Juventus v Fiorentina
Serie A Week 16 – Sunday, 13th December- 19:45 GMT – Juventus Stadium
Juventus
What a bummer the Sevilla game was. That costly match proved once again that the squad can not give half-hearted efforts or they can be beaten on any given night. What happened was very similar to the beginning of the season, when in some matches the team looked complacent and not as intense as the opponents and dropped many points. Hopefully, that stumble will not single-handedly ruin our European campaign.
In this weekend, Juventus have the opportunity to make his official return into the title picture as they take on Fiorentina. Viola have been briefly been at the top of the table briefly few weeks ago and now stand in second position, one point behind Inter. Juventus have failed to beat Roma, Napoli and Inter, so it is time to see what their true colours are.
Alvaro Morata has been a topic of conversation in the past two weeks as he has dropped behind Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala in the pecking order. When he was given the chance on Tuesday, he did not deliver, missing two easy chances. However, this little slump did not spook the management, which handed him an extension, prolonging his contract through June 2020. We all know how much talented Alvaro is, so his pale performances are likely a consequence of the fact of being benched getting into his head, so there is little doubt that he will resume scoring big goals very soon.
It is pretty funny to see how the wheel turns at Juventus: at the start of the season, it looked like Juan Cuadrado was the best player on the roster and that we could not do anything without him on the field. Then there was a moment where Morata carried the biggest load, I remember the headline “Morata looking for a partner.” Finally, now it is Dybala’s time to shine, with Mandzukic as his much precious sidekick, and Cuadrado and Morata have faded into the background. I do not know if we will ever be able to find a way to exploit the skills of these four outstanding players at the same time, but it is nice to have so many weapons at disposal and, hopefully, Massimiliano Allegri will find a way to keep them happy even when they are not contributing as much as they could.
There are not many doubts about the lineup: once again, everything hinges on Sami Khedira’s health. If the German world champion is fine, and there is some optimism about his recover, he will start. Otherwise, Stefano Sturaro and Kwadwo Asamoah will battle out for the final spot on the midfield, alongside Claudio Marchisio and Paul Pogba, who returns from a one-game suspension. It is remarkable how the return of Marchisio made his partners so much better: Sturaro and to some extent even Pogba looked shaky early in the season when the Italian international went down with a couple of injury. The growth of Sturaro, who went from JAG to solid starter in less than a year, is impressive too.
Mandzukic was under the weather and missed the Sevilla game but he recovered and I reckon he is the favourite to start, but Allegri sometimes has given his players a quick chance to redeem themselves after a poor performance, so Morata definitely has a chance. Patrice Evra was out because he banged knees with an opponent but he is available, sparking the usual doubt on the flanks. Fiorentina have one of their best players, Federico Bernardeschi, playing on the right, so it will be interesting to see what approach the coach takes: a defensive one with the French veteran or a ballsy one, putting Alex Sandro, taking into consideration that the Italian starlet does not spend much time defending. Cuadrado should be the choice over Stephan Lichtsteiner on the other flank: maybe after January and the probable departure of Zaza, Juventus will not replace the former Sassuolo, using Cuadrado primarily as a striker (and maybe adding a versatile forward).
Simone Zaza had a muscular problem but it is not a serious one and he should be available. Mario Lemina has a nagging injury that he can solve only by resting, we will see if he will be on the bench, anyway he is unlikely to play anyway. Martin Caceres and Roberto Pereyra remain out with hamstring ailments.
Probable lineup:
3-5-2: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Cuadrado, Sturaro, Marchisio, Pogba, Evra; Mandzukic, Dybala.
Injuries:
Pereyra (hamstring), Hernanes (hamstring).
Suspended:
None.
Fiorentina
Fiorentina have been one of the main stories of this season. The hiring of Paulo Sousa after the messy ousting of Vincello Montella did not make much noise, but it proved to be a brilliant choice by the Della Valle family. The former Juventus midfielder came off a successful campaign with Basel: even though the Swiss league is inferior to Serie A, I think that winning is never a fortuity and that the coach always plays a big part. The same happened with Rudi Garcia who had triumphed in France with Lille and had a magnificent impact with Serie A.
