Juventus v Torino
Serie A Week 11 – Sunday, 31st October- 17:00 GMT – Juventus Stadium
Juventus
Just as it looked like Juventus were ready to go on a run, here comes the stinker. The approach in the Sassuolo game was simply inexcusable: the guys were too careless and nervous and got outplayed in the first half. The gem by Nicola Sansone and the Giorgio Chiellini red card did the rest. The reaction in the second half was decent, but not enough to produce a goal and, as we have seen multiple times this season, Juventus’ territorial dominance tends to be sterile and fails to create clear-cut chances.
The players and the coach surely share the blame for the debacle. Sometimes the squad looks too discombobulated for a team with so many quality players in the roster, so I would say that, while you could argue that there has been some bad luck too, the issue starts with the coaching. The players often seem to go on the pitch without a clear idea of what to do and of what the game plan is and improvise or constantly try to create a play on their own. At times, they do not look very motivated and locked in mentally. Gianluigi Buffon and Patrice Evra have basically called out their teammates on Sunday: I surely respect those two a lot, but what does that say about the authority of the coach in the locker room?
At this point, the Turin derby becomes crucial for both the season and Massimiliano Allegri. I do not think that a firing is imminent, even though the whispers are starting to get louder, but if you Juventus fail to beat Torino and Empoli, what else is left to do to try to right the ship? After ten games, this is the worst start since 1969/1970 and the Ferrara and Delneri teams outpaced this one, with way worse rosters. The gap from the top of the table is now 11 points. We know how football works, the coach is the first one who pays the price.
Allegri is keeping it cool in the eye of the storm, but the decision to sit Sami Khedira while Claudio Marchisio was sidelined by the flu is a sin. I get the explanations, but you do not rest players on the road against a good team that was undefeated at home. You simply do not. He should have planned it in advance and benched the German world champion against Atalanta, if he thought fatigue could be an issue. The rotation needs to be more scientific, sometimes he gives the impression that he is punting games.
Martin Caceres and Claudio Marchisio have been called up and they are available, Giorgio Chiellini is suspended. The coach will opt for a full-fledged 4-3-3, with Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci as centre-backs and either Simone Padoin or Martin Caceres as right back. If the Uruguayan defender is fit enough to play 90 minutes, he will get the start. If Marchisio is still sick, there are plenty of options to replace him, starting with Mario Lemina. Alvaro Morata is primed to be in the XI after being benched for two games in a row, with Juan Cuadrado on the other flank. The final spot in the attack is really anybody’s game: Mario Mandzukic has been getting a lot of minutes because the coaching staff wants him to regain the right condition after the injury, but he has not looked good; Dybala was a star against Atalanta but was just ok against Sassuolo; Simone Zaza has not featured much in the most recent games. I will go with the safest choice, Mandzukic.
Probable lineup:
4-3-3: Buffon; Caceres, Barzagli, Bonucci, Evra; Khedira, Marchisio, Pogba; Cuadrado, Mandzukic, Morata.
Injuries:
Lichtsteiner (heart condition), Pereyra (hamstring), Asamoah (hamstring).
Suspended:
Giorgio Chiellini
Torino
Torino had a very good start, but then they slumped. They have not won in the last four matches: two defeats on the road against Carpi and Lazio and two home ties against Milan and Genoa. Their recent play has been uninspiring. On the road, they have beaten only Frosinone on the seasonal debut, then one draw and three losses. Yet, they approach the Derby with a three-point lead over Juventus, which is very unusual in the recent history of the two franchises.
So, what happened after the hot start? First of all, they got really banged up. They have lost Nikola Maksimovic and Danilo Avelar, who are arguably two of their best five players, and they have not returned yet. They have had some minor injuries here and there that messed up with the rotations. Secondly, Fabio Quagliarella, hands down their best offensive weapon, has not scored in six matches and, while Andrea Belotti and Maxi Lopez are decent strikers, they have trouble finalizing when Quaglia is not on form.
