 2-2 was the only encounter against verona this year
yes, but we won at home
yea i forgot about that.
second
I was on a streaming site and the chat was full of french ppl talking about football so i made an account and randomly said ”pogba” and they started talking about Pogba! I should add that i was bored.
lol
*PREMIER LEAGUE TALK*
Note: this news may be experienced as shocking
City eliminated in the FA Cup by Wigan Athletic, again. This gives Arsenal a huge chance to finally win a price!
Also, we will probably be seeing either Hull City or Sheffield United in the Europa League next season. Sheffield would be funny.
unless if wigan win it again…lol
Can’t rule that out.
gabbiadini scored his 8th goal of the season today
didn’t get the chance to watch the match
livefootballvideo.com has the entire replay of the match and highlights too
thanks 🙂
Ibra
https://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/zlatan-ibrahimovic-assist-lavezzi-goal-bastia-psg.gif?w=770&h=480
Zlatan understands gravity, but gravity does not understand Zlatan :p
Edit: IGNORE THE PHOTO. i chose the wrong pic and i deleted it, but it came back!!
lol
hahahahah patrick ftw :DD
CALLEJOOON NAPOLI 1-0 ROMA 😀
I think now, it’s safe to say that the league is ours to lose, it was from the start but now, with the 11 point advantage ( I calculate roma’s match with parma as a win for roma), giving us a stable enough lead for us to charge seriously in europe. FORZA JUVE <3
i really want us to win the EL
with at least an 11 point lead in the table, it’d be a shame if conte didn’t focus on the EL
he definitely is. im pretty sure thats why hes not angry at the fact that our team has been “shutting off” so frequently.
Marchisio as a regista, wow, just wow! Really liked the way he played.
Roma lost, so day couldn’t be any better. Cuadrado didn’t impress, he lacks the final touch.
Hope Juve get some big names in the summer so we can play 4-3-3.
yea. regista or holding mid is definitely where i feel he fits best.
anyone watching this new show “Cosmos”. i miss the first half hour because i went to get food, but the first 5 mins ive witnessed are already winning over.
is it me or did isla’s pace really increase?
He did seem pretty fast in some parts against fiorentina
go go Claudio 🙂
I think the fact that we attacked the entire first half and then defended for our lives in the second, is just a genius tactical mind game Conte is trying to play with Montella. They expect one thing, and we give them the other.
Genius? I much rather have an obvious tactic and we score 2-0 and finish of the game…
maybe that obvious tactic would lead us to a 1-1, maybe
Agreed, they expected us to go full out attacking. But we only did that the first half and then we completly changed in the second half. Conte knew Fiorentina would attack us on the counter attack, which is how they beat us in the first game 4-2.
Think about it, we play Fiore 2 more times so he knew he had to alter his tactics otherwise Montella would read us like a book. Fiore didn’t expect us to play like this, so Conte will probably switch things again in these other 2 games to keep them guessing.
But will he? It’s happened more than once this season now that we stopped attacking after just 1-0.
strootmans season is over. sorry Dutch, he wont be making the WC 🙁
What a horrible news :(. Get well soon ‘Er lavatrice’
It’s a shame.. we don’t have that many top midfielders anymore, and I just realised we’re playing Vidal haha. man he’s gonna run all over us
Must be weird, seeing Vidal as an opponent suddenly 😛
Ah well that’s what you get with these tournaments 🙂 I got used to us playing Italy in the last few years, so I got used to the fact that a lot of opponents were Juve players.
Lol I have even seen Amauri score against Ajax. Now that was embarrassing. Second row in the stadium, the only good thing about that match was seeing Del Piero only a few feet away.
Yeah this sucks. He was one of the only good players we have now. I’m even scared for Australia now.
The 3-5-2 is great but it is not as entertaining to watch as the 4-3-3 is. This was true in conte’s first season and in both games that we played 4-3-3 in this season too.
yea and in the 4-3-3, its much easier for every player to get involved with pressing. i remember Marchisio, Vidal, Pepe, Vucinic and even at times Matri pressing and suffocating our opponents. in a 3-5-2, Lich and Asa are more territorial restricted, if you guys get what i mean with that. i really hope we start using a 4-3-3/4-5-1 next season cuz it will give us the results we desire plus entertain us both in the attacking and defensive aspect.
Lichtsteiner was unbelievable as a RB in the 4-3-3
he was phenomenal. truly WC. im hoping webring Berardi and use him as a inverted winger and Lich would be the width of the right side making runs forward as Berardi runs into the space around the pk area.
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2014/03/10/southampton-aim-to-replace-dani-osvaldo-with-juventus-striker/
Southampton are interested in replacing Osvaldo with Quagliarella. I wonder if a deal is in the works.. Quaglia will cost more than the 2m listed in the article though.
i think the chances of them getting quags are very slim. he(or his agent) has expressed his desire to stay in Italy, and if reports are accurate, hes on his way to Lazio.
https://football-italia.net/46308/grosso-new-juve-youth-coach Fabio Grosso is the new Juve youth coach
Aaaand Milan demolished… 4-1, jesus
are you really surprised? :p
I expected them to lose but this was traumatic :p
yea but athletico have been a powerhouse this season and Milan… well you know. i was actually surprised that they only lost 0-1 in the first leg. plus Costa is like a super version of Llorente.
Atletico is playing very strong but still, 5-1 overall is quite a pounding 🙁 Milan will have to battle for an EL spot now.
Did you even see the match? Atletico started playing okay after the 3-1 or whatever. Before that it was like 3 chances in 2 matches and all went in.
Milan also hit the bar/post 3 times in the home game.
If we win the EL, our total revenue from european competition this season will be 51mil+gate receipts. Considering we barely spent anything over the summer and practically nothing over the winter, im hoping for some serious investments this coming summer. Especially on the wings.
so to answer Hanna’s question, tell us who you would like brought in on the wing?
you too 🙂
shaqiri and berardi with bonaventura as a back up
tell me/us 2 wingers that you would like to join Juve next season..
cerci and di maria.
id like Cerci too. hes big, fast and i assume a pretty smart player
Di Maria and Berardi.
both play on the right though
im sure Di Maria wont have trouble shifting to the left.
Di Maria over Berardi.
I’d prefer berardi in theory because he has a lot of potential, has a lot of time to grow, has shown he can play in serie a and is Italian.
shaqiri and berardi
Ronaldo and Ribéry. XD No, Berardi for sure and add one of Di Maria, Cerci
Ribery? really?
I was joking 😛 But what about him, he’s a damn good winger
Vidal would knock him out for nearly breaking his foot.
wow you truly never forget :p
Candreva and el shaawary
Hm El Shaarawy would be nice to have, if he gets back in shape. There’s also talk about Milan offloading Balotelli now, I wonder how much truth there is in that. Balo at Juve seems nice, if he can get back to his level as well
But can he? He’s been getting worse and worse.
He always looks good for Italy, the difference? Quality players around him.. Where do most of those play?
Id do that. Itd be risky considering el sharaawy’s injury problems but id definitely do it. Problem is, would milan be willing to sell him?
There had been a lot of talk about him moving however under Seedorf idk, he may want him to stay. Though even if he was to move on I’m not convinced Milan would allow him to move to juve, not impossible though.