Fiorentina were the penultimate team struck by the “first-place curse”: every side that managed be on top on their own has immediately dropped points and been leapfrogged by the other competitors. At various points of the season, Roma, Inter, Fiorentina and most recently Napoli have had their lead derailed by the ill-omened spell.
Sousa has changed the tactics, opting for a very interesting 3-4-2-1 with Borja Valero behind the striker, but has not changed much the principles adopted by the previous coach. Fiorentina is still a ball possession-oriented team that likes to be proactive and rarely sits back and is passive.
It is fair to say that the players have made the difference compared to last season. First of all, the club has made some excellent additions: Nikola Kalinic has been an incredible find and the offensive kingpin they hoped they had in Mario Gomez. Matias Vecino, who returned from a loan spell in Empoli, has been solid. Secondly, some seems revitalized: Facundo Roncaglia has returned to the form of his first year, Borja Valero is playing at peak levels and Josip Ilicic is performing like in his Palermo days. Davide Astori has not been a liability in the defence. The only let down from the summer is Mario Suarez, who has been outplayed by both Milan Badelj and Vecino, but anyway they got him in the Stefan Savic deal.
Jakub Blaszczykowski is the only absent: the Polish winger has been steady, but his injury has been a blessing in disguise because it has given Bernardeschi more playing time. Bernardeschi is a pure winger, a position that is not contemplated in this formation, but he is very versatile and can play both a trequartista and as a striker, in the rare times Sousa deploys two-man attacks. However, he seems to have found his niche as a very offensive right wingback.
They will be able to field their best lineup, the only small doubt is between Marcos Alonso and Manuel Pasqual, but Alonso is favoured by a wide margin.
Probable lineup:
3-4-2-1: Tatarusanu; Roncaglia, Rodriguez, Astori; Bernardeschi, Badelj, Vecino, Alonso; Ilicic, Valero; Kalinic.
Injuries:
Blaszczykowski (hamstring).
Suspended:
None
Formation
Poll
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The draw for Euro 2016 was today, since there’s no Holland i’ll just go for Italy 100% now. Also curious how the now best Dutch speaking country will do.
Both are in the same group and both should advance to the last 16, especially with the weird new rule of the best number 3’s advancing.
Now i wonder Belgian, how do you feel about this group with both Belgium and Italy in it.
We have been dealt a tricky group. Yes, Belgium seem stronger than us, yet Lukaku rarely comes up against Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli. I have little hope of gli Azzurri prospering, yet will of course offer my full support. If we cannot finish above Ireland and Sweden (who have one world class player alone in Zlatan) then we will not deserve any ambition of glory. Even the Belgians are hit and miss.
Italy must aim for 1st place in this group. Belgium are currently number one in the world, but thats because friendlies count for the ranking, which is unbelievable. Belgium have amazing talent in their team and will fight Italy for 1st place. Zlatan will probably get Sweden in 3rd place and they’ll gotta hope for a ”wild card” It’s gonna be fun to see Zlatan play against Italy, the country he has always been at his best.
A lot of people feel Italy have no chance – I think they’ve got a huge chance of doing well, provided the right players are in the squad. There’s quality throughout italy, the concern is that Conte hasn;t called them up. As much as i love the man and his do or die attitude, i fear his need for discipline and habit to ride roughshod over the team could be the biggest problem. Balotelli, Immobile, Zaza, Berardi, Insigne…..thats a superb choice of a forward line and thats not all the players available. Granted, some of them are yet to show their best for the national team and their clubs, but they have the raw talent. The defence and midfield boast the same credentials. If he can ready the team I can see them doing some damage next summer
Yes yes! We have the means to do very well indeed, yet as you suggest…Will Conte call upon them?
““He can’t wait for what? To watch us on TV or to play in the Euros? It’s up to him, just as all the others, to prove himself.”
Conte is an egomaniac. Some admire his complete absence of diplomacy and humility. I am not one of their number. He is capable of engendering in a squad supreme belief…but that belief is in Conte.
