Juventus V Sassuolo
Serie A – Week 26 [Monday, 9th March – 19:45 GMT] – Juventus Stadium
Juventus
Juventus will hope to return to winning ways as they welcome Max Allegri’s former side Sassuolo to Turin for round 26 of the Serie A calendar.
All told, it’s been a disappointing 7 days for the Bianconeri, starting with the frustrating draw against 10-man Roma last Monday and ending with Juve’s first home defeat in 2 years on Thursday night at the hands of rivals, Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia.
Juventus have drawn 3 of their last 5 league matches, missing out on the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table but Allegri insisted he isn’t worried by Juve’s recent form. “The goals we conceded are mistakes that must be analysed, identified and avoided.” he told reporters in his Press conference this morning.
“We analysed the game with Fiorentina. I would make all my decisions again, given the chance. We had four or five chances to score and Fiorentina barely came out of their own half until the last five minutes. The performance is not to be written off completely. We should avoid these mistakes on set plays and counter-attacks.”
Allegri went on to praise his players while slamming the negativity that has built up in recent weeks.
“I want to point out this squad won the Scudetto three times in a row. People are taking a fourth for granted, but so few teams have achieved that. I feel the enthusiasm has been lost around us.
“It was unthinkable for us to already secure the title in February. These things take time and people should see the positives as well as the negatives.
“On Monday we have a difficult game against Sassuolo. Will there be a trial by media if we don’t win? I keep my feet on the ground.”
Despite experimenting with 4-3-3 against Fiorentina and reverting to 3-5-2 against Roma, its expected Allegri will return to his tried-and-tested 4-3-1-2 against Sassuolo.
Gigi Buffon will start in goal while Stephan Lichtsteiner and Patrice Evra are likely to replace Martin Caceres and Simone Padoin in the full-back positions with Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci playing in the centre of defence.
Claudio Marchisio looked tired and off the pace against Fiorentina but he’s the only real option Juve have to play in place of the injured Andrea Pirlo. Arturo Vidal is gradually returning to his best and seems to have benefited from playing in the 3 man midfield rather than as a makeshift trequartista. Paul Pogba will likely sit-in on the left while Roberto Pereyra looks at his best behind a front two of Carlos Tevez and Alvaro Morata.
UPDATE : Gigi Buffon is out of the squad due to a bout of flu. Storari will start in his place in goal.
Predicted Lineup
4-3-1-2: Storari; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra; Vidal, Marchisio, Pogba; Pereyra; Tevez, Morata
Injured
Asamoah and Romulo (Recovering from surgery), Pirlo (ankle), Cacares (ankle)
Suspended
None
Form
(D-W-D-W-D)
Sassuolo
Sassuolo are slumping: they have lost the last three games in a pretty discouraging fashion, even if they were facing superior competitors (Fiorentina, Napoli and Lazio) and they have won only one match in their last five (against Inter).
There are essentially two reasons for this skid: defending has never been their forte and the defense works decently well only when composed by all four starters. Sime Vrsaljko and Federico Peluso have missed the last few matches and the captain Paolo Cannavaro picked up an injury two games ago. Therefore, they ended up with Francesco Acerbi cornering a patched defensive line, formed by either a washed up veteran (Paolo Bianco), fullbacks-turned-centre-backs (Alessandro Longhi) or midfielders-turned-fullbacks (Davide Biondini and Matteo Brighi). Not ideal when you have to deal with Mo Salah, Felipe Anderson and others quality attackers.
Luckily for them, the two starting fullbacks seems ready to make their return on Monday. With Cannavaro still sidelined, Eusebio Di Francesco could field Peluso as centre-back with Longhi on the left or Bianco in the middle of the defense. Both aren’t good options, but it’s still an improvement. The second reason for their downturn that they are in no man’s land in the table as we approach the final stretch. They are nine points clear from the relegation zone (and there are five teams between them and Cagliari) and ten points away from the 6th seed (but there are five teams between them and Sampdoria, including Inter and Milan). It’s not easy to motivate players when you are basically fighting for nothing.