Despite their recent issues, they remain a very good team, even if they are not a typical Giampiero Ventura team. Other versions of Torino used a faster pace because they had quicker forwards: only Josef Martinez is a speedster, but they do not field him a lot. The flank game is the one element that adds some juice to their offense: the right wing has been a strength with both Bruno Peres and Davide Zappacosta, but Cristian Molinaro, who has filled in for Avelar, is not much of a threat. Ventura has been able to reinvent himself multiple times and this time is trying to be successful with a grit-and-grind squad that has more quality in the midfield than it does in the attack. Daniele Baselli has been an excellent addition: while he has been highly touted since his Cittadella days, he had never lived up to the expectations; this year, however, he is playing great and has already scored four goals, including a couple of stunners: he just needed the right coach to bloom. On the other hand, Daniele Padelli is not having a good year, so maybe Juventus can exploit that.
As you would expect, their 3-5-2 is very stout. They have experience and physicality in the back with Kamil Glik, Nicola Moretti and Cesare Bovo. They have many choices in the midfield: they can either use a pretty technical formation featuring both Marco Benassi and Daniele Baselli or a more muscular one with Afriyie Acquah. They paid good money to snatch Benassi from Inter, but strangely enough they prefer to have come off the bench. The coach likes to a defense-first player anchoring the midfield: Giuseppe Vives will start this one as Alessandro Gazzi is ailing. The only doubt about the lineup is who will be Quagliarella’s partner upfront: Maxi Lopez is the favourite over Belotti at this stage. Their best players Peres, Quagliarella and Baselli have been rested on Sunday, that is how much Derby means to them.
Probable lineup:
3-5-2: Padelli; Bovo, Glik, Moretti; Bruno Peres, Benassi, Vives, Baselli, Molinaro; Maxi Lopez, Quagliarella.
Injuries:
Farnerud (knee), Maksimovic (foot), Avelar (knee), Jansson (knee), Obi (thigh), Gazzi (knee), Martinez (knee).
Suspended:
None
Formation
Stats and Facts
Infographics from www.sporticos.com
in my 38 years of life i cant ever recall juve being lower than 7th place……12th after 10 games?????38 years before my life……sure we wasnt 12th after 10 games
Lets hope for an upset. Lets hope Juve actually wins this.
I am still so disgusted about last game, they fucking better win this one with 25 goals.
Worst of it is that i cant identify the real problem, its not even only allegris fault and i wonder whether he should be fired or not
Yes. Let’s hope Juve can stunt against the almighty Torino!!
early goals, and lots of them. dominate those toro bastards form the first minute AND MAKE OUR CHANCES COUNT
whats the point in having 1000 shots if we dont score – Gigi has spoken. you can ignore allegri, marotta….but not Gigi.
3 points and a comfortable victory IN OUR HOUSE
Torino is black and white, always
I’d rather see Morata up top and Dybala outside. I have a feeling Mandzukic will go on loan next season, and then be sold the season after.
Who knows what the fuck they’ll do ..
They need to start winning. A loss this weekend would be catastrophic for the league.
I wonder if we will now see ”the real Juve” Evra speaks of. Such bullshit, the players are looking for excuses. Understandable, but bullshit nonetheless.
Once again, this is a must win. And that with CL in a couple of days.
oooooooof… it’s gonna be rough if we lose this weekend.
I want 3 points so badly, but i also want Allegri fired..
POGBOOOM YES!!! Finally he gets it right.
that was sick
Cant say im surprised!
Once again we are shit.
Yes we are. Its horrible to watch.
I’m afraid of Gladbach. They are getting in form, we have never been in form this season, and we’re playing in Germany.
You are right, we could easily loose that match. I really hope the management has a plan b soon. I cant see Allegri turning this around.
We are shit .. You’re right.
I think the coach is fucking things up.
JUAN .GUILLERMO. CUADRADO.
The Change
It’s so tough to watch a Juve game this season. What exactly happened to all these players?! After equalized by Turino, Juve players still seems contented with the draw and play slow tempo in attack, and leave spaces when defending. I really hate to see this kind of attitude. This win is a very lucky result and honestly I don’t think Juve deserved the win. Turino had more chances than Juve and if not because of Super Buffon’s saves, Turino would have scored a couple more. I really hope Juve management and Allegri can turn things around quickly, though I remain skeptical.
