After the midweek Europa League match, Juventus take on Genoa on the road on Sunday Night. Unfortunately, the Thursday game proved that Serie A is still Juventus’ main target (I’m referring in particular to the day off given to Barzagli and Bonucci) despite the large lead. Even though the starters will likely start, it won’t be a walk in the park at the Luigi Ferraris stadium.
Genoa currently sit in 11th position, basically in no man’s land: they are 12 points above the relegation zone and 8 point beneath an EL spot. They are floating, but I feel that every time we visit them, it ends being a very heated and controversial match. The environment will be for sure hot.
Gian Piero Gasperini has made an outstanding job so far. He returned at Grifone on September 29 and turned a shaky franchise (they finished 17th for two years in a row) into a solid, self-confident team, with a clear (well, supposed to be clear) idea of football. He has collected seven wins, seven draws and five losses in his current tenure. Let’s not forget that he led the team to a whopping 5th position in 2008-2009. Despite flopping big time elsewhere, Gasperini seems to be in his element at Genoa.
His football is unconventional. His idea is that all the players must take part in the build-up of the actions, including the defenders. He usually starts with a 3-4-3, but often there is only one true CB on the pitch who anchors the defense. Antonini and Marchese were adapted as RCB and LCB for most part of the season.
The left flanks is Genoa’s forte: in some matches, they fielded three LBs (Marchese, De Ceglie and Antonelli), creating a combination that is hard to contain. Genoa are very good in playing with width and crossing at a high volume. Thanks to Matuzalem’s resurgence, a player that Gasperini adores, they also use the long balls a lot, with Gilardino flirting with the offside line.
Gasperini is well known for enhancing the performances of his lone striker (Milito and especially Borriello are still thanking him) and with Gilardino is no different: 11 goals in 20 matches with the former Juventus U-21 team coach at the helm.
Since they usually play with a high defensive line, systematically using the offside trap, they suffer well-timed through balls and long balls when the opponent manage to make the right movement and stay onside.
There are some doubts regarding the lineup. The talented Perin will start on goal, the danger of him pulling off a hero performance is always around the corner. A lot depends on the recovery of Antonini, if he can make it, he might play as RCB or as a RWB. Otherwise, De Maio and Portanova are contending for the first spot, while Motta would play as wingback.
In the middle, Bertolacci and Matuzalem have developed quite a chemistry, with the first being more offensive (watch out for his outside shooting) and second sitting deeply and distributing the ball (and occasionally hammering opponents down with dirty tackles).
On offense, the energetic Konate will play on the right: he has recently found his first goal in Serie A, with Gilardino of course in the middle. For the left flank, Gasperini has three options: Antonelli as LWB and the veteran Sculli or the annoying Fetfatzidis as LW, or De Ceglie as LWB and Antonelli as LW. I won’t be surprised to see the second, more cautious option. Genoa have the ability of switching to 4-3-3 at ease, inserting the youngster Sturaro in the midfield or simply shuffling things. There are some reports stating that Gasp might streghten the midfield, sacrificizing Konate and pairing upfront Gila and Sculli.
Genoa didn’t play a good match at Juventus stadium, losing 2-0 and being very passive. On Sunday, Gasperini counts on “showing the many progresses we have made so far.”
more 3 points coming up!
conte is taking cm slivka and attacker marzouk from the primavera. i really hope we’ll get to see at least one of them off the bench tomorrow
this is serie a bro.. that would never happen. too bad we weren’t in CL or else they would play for sure. conte doesn’t field his best team in europe, genoa in his mind is probably better and more tactically superior than barcelona.
he played beltrame last season against genoa
yea I was about to say this lol. remember that half volley? better than matri haha
thats not true. i know a lot of us are upset that we got knocked out so early in the CL, but Conte only lined up a “weaker” side against Copenhagen and Galatasaray and the squad that he put out shouldve been more than capable of taking them on, but they didnt because of individual errors.
the line-up against Madrid was the strongest at his disposal at the time. Obgonna was the only one who was an “irregular” and Caceres played because Lich was injured, the rest were regulars and again we got two negative results due to individual errors and a VERY questionable pk call plus a red card.
so to answer my question, why would he line up weaker squads in any game in the biggest club competition in the world? doesnt make any fucking sense. gala and copenhagen are better than half the teams in serie a.
i remember(but very vaguely) that we had a pretty rough schedule against most of our top rivals during that period and everyone was on top form and we were 2nd place and i believe thats why we fielded a weaker side.