There should be no changes in the rest of the lineup, the only doubt is in the midfield since Saphir Taider doesn’t look in the best possible shape after partaking to AFCON: Brighi or Biondini could take him spot. At this point, their traits are well-known: explosive counters, aggressive offside trap, quick and proactive team play and movement, several playmakers that can create a chance out of the blue, some good long-distance shooters. It’s really a provincial version of Fiorentina.
The biggest threat, of course, comes from the magic trio up front: Domenico Berardi, Simone Zaza and Nicola Sansone. However, with Zaza coming to Juventus or leaving for another big club, Sansone wanting to play in European cup next season (Bundesliga is calling…), Berardi ready to make the leap and also Di Francesco slated to jump ship, I do question how really interested and committed they are in this (meaningless) final part of the season. Of course although, as we know very well, the Juventus game always brings extra motivations.
I don’t mean to bash them, because, all things considered, this season proved that the gamble paid off: Di Francesco managed to bring team a squad that narrowly avoided relegation last season to a very comfortable position and did that by sticking to his beliefs, ditching catenaccio, playing exciting football and relying on his young and Italian guns. Even if a lot could change in the summer, the Sassuolo experiment has been a successful one and I hope that the “the good football way” will continue to trend: Empoli and Palermo have jumped onto the bandwagon and it should end well for them…
Predicted Lineup
4-3-3: Consigli; Vrsaljko, Bianco, Acerbi, Peluso; Taider, Magnanelli, Missiroli; Berardi, Zaza, Sansone
Injured
Pegolo (tibia), Terranova (knee), Antei (knee), Cannavaro (thigh)
Suspended
Gazzola
Form
(W-D-L-L-L)
Formation
First
Another day, another Roma draw – We should have been 13/15 points up by now. Another chance….but i’m saying nothing.
More importantly, best wishes to Mattiello who hurt himself really badly today. hoping and praying he recovers in time
We should beat Sassuolo, get that 11 point lead and focus completely on CL progress and a Coppa win over Fiorentina. We can easily field a second rate team in the league to get CL/Coppa results.
Wishing Mattiello a good recovery, horror injury.. By this “Belgian” player Nainggolan, I already didn’t like him, this ain’t helping
Haha it wasn’t Nainggolan’s fault. Just an accident. Both players were going for the ball.
Yeah I know but still makes me dislike him even more xD
OMG i hope for a quick recovery for Mattiello. His leg almost litterally broke into two pieces. i wish the best for him. He always showed promise when he played with us
Lol Iturbe said that Roma would stop drawing but i guess Cheivo has other ideas. Now we need to finally put this title to bed with a win and go 11 pts clear.
Damn.. Mattiello broke his leg. I didn’t even know we loaned him to Chievo. Hope he recovers quickly and that it won’t harm his talent.
Ya and Caceres fractured his ankle and is out now.
Caceres is becoming more injury prone every week..
Yeah, but he’s still Martin fucking Caceres. I’ll pay his salary so he can stay around.
@Belgian, where are you gonna find a better back up gk than Storari? Someone with his skills willing to stay on the bench while there are plenty of teams where he could be first gk. Maybe he’s not good enough for Juve as first goalie, but as back up he’s perfect.
There are GKs out there willing to do that.
Like who?
Plenty of options, but Neto would be the prime candidate
Even Pepe Reina plays second fiddle, why would it be so hard to get someone better than Storari?
I much rather have Storari over Reina. Do you know how frustrated Liverpool fans were about Reina? I had a friend complaining to me about him like every week. Some people might have forgotten about the 2010/11 season Storari played first gk for us and still he is solid whenever he plays. He’s no Buffon, and he lacks playing time, you can’t expect too much from him. He’s also a good addition to the team in the locker room, which is important too.
How are Liverpool fans frutrated about Reina? He was a great goalie there. Only thing I can imagine them complain about is the fact he left them.
I know Storari did well for us when we didn’t have Buffon available, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep him around forever. He’s okay, but nothing special. We could get Neto as second keeper, would you keep Storari over Neto? I sure wouldn’t.