I did not respect his departure from our ranks at Juve. It was undignified and bothersome. The manner in which he concluded not only that we were not equipped to prosper in the champions league, yet also, that the pressure to continue the success he had managed was too much, marked him out to me as a coward and a disrespectful coward,
He was a wonderful player in our colours. And he was a wonderful manager. Yet his strengths are as much a weakness. Whilst my love and respect were immense, he destroyed that, with his comments regarding the squad and left two days into pre-season training. Coward…
If he was at any club other than la nazionale, I would be happy to see him fail, yet my core instinct remains in full flight, in that he can only find glory when he is the figurehead of that ambition.
I prefer Allegri…His husbandry of the livestock is careful and cunning. Whereas Conte is all heart, all passion, with huge ego…I can smile, as perhaps due to my Sicilian blood, I am far more, as a man, like Conte than Allegri…For I often find my strident mind recoiling in horror, in full knowledge, of having zero say in the movements of my whole, when my heart is engaged…
People talk and write and think…yet when push comes to shove, in most matters, for the many, FEELINGS ARE EVERYTHING.
Not so in football. And whilst my head presently and my feelings are for Syria, and the Western push towards world war, skanking Vlad, who finds himself and the country behind him, in a corner, continues to attempt to de-escalate, cling onto the hope that some EU nations will pick the locks of their US/NATO vassal state shackles…
The world is at war, more leaning to a global apocalypse, than since the 1930s…or perhaps the Cuban missile crisis…yet the point of reality of the latter is that had they wished, Russia could have crunched us. And as our NATO allies attack Russia and invade Iraq, and US forces bomb the Syrian army, and the US destroy hospitals in Afghanistan, I love Juve more, for offering a break, a respite, from the gathering madness…which could end us all.
So…when I wake on the morrow, I will peek first for how we have fared against Fiorentina before then turning to https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Forza Juve
Might i just say…I LOVE your posts my good man. From Conte, to the Cold War to Eric B and Rakim. Absolutely tremendous stuff. If i were wearing a cap, i’d doth it to thee !
Absolutely agree on all point regarding Conte – Absolute nutjob headcase egomaniac who deserted Juve at a crucial moment. Perhaps its because of the monumental success that Allegri had (In recent ‘black and white’ terms) that i warmed to him so quickly. The calmness and relative tranquility he bought after years of utter warfare against the rest of Serie A – Juve v Italy as i saw it. He can instill a man with great courage and send him out onto the battlefield….but he seldom gives the man freedom to express himself fully. It is always for the collective that we must work. The man is a socialist at heart.
Which brings me on to our current gloomy predicament. Weren;t things so much better in the heady 90’s? Or at least it seemed that way. As a student of International Relations, the rapidly changing outlook of nation states approaches to one another and their willignness to bomb into obliteration makes for dire and depressing times. Much like you my friend, Juve are that shining beacon whereupon i place all my hope, passion, lust and belief. Impossible is nothing….in black and white, at least !
Well, comrade…if the Chief is jolly for me to continue to express my often convoluted, always passionate and sometimes playful mix of juve focused poetic tyranny I will continue!
I am also enjoying your own virtual ink. The more your pen flows the better!
Life in the Uk in the 90s was one of the greatest periods of modern history, with only the 60s in the US and UK comparing, in terms of cultural explosion, social chaos and a general state of intense flux flowing through everything, everywhere. I was in Manchester for the late 90s, Kent beforehand.
Since then, indeed, the move of the Western corporate machine and its major players, aligned with the Greater Israel Zionist project have caused the Earth to become a hellbroth. I am also a student of Global Affairs, yet through my own steam, not the academic route.
Russia have had time to recover, time to improve conditions for their people, time to gather momentum and the infrastructure both technologically and economically to begin to rival the unipolar superpower routine.
Most Westerners are dullards, led by headlines and soundbites of puppets and hugely powerful companies who seek to coerce and glean support for basically poisoning and enslaving and destroying the planet.
Where we find ourselves now is that Russia have been targeted. It now causes me not rage but a mere shrug of the shoulders to hear of cretins talking of Vlad ‘invading’ Ukraine and ‘stealing’ Crimea. No knowledge of the huge economic decisions made by Yanukovych, no knowledge of immense US support and arming of nazis in Ukraine, no knowledge of the rise of the far Right, supported by the US. No knowledge of…anything of value. ‘but they took down that plane’…yes of course, the rebels thought to themselves ‘the West are against us, Russia are not helping much, if at all what can we do to get more support…yes…let us take down a civilian airliner full of Westerners!’…what kind of fool believes such drivel?