Happy 21st birthday to paul pogba. When he arrived who would’ve thought that he would be so good? Or that he would only take a year to become a starter in the team? He will definitely go down in history as one of the legends of football. In the meantime, I look forward to the next decade where he will undoubtedly impress us.
so Del Piero is going to leave australia after the playoffs. he might either go to California or Japan… he better go to Cal! i d actually try to buy season tickets for the stadium. plus it ll be a great way to brand Juve and what is there in Japan? everything they have, we have. honestly if he came, id stock him and we d become best friends, im sure of it :p i want this to happen so bad!
come to play where? in MLS?
thats what Gazetta said. hopefully they arent full of rubbish
he should come play for TFC .. with defoe and bradley on our team, we looked ridiculously good in the home opener beating seattle on their home ground… Defoe and Bradley were beasts yesterday.
If he comes to the mls, I hope he comes to sporting kc. Thats where im going for college next year and if he’s there imma be at every game, wearing my del piero juve jersey haha. But he’s a lakers fan and likes the beach so he’ll prbly go to la galaxy
and me, im here in California and no where else in the world. so yea Me > everything else :p
Including starts and sub appearences, younes bnou marzouk has played 23 times for the primavera, grabbing 12 goals and 2 assists. He’s still only 17 which is young even for primavera. Really hoping conte gives him some time tomorrow
We are the 9th highest income generating football team in the world, bringing in 272.4 mil.
how much of this goes towards the transfer budget
Im not sure. Our total income was a loss of 18mil though.
damn
those are good numbers, but small potatoes compared to the barca’s, man u and madrids of the world .. clearly, we’re in the 2nd tier.
we still made a loss of 9 million though, and the year before was 15 million, so the debt is still increasing
Im sure the stadium is part of the reason we had a loss, it wont be paid off for a while.
Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichsteiner, Vidal, Pirlo, Pogba, Asamoah; Llorente, Osvaldo
is said to be the predicted line-up.
Good. Looks like we are resting all our important and available players before the EL match.
If tevez wasnt injured, he’d be playing too lol
We shouldve rested asamoah
Shaqiri: Bundesliga is the best league for me, but I also like the PL and Serie a. In Serie a many teams have developed well with nice players. As a player you have to listen if one of the big clubs is interested. At the moment there is nothing concrete.
Sign him up marotta!!!
YES
Get this guy!!
Juventus Live: the definitive app for supporters …: https://youtu.be/DY3mFV2Dp4g
class mate!
I’ve actually had this app now for about 2 months, it’s pretty useful. But I never got to the communication part of it, until now. If everyone on the forum used this, what is the point of using disqus on matchdays (Sorry Rav)?
The communication part seems really cool. Typing is one thing but actually talking is a far better experience. I used to watch juve with my cousin but he’s too busy with classes now
I think this would be a great idea to try this on this site rather than typing every few minutes and missing some game action, everyone could just talk to each other and yell “GOOOOOL VIDAL!!!!!” all we want to lol.
Lmao we should try it out for the next game
wait I can watch the games with this?
No. It just tells you the score live and you can talk to other fans during the game
Simone zaza just scored
https://youtu.be/f_TWksFvQx8
Good movement
So nobody mentioned this, that I saw but Valladolid beat Barcelona 1:0 last week with fautuso Rossi scoring the winner
Conte is actually resting a starter for genoa. Caceres is playing in place of giorgio.
he still has to play as barzagli pulled up with a calf strain during the warm up
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