juventusnapoli

Juventus v Napoli

Serie A – Week 38 [Saturday, 23rd May – 17:00 GMT] –  Juventus Stadium


juventus

Juventus

As Massimiliano Allegri said in the pre-game presser, Juventus are now in the middle of a two-week long training sessions to get ready to the Champions League final that incidentally involves two Serie A games. The ultimate goal is to have everybody at peak condition on June 6. The fact that Napoli, and not just a random team, are visiting Turin won’t change the plan one bit. The stars won’t be overplayed just because a tough opponent is in town.

The coach hasn’t announced who will be ruled out, but we can expect that the ones who have played the full 120 minutes on Wednesday to sit out. Therefore it’s unlikely that Carlos Tevez, Giorgio Chiellini, Patrice Evra, Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal will be risked. Stephan Lichtsteiner is suspended. On the other hand, Gianluigi Buffon will return on goal and Alvaro Morata and Claudio Marchisio skipped the midweek game and are primed to headline the starting XI.

Paul Pogba is back, he has scored, but he hasn’t look as smooth, powerful and dominant as usual. It’s understandable and he needs playing time to get it going. He and Roberto Pereyra didn’t play the whole game at Stadio Olimpico so we can expect at least a cameo, but they are probably going to start, making the lineup pretty competitive. In addition, Kwadwo Asamoah is primed to make his return, five months after a knee procedure.

Somebody between Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli (or both) will have to start alongside Angelo Ogbonna in the back, unless Luca Marrone is given a chance. Simply considering the guys that are fresh and available, 4-3-1-2 seems to have an edge on 3-5-2: the presence/absence of Pogba will dictate the scheme. In the attack, the Coppa Italia final hero Alessandro Matri and Kingsley Coman are battling to pair with Morata, while the 4-3-3 with Simone Pepe (as you know, you can use 4-3-3 only when Pepe is available) is a more distant option.

It’s the last home game of the season, so it’s celebration time: Juventus will lift the Scudetto trophy after the final whistle, but there will be no parade this time as we’re saving it for a different time. The ban of the Curva Sud has been suspended once again and it will probably be enforced next season. Juventus are undefeated at home and they certainly would like to keep it that way, even if the game is meaningless.

Probable lineup:

4-3-1-2: Buffon; Padoin, Bonucci, Ogbonna, Asamoah; Sturaro, Marchisio, Pogba; Pereyra; Matri, Morata.

Injured players:

Romulo (thigh), Caceres (ankle).

Suspended players:

Lichtsteiner.

 

napoli

Napoli

Napoli need to win this game at all costs to keep their Champions League hopes alive, as they’ll face Lazio in the final match day of the season: they are three points behind Biancocelesti. They also have to kick themselves because in the last two road games they have drawn against Parma and lost against Empoli. They are just an ok team away from San Paolo with seven wins, four ties and seven losses.

Rafa Benitez is a goner and this certainly hasn’t helped an environment that is historically quite moody. Some performances have legitimately raised the question whether the squad had quitted on the coach as they have been so inexplicably bad. They showed good fighting spirit against Cesena, but it was still an opponent that had already bid farewell to Seria A.

The firepower is undeniable: they have several good offensive players, but the roster is unbalanced because there is little quality in the midfield and in the defense. 4-2-3-1 is a fine tactic, but you need to be strong in the trenches to back it up. The stats tell the whole story: they are tied with Juventus for most goal scored during the season (67), but they have also conceded 47 goals, which is as much as Empoli: nine teams have done better and that’s not good at all if you want to be an elite team.

Despite the shortcomings, they have a solid chance to qualify to the Champions League playoff at the buzzer. Gonzalo Higuain hasn’t scored a lot (or at all) lately, but he remains a threat. Dries Mertens has showed incredible form and Manolo Gabbiadini is in a good period. Probably the Italian striker will come off the bench as Marek Hamsik and Josè Callejon are the favorites to start.

Against tougher opponents, Benitez like to field Walter Gargano for a more defensive outlook, however it’s possible that this time Gokhan Inler will get the call alongside David Lopez, who have started most of the games this year. In the back, Kalidou Koulibaly is suspended, but that’s not necessarily bad news for them, so Miguel Britos and Raul Albiol will play in the heart of the defense, with Christian Maggio and Faouzi Ghoulam (or Ivan Strinic) on the flanks. Mariano Andujar has won the starting job at goalkeeper over Rafael a while back.

When they are on point, they are a pretty entertaining team to watch. The four attackers combine well, they use interesting backdoor cuts, they have many players who can pass and finish in a variety of ways, they like to use a proactive style of possession football. The only knock on them is that they are fragile and concede a lot, but it’s a big one, especially in tight games.

Motivations make all the difference in these late season games and there’s cleary more on the line for Napoli, but it was the same for Inter and Cagliari in the two previous games.

Probable lineup:

4-2-3-1: Andujar; Maggio, Albiol, Britos, Ghoulam; Gargano, David Lopez; Callejon, Hamsik, Mertens; Higuain.

Injured players:

Zapata (thigh), Mesto (leg), De Guzman (back), Michu (ankle), Zuniga (thigh).

Suspended players:

Koulibaly.

 

Formation