Juventus 2-1 Sporting Lisbon
Scorers: Alex Sandro og 12 (S), Pjanic 29 (J), Mandzukic 84 (J)
Juventus went behind through Alex Sandro’s own goal but some magic from Miralem Pjanic and a late header from Mario Mandzukic earned the Bianconeri a valuable win.
Biggest winner/biggest loser:
Ultimately, we’re the biggest winner tonight, as a collective. There were plenty of frustrating moments and many areas to improve on but we ground out the victory over the course of 90 minutes, creating more than our fair share of goal-scoring chances. Having Miralem Pjanic back in the side made a world of difference and he was at the heart of everything good, scoring the equaliser with a trademark free kick and generally dictating the tempo of the Juve play.
If there is to be a loser, I would say it’s Stefano Sturaro who is a poor right-back who shouldn’t be playing the role in the first place. It might seem unfair to level criticism at a player who is still adapting to playing in defence, but there’s an argument to made that he shouldn’t have to, considering we have a very capable right-back in Stephan Lichtsteiner. His exclusion still baffles me, so perhaps the ‘biggest loser’ should be shared by Allegri who could really benefit from an experienced full-back in the Champions League.
Takeaways from the performance/areas of improvement:
Finishing, finishing, finishing. Juve had 18 shots on goal, 8 on target and 2 goals while Sporting had 5 shots on goal, 1 on target and one own-goal – From the host of chances we created, we should have equalised and been out of sight by the time the clock ticked ’80, and yet we were reliant on a late winner in a game that we should have won comfortably. Sporting played well in the opening period but switched off as the game progressed and we started to find our rhythm, but for all the attacking impetus, it didn’t seem we were going to break the deadlock. I can’t help but feel we need to be all the more clinical up front and stop wasting so many opportunities.
Injury updates:
Miralem Pjanic returned to the starting XI and showed exactly what we miss when he’s away. I vote for covering him in bubble wrap and storing him away safely and out of harms way until the visit to Udine. Claudio Marchisio is back in training but wasn’t in squad, however Allegri pointed out that Principino is“doing well” which is encouraging. Marko Pjaca is being gradually reintegrated into the squad and there’s hope he could be back in the team before the end of the month, while Benediky Howedes and Mattia De Sciglio are still out of action for now.
Outlook for next fixture:
There were positives from tonight in terms of the chances created and coming away without injuries is always a boost. No Daniele Rugani or Federico Bernardeschi should hopefully mean that we get to see them start or at least feature heavily against Udinese at the weekend. We needed a morale boosting win, despite Allegri and Marotta insisting that there’s no crisis at the club. I’m inclined to agree, but we really need to work harder at the back and give Chiellini a partner that’s worthy of him. Udinese are a side that pose an attacking threat so we need to be prepared at the back, although they’ve only won one in of their last five matches, so anything but a victory would be unacceptable.
Opposition:
Sporting were a good opponent who really tested us in the opening stages of the match. Their goal was the result of a defensive error, but the build up and the break away that led to it was clever work. They pressed us high up the pitch, had the numbers in midfield and played a great first half. Juve reacted well in the second and the visitors seemed all too content to sit back and let us try and break them down.
Best new signing on the field:
Douglas Costa only featured for 10 minutes but it was enough to change the game and secure us the win. For now, it seems he will have to resign himself to being the understudy to Cuadrado and Mandzukic while occasionally getting a start against lowly league opposition. He still seems to be settling in at the club, but an assist and a goal in his last two outings is a good return for a player who might be starting to find his feet.
Manager Review
Some truly strange and inexplicable choices from the mister – Where was Rugani and why didn’t he even make the bench? Why was Cuadrado allowed to continue until the 80th minute when he’d failed to make any telling contribution to the attack? If his role was to help Sturaro on the right, shouldn’t we have played a different formation instead? Sometimes the boss makes some odd choices and despite being his biggest fan, it’s hard to see the logic and reasoning behind his decisions.
Formation/squad selection grade: C
I simply can’t understand the exclusion of Daniele Rugani. If there’s an issue with him, I wish we’d hear about it, whether it’s an injury, a problem with his mentality or if he’s not tactically adept to playing in big matches…whatever it might be, to keep the youngster out in favour of Benatia seems a strange choice. The Moroccan is a capable defender, but he’s not the future of the defence, that title belongs to young Daniele who has impressed in the few occasions we’ve seen him this season. I understand the need to ease Bernardeschi into the starting XI because he’s considered a youngster, but at Fiorentina he was starting games and deciding them for La Viola – I can’t help but feel he would have offered more of a threat than Cuadrado. Sturaro struggled to create anything of note and was caught out at right-back on a few occasions – If defence was on Allegri’s mind, surely it would have been better to start Barzagli and have Rugani on the bench? It feels like we’re still not sure of our best XI.
Lineups:
Juventus: Buffon; Sturaro (Douglas Costa 84), Benatia (Barzagli 46), Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Khedira, Pjanic; Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic; Higuain
Sporting: Rui Patricio; Piccini, Coates, Mathieu, Coentrao (Silva 77); Battaglia, Carvalho; Martins (Palhinha 76), Bruno Fernandes, Acuna; Dost (Doumbia 87)
Ref: Oliver (ENG)
Statistics:
Man of the Match: Mario Mandzukic
Flop of the Match: Stefano Sturaro
Corners: 13
Pass Accuracy: 80%
Shots on Target: 8
Total Shots: 18
Ball Possession: 56%
Formation: 4-2-3-1
I would place Khedira as the worst performer on the field, alongside Dybala. Both were playing the their natural roles, and neither did anything of note whatsoever. Khedira especially was non existent as a presence, just finding himself almost on the end of a few moves is nowhere near enough when we continue to play the 2 in midfield.