I have faith in the management. But i cant see Allegri as a part of the solution. He is not the right coach for Juventus, he never was. He needs to go!!
Allegri clearly lacks characters. We need Dechamps, Ancelotti (if he doesnt mind coming back to Juve again), Or even Montella would be worth a try.
Oh yeah, i totally forgot about Deschamps. We could use him, but i dont think its possible. We could probably get Ancelotti.
I would love to have Ancelotti as coach but I doubt he wants to come back to Juve. If i am not wrong, I read it in his interview not once he stated that he will never come back to Juve after the unpleasant 2 years he spent with Juve. (being labelled as pig by some of Juve Ultras) =(
Not too long ago he said he would only come back to Italy for Milan or Roma.
Happy with the win of course but allegri really needs to pick a formation and stick with it. I really don’t like this 4-3-3, we only have cuadrado as a winger and morata isn’t playing in his best position when cuadrado is on and why does he play dybala as the main striker in this position?
Sandro and Cuadrado need to start from now on in the league, with Evra over Sandro in CL. 4-3-2-1, that’s the best formation outside of a 3-5-2 for getting the best out of our best possible players.
Khedira/Hernanes—-Marchisio/Lemina—–Pogba/Pereyra
Cuadrado/Dybala/Pereyra—–Dybala/Mandzukic/Pereyra
Morata/Zaza/Mandzukic
BUON COMPLEANNO JUVENTUS!! 118 YEARS I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN THEM ALL.
FORZA JUVE! FINO ALLA FINE!
How does Padoin get the start over Rugani yesterday?
How is that possible?
“Flexible” enough to play as RB, supposedly. And apparently Rugani isnt
Barzagli could have play RB, he did that in a CL game IRC, and he did a good job there.
Yeah I know and agree. Was being sarcastic, why Padoin plays nobody but the coach knows
The discussion on Padoin is so annoying. Let that guy just alone. Hes like Pessoto. He is on the pitch. And is just trying to be part of.
Pessotto was called up for the Italian national team during the time he was playing for Juve. Padoin is not. Having Padoin on the field while we have a young defender like Rugani on the bench is a waste in my opinion. Especially after the season Rugani had with Empoli.
Barzagli could have play as RB, while Rugani could have start in the middle.
I’m trying to not criticize Padoin because he never complains, and it seems like he does everything he can to help the team. It’s Allegri’s (and Conte’s) decision to play him over anyone else that baffles me.
Probably in a better Italy team too.
not sure if sarcasm or serious?
We have to qualify. It would be a nice change to not leave qualification to the last game.
It can’t be hard with the points we have, but with this Juve you never know. I think we will qualify for the 2nd round in game 5.
4-4-2 today. Cuardrado would be a beast in that formation. I like 4-4-2 very much. But Hernanes on the right is far from ideal.
Oh man Chiellini…….
Why does Chiellini always fuck up like this?
Yeah its crazy, maybe its time to give Rugani some matches
i’m sure if you said this to allegri he’d be like Who? Padoin? Great idea man
Hahahahaha.. thats funny, but probably true.
Ya think?
What about Alexsandro?
Watching 3mins after a whole lot of frustration today. Then this. Fuck you Chiellini
What happened? I’m just joining in.
He received a ball in the box, he completely missed it, gave it to a BMG player and that dude blasted it in the top right corner. Assist by chiellini
Great..
Yeah looks like Hernanes thought that wasn’t enough of a fuck up too
The effort put in on that Gladbach cross that was unreachable, we wouldn’t even have bothered. Big difference in fighting spirit between these 2 teams.
Great header by Evra.
beautiful pass Pogba
Lichtsteiner!!!!!!!!!! Guess who’s back!!!!!!!
Stephan !!! What a comeback !!
I need to complain more often, we started playing much better.
You have 15 minutes to complain them to victory.
What formation is Juve playing cause it changes every week
4-4-2
sturaro on the right ?
Hernanes on the right. Pogba on the left.
Y’all Forgot About Licht?
What the fuck?
Hernanes out.
