Palermo V Juventus
Serie A – Week 27 [Saturday, 14th March – 17:00 GMT] – Stadio Renzo Barbera
Juventus
Rotation will be the order of the day when Juventus travel to the Renzo Barbera to face a Palermo side that are undefeated in their last 10 home matches.
The Bianconeri ground out a hard-fought victory against a surprisingly stubborn Sassuolo side with Paul Pogba’s wonderful strike making the difference, late on. It was another less than convincing performance, lacking in ideas and creativity, despite much of the regular first team making the starting XI. It was suggested some of the players were fatigued from playing so many games in such a short space of time but Allegri was quick to dispel this idea.
“We must be prepared tomorrow,” Allegri told the media ahead of the Palermo game.
“Especially because they play the game with great intensity. We played on Monday, it’s been five days so I absolutely don’t want to hear about tiredness. I don’t want to hear about Dortmund, because if a team can’t play every four or five days it means that we’ve trained badly, or don’t have the fitness to play in a great team.”
Juve may be sitting 11 points clear at the top of the table but the title race is far from over, especially given the fixture list for the coming weeks, beginning with tomorrows visit to Palermo, swiftly followed by the Champions league tie against Dortmund.
.@OfficialAllegri: “It will pretty much be a decisive week for our Scudetto and #UCL ambitions.” #PalermoJuve
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 13, 2015
Long-term absentees Kwadwo Asamoah and Romulo are still a few weeks from returning to training, while Andrea Pirlo is hoping to recover from an ankle injury in time for the midweek game in Germany. Martin Caceres’ season may be over as he underwent ankle surgery last week and isn’t expected to return to action for at least ten weeks. Kingsley Coman has a shin contusion and doesn’t make the squad while Paul Pogba is suspended leaving Allegri will limited options in midfield.
“In midfield I have four players: Sturaro, [Claudio] Marchisio, [Arturo] Vidal and [Roberto] Pereyra. I don’t have many.” Allegri told reporters earlier today.
The lack of options in the centre of pitch could mean Juve revert to the tried and tested 3-5-2 in an effort to control the game while containing Palermo’s attack-duo of Paulo Dybala and Franco Vazquez. Alternately, given Palermo’s strong home record this season (they’ve lost just once, 4-0 to Lazio), attack might be the best form of defence in the shape of a 4-3-1-2 formation.
Gigi Buffon should return in goal after recovering from flu, while Andrea Barzagli could make his first start of the season alongside Angelo Ogbonna and Leonardo Bonucci. Allegri dropped some hints as to his starting XI which include a possible start for Stefano Sturaro, with Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio making up the 3-man central midfield. Stephan Lichtsteiner and Patrice Evra will be vital against Dortmund so we may see Simone Padoin and Paolo De Ceglie playing in the full-back positions.
Roberto Pereyra has been hit-and-miss in recent games but he’s the only option to play behind the strikers which will likely be Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente.
Predicted Lineup
4-3-1-2: Buffon; Padoin, Barzagli, Ogbonna, De Ceglie; Vidal, Marchisio, Sturaro; Pereyra; Tevez, Llorente
Injured
Asamoah and Romulo (Recovering from surgery), Pirlo (ankle), Caceres (ankle), Coman (Doubtful)
Suspended
Pogba
Form
(W-D-W-D-W)
Palermo
Palermo are in mixed form: they have won one of the last five matches (an impressive dismantling of Napoli) and they have lost to Lazio and Inter and drawn against Empoli and Cesena. They are in the middle of the pack: they are just few points away from officially avoiding relegation, but they are nothing more than outsiders in the race for a Europa League spot. They are not in a very stimulating position of the table, but I’m sure that the demanding president Maurizio Zamparini will find a way to keep them focused.
At home, they are as good as anybody: they have collected 26 points in 13 matches and they have been defeated only by Lazio back in September. In this season, Paulo Dybala and Franco Vazquez have blossomed into top players. The Argentinian striker has scored twelve goals and assisted his teammates seven times, while the advanced midfielder has tallied seven goals and nine assists. They are easily the best one-two punch in the League and their combination of dribbling skills, pace, technique and long-race shootings poses a serious threat to any defense. Moreover, they can also beef up the attack by bringing Andrea Belotti off the bench when they need to score and he has grown into a late goal specialist.
While they are scintillating up front, their defending has often held them back. They have conceded 39 goals: their goal different is -1 and this speaks volume about their defensive woes. Only four teams have conceded more goals than they have and three of them are likely to get relegated. Losing Ezequiel Munoz in January, failing to replace him (Danilo Ortiz has yet to make his debut) certainly didn’t help. Due to various injuries and suspensions, Giuseppe Iachini has recently ditched 3-5-2 because they literally weren’t able to field three valuable centre-backs and opted for 4-3-2-1 with the electric Robin Quaison pairing with Vazquez behind Dybala. It appears that he’ll confirm this scheme: Roberto Vitiello is battling with Andrea Rispoli for the starting RB position (the latter is more offensive) and the returning Achraaf Lazaar is seeking to retake his spot over Fabio Daprelà on the other flank. Claudio Terzi and Sinisa Andelkovic are set to partner up in the middle. Should Iachini use his old tactic, Vitiello would play in the back three and Quaison would be benched.
Enzo Maresca has been primed to return to the starting XI for a couple of weeks after a serious ankle injury: if he’s not ready yet, Mato Jajalo will replace him as deep-lying playmaker/pivot in front of the defense. The Croatian midfielder isn’t as good as a distributor as the former Juventus, but he’s still a solid player. The (departing) captain Egdar Barreto and the sneaky cutter Luca Rigoni are slated to complete the midfield.