Sturaro is never a RB. He can tackle, has far from great pace, but has a career behind him playing in central midfield, which is a very different role, you can make mistakes there, commit without worrying that any mistake leads to a chance on goal. Not his fault, and his career seems on a downward spiral. If we were not going to give him any chance in his natural role he should have been sold.
We made some chances, but few gilt edged opportunities, and our cohesion was absent throughout. I remain far from a fan of the 4-2-3-1. It simply isnt working. Relies too much on individual moments of brilliance and the most simple way to thwart the system is to focus markers and pressure on Dybala and Pjanic. If Khedira starts its often as if we are playing 4 – 1- 3-1. Yes he is not fit, but then why start him in such an important game?
Allegri does not know his best starting XI yet and our stumbles are not yet conclusive in taking us out of the reckoning in any competition.
We desperately need Marchisio to return. His experience, composure and technical ability is sorely missed. Matuidi does well enough as a workhorse, but does little going forward. Khedira is past his best, long long past his best. Bentancur is learning and we cannot rely on Pjanic to run the midfield alone.
Sandro has been poor to average all season. Perhaps he had wanted to move…SOmething is not right with him.
The absence of Rugani is becoming ridiculous. Higuain is too isolated. Juan is…well…Juan.
We have spent (or will do) close to 100m on two players who should be starting. Costa and Bernardeschi must be integrated into the starting XI. We might well fall too far behind Napoli to catch up and I do not see us venturing deep into the CL.
The defence is woeful. Midfield disjointed. Attack easy to cut supply to by hustling two players and we deploy an average box to box midfielder as a right back learning on the job in a crunch CL tie…
Times are hard, for Juve and myself. I can but hope that this period of agony gives way to some bliss…at some point.
Khedira is done, Benatia is terrible, Sturaro is awful at RB. Times are definitely hard, Marchisio and Pjaca will be very welcome returns when they are fit. I just hope the injured can return to fitness and form before the league is out of reach.
This is the most pessimistic post I’ve seen from the honorable TGP in a while. The team looks disjointed and almost every player is underperforming, but all our objectives are well within reach. A 5 point deficit in the league this early is not much, but we can’t afford to make too many mistakes given how Napoli, Inter, Roma and Lazio are playing. Qualification from our CL group is within our reach as long as we beat or tie Sporting in Lisbon, which is very doable.
I too don’t understand why Khedira and Benatia are playing when we have much better options in Bentancur/Matuidi and Rugani. The defense is a little better than the beginning of the season, but still vulnerable. A formation change may be necessary. We have players like Higuain, Mandzukic, Dybala, Pjanic, Matuidi, Chiello, Sandro, and Buffon which always need to be fielded when healthy. That leaves us with only three players/positions to shuffle around. Here’s where Allegri earns his salary. Make this work, Mad Max!
that’s basically his old time error which end up getting beaten to pulp by madrid.
he played all his best skuad againts small team and played new formation with new players againts lazio LoL that’s just stupid IMHO.
also he pushed pjanic to play for 90minutes, his best creative player.
when pjanic injured and his only best option to play as trequartista was bernardeschi, he just couldn’t do it. because basically dybala has to be bench.
sturaro was new on the full back and he did a good job too just need more times to used to that new position. he remind me of toricelli.
i dont blame on the lads because it is the boss faults.
he knew benatia out smart by barca attackers.
he knew barzagli fooled by messi, moratta at italy vs spain and almost got 3 occasions to opening goals for israel and he knew it too immobile out pace barzagli for those 2 goals in juve arena.
he knew it too fede is very dangerous, with his limited play times he still got 1 goal and 2 assists, the down side is he lack of defensive capability like cuadrado, he knew he should used fede as trequartista when pjanic injured but that’s mean he will be playing at dybala position.
the boss playing too many favoritism since last season and that’s why we lose the final, super coppa, draw with mid tier team and got beaten by mid tier team too.
he aspects the new players will be integrated without the needs of playing times.
why rugani and fede who always in starting eleven on their old club need to be on the bench watching those player whom they already out performed playing?? its simple really.
because they are young and they are italian.
the regular excuse was that they need to know how to play for bigger club. but no! those bigger club players need to know to how to play in small club, the small club players in seri A never give up until the referee last whistle.
but bigger club mentality playing like acting and held their head down and losing penalties.
dybala is amazing for double hat tricks against small club. when he face mid tier club suddenly we never saw him scored again. he basically useless as trequartista because he had the urged to keep shooting with that left foot.
but its not his fault. its the boss decisions. his bad timing for subs also a point to be address.
if allegri keep working like this, i didn’t see we will end up ahead of napoli or even inter. and forget it about winning UCL.
a 36years old granpa can’t do anything when messi, neymar or aubameyang start their dance.
the funny things are our board getting worry because the stadium has so many empty seats LoL. what do u aspect? today juventus starting elevel is full of foreign players LoL. people came to watch their local hero, italian hero, but today juventus were like internationale milan in 90s and 2000s.
they probably should change the names too into internazionale turin LoL.
the last time juve won UCL was only with 2 foreign players and the rest are italian, jugovic and Deschamps.
today almost all of this players are foreign. the italians was some veteran and the other just playing second back up for their foreigners. it is a shame for italian football and look at what the azzuri did now? they have to go to play off. it’s mind boggling how those manager and transfer guru still doesn’t get it the problems.
i don’t have any hope for today juventus, just hoping the boss will go after this shameful season. in the end bonucci probably right to ask the boss weird decisions.
good bye allegri and welcome gasperini, juventus mean young and nobody bothered watching a slow pace 36years old granpa out run by immobile?? this is just amazing.