Fucking Hernanes. Stupid thing to do. I cant see what this guy brings to the team. He is useless.
Indeed fuck him. Weirdest tackle i ever saw.
What the fuck was he thinking..?
Yes it looks like something Pepe from Real Madrid would do.
Haha..hes gift from inter
He’s not a bad player, he just needs to be fielded properly, and shouldn’t start serious games.
What on earth are these guys doing? there is no fluency whatsoever in this team, just a bunch of players doing whatever the fuck they think is good
Yeah its tough to watch. It has been like this many times this season. Its like they dont know what Allegri wants them to do.
He has zero influence on the morale of this team, we need some good old Conte here. Someone who will kick their ass for shit like Dybala just did, walking off like that
How about Capello? I think he is available, right?
Nah Capello is lame and stubborn
But yeah he is available. rather Ancelotti tho
Yeah Ancelotti would be a better choice
I remember him kicking Krasic’s ass for badmouthing him. The guy never got another chance.
Krasic had no idea what Conte was saying, the language barrier killed any possible teamwork there
Stupid yellow card Dybala
He’s walking off as if 1-1 was acceptable even with 10 men. WTF
What i was thinking too, as if this game is done and dusted.
Even took a yellow card for it. That might get him suspended later on. Coaches instructions to go for the draw i guess. Fucking Drawllegri going back to the Draw Neri years.
Even Cuadrado tripping over his own feet in our box and he hasnt played 10 mins.
At this rate we’ll lose to this team of average players, but an actual team
is there even a striker on the field now? Dybala and Morata off for cuadrado and Barzagli…
And the only reason it wasn’t Padoin, is that he isn’t in the CL squad…
What the fuck is this shit, seriously?!
Buffon……………………………………..
We played an awful match against Torino but this is much worse. Allegri is a blind man trying to watch a movie. He has no idea whats going on.
Sometimes he does weird shit but this was amazing from Chiellini.
We are VERY lucky to get a point from this. The team that should complain to themselves are Gladbach. 2nd in the group now. 5 points clear of Sevilla with 2 matches to go. 2nd round is almost certain but i’m afraid we’re gonna get punished there if Allegri doesn’t go before february.
I agree. The draw is disappointing but the carelessness from Hernanes and Dybala just boils my blood. How the hell could this be allowed? Especially after that group therapy they had before the derby.
Sturaro is awful for a Juve player, but decent for a mid to lower level team. Time to sell him for more than we paid. Marchisio has always, and will always be someone’s shield. He shouldn’t pull the strings, he should be the convenient option who can get forward more often, but is not in the middle with too much responsibility to where he can’t get comfortable. We should play a flat 3 midfield formation. Pogba/Lemina/Hernanes should be in the center, Marchisio/Pogba/Khedira/Pereyra on the left and Khedira/Lemina/Hernanes/Pereyra on the right.
You’ll never see Rugani, AlexSandro or Lemina on the pitch again for Juve.
I just read an interview from Marcello Lippi, saying he regrets his descision about retiring. He says he could get back to coaching, but only a club in Italy.
Seems like Roma are doing their jobs well.
Yes and arsenal is loosing. There is a good chance that UK will loose a champions league spot to Italy this season.
Aaand they gave a 2 goal lead away…… Whats with this roma defence?..
Wow.. just saw that. Thats terrible, thats something we would do at the moment.
Well now that Lippi has made himself open to a coaching return. We would be crazy not to add him to Juve’s shortlist. When given time to train on a day to day basis at club level his teams always play great football. We cannot forget his wonderful years with us in the 90’s.
“Juventus were an example for my Manchester United,” Sir Alex Ferguson said. “I had my players watch videos of Lippi’s team and would say: ‘Don’t look at the tactics or technique, we had that too; you need to learn to have that desire to win’.”
I don’t want him.
He was brutal in the 2010 World Cup and probably acts with different motives than he would have 10-15 years ago.
Coaching a national team is not the same as coaching a club. There is not enough time spent with the players in order to develop there playing quality. Also, I think the players he had available in 2010 was of dismal quality compare to the 2006 world cup. However, his success in China is another example of what he can accomplish at club level.