juventus      Juventus                                                      V                                               Parma          parma

14:00 UK

Serie A  – Week 11  [9th November 2014]  – Juventus Stadium

 

Juventus

Juventus will be looking to extend their unbeaten home record to 24 games when then welcome a Parma side that have won just twice this season.

Allegri changed his formation to include a back 4 in defence for the midweek Champions League game against Olympiakos and is expectd to field a similar formation this weekend.

Arturo Vidal is suspended following his 4th yellow card in the 2-0 win against Empoli but Allegri will still be able to field Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Claudio Marchisio. Reports in this mornings Gazzetta suggested Carlos Tevez may play behind a front two of Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Morata but Roberto Pereyra is also an option to play that position.

juventus  Predicted Lineup

4-3-1-2 :  Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Ogbonna; Pirlo, Pogba, Marchisio; Tevez,;  Morata, Llorente

Injuries

icon05injured  Andrea Barzagli, Martin Caceres, Simone Pepe, Patrice Evra, Kwadwo Asamoah and Andrea Pirlo

 

Parma

Parma have the worst defense in the League as they have already conceded 21 goals, basically two per game. They have lost eight games out of ten and they are in penultimate position. The have problems in every area of the pitch: they rank last for tackles per game (12.8), second to last for interceptions, 17th for shots per game, and last for dribbles per game.

Will it a walk in the park for Juventus? Every signal points to that, barring the fact that Parma has been surprisingly combative and competitive against the top clubs: they put up a good fight against Milan, losing 5-4, they were beaten only by a late screamer by Pjanic against Roma (2-1) and they outplayed Inter last week.

However, it’s worth considering that all these matches took place at the Tardini stadium. On the road, they have won only against Chievo Verona (the only team that have done worse than they have so far in this season), scoring five goals and conceding nine.

As always in this troubled year, they’ll come to Turin with a depleted squad: they’ll be without the cornerstones Jonathan Biabiany, who’s being monitored for an arrhythmia, Gabriel Paletta and Mattia Cassani due to back injuries. Moreover, Massimo Coda, who has been one of the few positives, is out with a sprained LCL. Cristobal Jorquera (flexor strain), Sofiane Bidaoui (knee) sprain, Daniele Galloppa and Nicola Pozzi complete the long list of unavailable players.

Roberto Donadoni has used his usual two tactics: 4-3-3 and 3-5-2. He seems to have switched permanently to the second one because of the lack of quality in the attack: Biabiany is out, Ishak Belfodil has been disappointing so far in his second stint, Abdelkader Ghezzal have shown the last signs of life in 2009/2010. He even had to use Paolo De Ceglie as LW and that didn’t go well. They are basically asking Antonio Cassano to carry them: he’s been very good as he scored five goals, but there’s a waste land surrounding him.

3-5-2 makes more sense, at least until Belfodil ends his hibernation and/or Coda returns from his injury. Belfodil or Ghezzal will team up with Cassano upfront. However, the real driving force of their attack is on the flanks: Andrea Rispoli is a powerful wing back and De Ceglie has already scored three goals in this season. It looks like a little bit like Mazzarri’s Sampdoria, with one wing back feeding the other one. The latest indications suggest that Donadoni could field a even more defensive lineup, with Gobbi in the midfielder and Acquah as RWB, even if that is not his natural position.

In the defense, Donadoni has used Mendes a lot at the beginning of the season, but he’s been fielding the more experienced Andrea Costa lately, along with the reliable Alessandro Lucarelli (watch out for him on set pieces) and Felipe. In the midfield, they are set to use the muscular Afriyie Acquah and the very interesting prospect Josè Mauri, who has also shown flashes of offensive talent. On the other hand, the deep-lying playmaker Francesco Lodi hasn’t played well, but he remains a threat on set pieces.

Their defending has been really poor so far, Juventus have been very aggressive at home so far and this can be an advantage. As seen in the other matches against top clubs, this can become a trap game if not tackled with the right focus, but Allegri’s guys don’t have to worry about big matches in the near future, so they should be up to the job.

parma  Predicted Lineup

3-5-2 :  Buffon; Ogbonna, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Marchisio, Pogba, Padoin; Morata, Tevez

Injuries

icon05injured  Jonathan Biabiany, Gabriel Paletta, Mattia Cassani , Massimo Coda, Cristobal Jorquera, Sofiane Bidaoui, Daniele Galloppa and Nicola Pozzi

 

Formation