Juventus will have to be prepared for Palermo’s strong flank game, even though they don’t have a physical presence in the box when Belotti isn’t on the pitch, and to their counter-attacks: Dybala and Vazquez are devastating when they operate in the open field and the others have learned to feed off from them. On the other hand, their defense isn’t very trustworthy and will suffer if put under pressure.
Probable Lineup
4-3-2-1: Sorrentino; Vitiello, Terzi, Andelkovic, Daprelà; Rigoni, Maresca, Barreto; Vazquez, Quaison; Dybala.
Injured players:
Gonzalez (knee), Morganella (knee).
Suspended
None
Form
(D-D-L-W-L)
Is that line-up confirmed? That sure is some squad rotation xD Defense only containing non-first XI players and then Pereyra, Sturaro also playing. Can’t say I mind too much, let’s hope it isn’t overkill!
interesting,ive got to say if it is then dortmund is on there minds big time.
sturaro starts
Voetbalzone in Holland say we will play like this:
Buffon
Chiellini Bonucci Barzagli
De Ceglie Sturaro Marchisio Pereyra Lichtsteiner
Tevez Llorente
De Ceglie back in the team, wonder how he’ll do after being gone for a while. Squad rotation in midfield and overall a strong team.
I know i have the players on the wrong side, to get that out of the world, cba to change it :p
Fuck off De Ceglie
Fuck off Llorente
Mad O.o
These players make me angry, they aren’t juventus standard
Who do we have in that position that is? Morata maybe, but i’m happy he’s resting for Dortmund. At LB we have no one. Chiellini can’t play there.
I know the reasons behind the choices, but that doesn’t make them any better, they’re still useless.
Sturaro seems like a very hard player.
We are playing at like 20% and still there is no question that we will win this. Low table teams in Serie A make me sigh..
I’m going for a draw
1-0 or 1-1. We will score some lazy goal halfway the 2nd half and if we become too lazy again after the goal and give too much away they will score 1-1 and we’ll be pissed again.
these recent performances are catching up fast.i think palermo are crap,smack these,go home,dortmund wednesday,thats the juve protocol.
I’m getting sick of this. They aren’t taking the league serious at all and don’t even consider to entertain the fans. I know they aren’t pushed to take it serious, but come on..
exactly!!…..if we even dare turn up with that start in dortmund we are going to be in big trouble.
Well that’s the thing, we do take the CL serious and we play well there(against big teams). So they can do it, they just refuse to in Serie A and Coppa Italia.
i know we do dude,just dissapointed at recent performances.seems a regular thing at the mo,scraping or just getting by teams.collectively the unit has slowed down.
im seeing vidal getting ready to go in. not sure if he is but he looks like he is
oh he is replacing sturaro
jesus, we are allowing them to pressure us
shocking,for the first time in ages im getting anxious of these laclustre performances.as a huge fan,shit to watch them at the moment to be honest.
Come on JUVE,come on!!!!!!!
idk, is it the 3-5-2 or is it just the mentality of the players? what is wrong?!
A formation is only how the players are set on the field. There’s a limit to how much that can influence a match. For the performance it comes down to mentality. Against this Palermo, any formation should win. I blame this on the mentality.
good point. thank god we scored a goal. now we have to get a second. if we dont push for it, there is something wrong with them
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Morata!!!
OH WOW
Thank you Morata. Atleast we can always trust on you.
fucking needed that,sorry about bad language…..phew………get the 3 points juve now
keep your heads,come on!!!
so no morata next game in serie a. would you rather see matri or llorente partner tevez? geez
Coman?
oh yeah. hopefully, allegri starts him instead of llorente.
coman all day,pace,danger,needs games.
Better than Llorente
llorente is off the pace at the mo,maybe a change of pace,direction?i dont know?
We have seen his top form at Juve and it isn’t enough for what we wanna be. Juve need to realise he isn’t gonna bring what we ask from him. It’s no shame and i like him as a person, but as a player he is not and will never be Juve material. He just has no ball control whatsoever. Every ball passed to his feet bounces atleast a meter away from him when he tries to control it. All he really has is his body, which he probably doesn’t even use in the correct way and his headers. His headers are something special, but we knew this when we bought him. He was special at Bilbao thanks to his headers and because they aren’t a top team. He belongs at a club that’s mid table where he can shine.
great points,he is a out and out heading beast,generous with the rest of his play i have to say.he dont fit in to our mould….or does he?last season at juve,i know that,he will go back to spain.
His header against Fiorentina in the coppa i think was amazing though. He should go back to Spain. I believe it’s the right league for him. Or maybe we can use him when we get Zaza and/or Berardi back. If we have to pay for them, i think we have 50% of them, right? Sassuolo would need an attacker and he would fit at a team like that.
I think he d be best for the epl.
Many high balls, yeah maybe. I’d say he’s a good fit at Arsenal as a replacement for Giroud, but Giroud is performing better lately and i think Arsenal is gonna be too high for Llorente too.
gg! to Dortmund!
objective….score….hidden bonus…..get 1 more.
glad for the win,nice one for morata magic.that mentality better be right come wednesday night.
I know it’s just one game of him that I’ve seen but Dybala didn’t impress me at all..
agreed
He didn’t get any support though. Dybala is getting hyped by Zamparini, a master in hyping a pretty normal player.
Or Zamparini, the man full of sh*t
I wanted to say it nicely :p