I’m sure we have plenty of fun guys, seeing Storari go would hardly be a loss
He was a good gk for Napoli, at Liverpool he made way too many blunders. What makes you think we could get Neto as 2nd gk?
Reina was really good, might have lessened throughout the years, but he’s a quality GK. Juve already said it almost publicly, if Neto joins Juve he’d have to settle being an understudy for as long as Buffon is around and he didn’t state anywhere that would be a dealbreaker.
It’s all speculation of course, but acting as if Storari is the best you can get as 2nd goalie is BS imo. There is better and willing around!
Not that I have something against Storari, I even like him. But as goalie he’s just okay.
Reports from Italy state the Mattiello injury might be so bad that he might never return on professional level. It’s just early reports and it’s obvious since it looked so bad, but this isn’t very hopeful. He seemed like a real talent..
lolwut, I just read the operation was a success and the damage was relatively okay, but his season is over ofc
My site might have been 2 days behind again on the latest news.
hope he makes a full recovery,shocking leg break.ALL THE BEST MATTIELLO.
Buffon out with flu !
Caceres out for the season with an ankle injury
the flu i can just about take,feel so sorry for caceres,blow for us that is.
Aaghh time changes screw with me. Am.ie early?
50 mins till ko.
Thanks goodness theres a taqueria next tothe library ahahah
#burritotime
Let’s get those 3 points, Juve can’t miss out on it this time! I really hope they’ll put on a great performance and score 3 goals or so with a clean sheet ! The game against dortmund is next week so Juve really need to step it up and play a lot better than those last games !
Wow Lazio won 4-0 against fiorentina
i just saw Llorente singing on the bench. I like that, he is a good guy.
Where are you :p
I mean in television 🙂
Oooh haha
This could be THE Scudetto winning game.
Does Pereyra have SHOOTophobia
does the hard part great but frustating with his finish ability.
Sassuolos attacking trident is a tricky one
Yes they are. I really like Zaza. I could also see Berardi play behind our 2 attackers.
Sansone too. His close control is great
come on juve,i want more!!!!!!
Wow, Zaza tracking bak all the way to his pk box
Who do you guys rate highest Zaza or Morata?
Different players. Both workers, but attacking styles are diffwrent. Morata opens up wide and usually dribbles wide as well and sends on a cross or shoots at amy given chance. Definitely more of dribbler. While Zaza from.what i just witnessed is a player who moves well and is a strong ariel striker but also positions his self to receive and return passes to his supporting attackers
I agree with you. The reason for my question is that i cant see them playing next to each other. So if we buy Zaza(i hope we do) im thinking who will play next to Tevez.
If Tevez stays..
he has one year more on his contract, right?
Yeah but what if he insists to leave earlier.. Still, if he sees out his contract then who’s gonna replace him afterwards, Juve will have to buy a world-class attacker.
I’d make it a trio of attackers, Morata and Zaza up front and Tevez behind them in support, trequartista-like. For as long as he stays ofc.
When Pirlo is back we should seriously bench Vidal.
Every single shot of his is terrible… Pereyra has been way better than him this season.
He hasnt been bad tho. Hes been doing a lot of good link up plays
But it isn’t the Vidal we know, a rest might do him well I think. Like for Palermo, we should be able to give him a rest there
4 Sassuolo players have impressed me, the two that we own, Sansone and Brighi.
I like this Sassuolo team. Unafraid to attack and pressure
Anyone have a good link, cricfree keeps freezing on me 🙁
firstrow,livestreamhunter.
We dont play well at all lately. What is wrong?
What a shot!!!
This is frustrating..
POGBAAAAAA
Love that kid…
paul labile pogba!!!!!!!!!!!
Barzagli is back!!!!
really hardwork for the 3 points,but massive credit and respect to sassuolo
Difficult game, always hard to create space and chances in these type of matches. But 11 points clear !! That bitch Garcia will probably shut up now.
What are your thoughts about Vidal ? He’s been playing bad. Can’t recall a game where he played like last season. Maybe the one against napoli. I don’t know, it’s worrying. Will he ever regain his form ?