Same for Assad…the majority still have in their thoughts that Assad invited UN chemical weapons inspectors to Damascus, then the very next day launched a chemical weapons attack next door…hohoho!…That makes perfect sense…to a moron perhaps. Yet not to anyone capable of or prone to critical thinking, to questioning what we are been told by proven liars.
the powers behind the US are the greatest threat to our survival the world has ever known, for the second time in 50 years. Russia have their own agenda, of course, yet for now, they are playing more openly and fighting the good fight. Their moves against IS, Al Nusra and the other names for our western/saudi/israeli sponsored pigfuckers have caused Turkey to invade Iraq after taking down a russian plane with US direction. Two acts of war…largely unmentioned by the MSM. In fact, Russia remain cast as the aggressor! For fighting ISIS! Its become surreal…
I will no doubt return to such matters in the near future, comrade.
Wishing you a jolly afternoon, cheers, TGP
I don’t see Italy winning the euro, but 2nd round atleast is a must. With possibly 3 teams advancing from one group there are no excuses. If they finish 2nd they can get Spain/Czech Republic/Turkey/Croatia in the 2nd round, if they finish first they can get Portugal/Iceland/Austria/Hungary in the 2nd round. In 2nd place it’s most likely Spain assuming they will win their group, so high chance it will be a 2nd round exit then, in first place they play the 2nd placed team in group F which would probably be Iceland or Austria and that should result in a quarter final place. After that it gets pretty impossible to predict 😛
Cheer for the preview, Enrico!
I actually felt we played very well against Seville, took the game to them in their own well respected fortress and had Sturaro or Morata taken any of their gilt edged chances, we would not only have drawn, but won quite handsomely.
Latest probable line-up is…
Buffon
Lichsteiner Barzagli Bonucci Chiellini Sandro
Khedira Marchisio Pogba
Dybala Mandzukic
Which is strong enough to win. Khedira offers a huge amount to the team, and as far as I know, his recent injury is not connected to the one which kept him out at Real for so long last season. Just bad luck as many others in our ranks have succumbed to thus far. Yet this will end, at some stage, hopefully soon!
I do not feel that Marchisio has yet found his form. He is a player who after a lengthy lay-off needs a fair amount of time to find his rhythm. He looked to be grasping at this midweek. And I hope he can stay fit and continue to work his way back to his very best. Also, with Khedira in the side, Claudio can move forward with greater confidence, as his defensive duties are shared.
We are stronger than Sousa’s Florence outfit. Luck will play her part, yet La Madama must take this opportunity to assert herself as serious title defenders.
forza juve
Their defence is the weak link so i just hope we have a big performance from Dybala/Morata/Mandzukic tonight. We need a battering ram to just keep smashing on that back 3. I feel this is going to be our toughest test yet but thankfully, we’re facing them at the right time of the season. A win, and we’re back to -6 from the top and lets hope that Roma and Napoli slit each others throats, so to speak. FORZA JUVE !
Napoli are far and away the best side in Serie A presently. Inter are solid, yet have tough games to play. Roma are faltering. Mandzukic is that battering ram. Slitting throats eh! hohoho…A draw will be the best in that fixture for our own aims. Yet since I assume Napoli are more solid and more serious title contenders, I will hope that Roma beat them. For they are going to fall deeper down the league with time. Whereas Napoli..are for me, the present title favourites.
A loss today and believe it or not, Roma are 7 games without a win – Over a month. I’m hoping for a 3-3 draw with red cards a plenty !
Agree with you RE Napoli – They fixed their greatest problem – a faltering defence. They have an attack that simply doesn’t know when to quit, and the midfield is robust and creative. There’s one thing about Napoli though….someone mentioned it years back and it remains the true test….can they last? they always seem to give in or capitulate right before the finishing line. If they are still banging the goals in and in the top 2 come March, i think the title is theirs
That was fast…… Thanks Chiellini.
Against his former club!!!!!
The Q&A guy predicted it :p
Mandzukic!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mariooooooooo
Dybalalalalalalala!!!!!!!!
WE BACK IN THIS BITCH!!!
Dybala does it again!
what a game what a win we are marching to top spot!