Juventus - Genoa Post match discussion

Thought pretty much everyone played great today, even Isla . Here's my thoughts on each individual player and then a collective team assessment.

So yeah, Starting from the back.

1 Gigi Buffon - Was hardly tested today. Keeping a clean sheet after the amount of goals we've let in the past few matches is a positive. Delt with whatever came his way easily.

3 Chiellini - A solid desplay from Giorgio, completed all his defensive duties with ease and never looked flustered once. He even was the driving force from the back to release the ball out to the forwards multiple times with those trademark chiellini marauding runs forward. Could do better with his crossing and composure in the pass when he goes past the half way line.

19 Bonucci - Pretty much the same as Chiellini. Dealt with everything that came his way and managed to play the ball out of the back with his long passes. Some were a bit rushed and ended up being poor balls. Defensivly great but still needs more composure when playing balls out of defence.

15 Barzagli - Same as his 2 CB partners delt with absolutley everything that came his way. Tended more to stay back rather than venture forward. One notable attack he broke down of genoa when they were on the counter and it was 3 vs 2 and (i think.. or 2vs2) would have most likely cost us a goal if he had not been there to pressure the opposition.

22 Asamoah - Comfortable on the left darting into the opposition half time and time again, he was always looking to make runs across the byline and into the box, which won us a penalty, (although im not 100% sure it was a legit penalty..) take people on, whip crosses in to the box, which could use some touching up as most didnt reach the target. Held his defensive duties together aswell, looking fully concentrated till taken off later in the game.

6 Pogba - Pogbito had a typical game for him. Swept up attacks in our half and transformed them into attacks of our own. Dangerous near the opposition box always popping up to play a pass, shield the ball or take a shot himself. As always his desire to get a goal showed when a simple squared cross would of more likely resulted in a goal than his cross goal shot that wasnt far off but he could have done better. Been noticing Pogba hold on to the ball for to long when pressured and losing possession a fair bit recently. Hope he can fix up on that. Pogba's tackling gives me orgasms. that is all.

21 Pirlo - Andrea dictated play nicely as per and was always finding space in which to receive the ball and take pressure from teammates. Not so many of his trademark over the top through balls today, and at times he looked like he was going to release one but was too slow to get the ball out and IMO he had some great oppertunities to get an assist but kept the ball for too long. Not his best game by a long shot but still a very complete game. Was putting his body around alot more and was neat in his passes. Should have had a goal but was denied by a world class Perin save.

21 Vidal - MOTM for me today,the first thing of note he did was rattle the crossbar in the early minutes with a rasping shot from outside the box that left Perin for dead. An all action display for arturo, could have had a hattrick with the penalty he confidently put away and a great chance he missed when linking up nicely with Tevez and LLorente. His tackling is the best in the league imo, always always seems to nip possession away when seems impossible to even get a foot in. Was back and forth, all over the pitch, running, tackling, shooting, basically was the heartbeat of the team today. I personally think he did not want to concede at all today and took it upon himself to defend with all his energy. Considering he was so brilliant in our half and his display in the opponents aswell id say a well earned MOTM.

33 Isla - WOW this is not the Isla of juve we are used to seeing. He was bombing up and down the right flank, putting his body about, linking with Vidal whipping crosses in. He looks very dangerous which left me happily surprised. His crossing much like Asa's needs some more work if im honest. It was like Lichstiener was on the pitch hope he can keep the good performance up.

10 Tevez - Another contender for MOTM, should have added more than one goal to his name today, not that im upset with him but i thought when he took it upon himself to run with the ball he could do a little better with his final shot or pass. Nice neat goal today showed great skill to beat and make fools of two defenders before striking a powerful shot past an impressive Perin. Linked up nicely with LLorente, who he tried to service but just couldnt serve him the right ball unfortunatly. love the way he tracks back and harrasses' the opposition midfield and defenders. Looked a little ahead of the rest of the team occasionally but thats hardly his fault.

14 LLorente - My personal favorite performance today. LLolo could have had a plethora of goals today but just couldnt get the right service. made excellent positional runs, made space for himself excellently, had amazing link up play with all around him. was unfortunate to finish the game without a goal as he was took off around halfway through the second half but if he stayed on i would of bet him to score a goal. Denied twice by Perin from close range, unlucky for Fernando as he could not do much with either efforts. Seriously, this guy deserved his name on the score sheet today. And omg, dat chest control, touch, pass and move he does My favorite striker. Looked a little frustrated at the poor service he was getting because although they were not bad balls into him if they had been better he could have had more than 3 goals. Our most inform striker id say. For a big man he also has a beautiful touch, was skinning defenders left right and centre. On many occasions he tried to initiate a 1-2 and run through on goal but more often than not he was overlooked or no run was made from his teammates.

Overall I think it was a great team showing, not much individual brilliance today but does it matter when you win 2-0? nope. Would like to see some more clinical and ruthless strikes from our players when in advanced position though, genuinly feels like we pass way too much more than we should do especially pirlo, he has acre's of space to try a curling shot into a corner but tends to dawdle infront of goal. Everyone did their fair share of tracking back and hassling, aswell as going forward.

Special appreciation for Mattias Perin who made some brilliant saves to only keep it at 2-0, otherwise would have been a total destruction of 5-0 or possibly more. We should keep tabs on him, i know we have Leali but this guys been doin the business in serie A not B like leali.

Bonucci was bad for me... tevez is class and owns

btw today's match proved its not the formation but the players were the problem...we dominatied I love it .. Loki to Fernando 'LOKI' Llorente

i don't wanna be the party pooper...but i have to say...it wasn't really justl us being great...genoa...was very very poor and that made all of our players look like the Justice League.

i'm just saying that it's important not to lose our heads again. we were good...but the adversary was also very poor.

llorente should have done better on that failed chip and the empty net  

apart from that he was amazing, must work on his finishing otherwise we'll be seeing a lot of Vucipeasant and Quagpeasant....

I think Vucinic playing behind Tevez and Llorente in a 4-3-1-2 would be devastating!

inderbaby wrote:I think Vucinic playing behind Tevez and Llorente in a 4-3-1-2 would be devastating!

On FIFA

Anyway, the most important aspect of this match is that we started to press again, like we have in previous seasons

Looks like it took a loss or two to fire the squad up again, although i'm glad we've went towards fixing the problem it does worry me that we have to get our asses handed to us before we go back to winning ways.

Hopefully we can keep it up, because if you watch our games this season bar the last two, and compare them to Juve 2010/11 or part of 2011/12, you will see how little we've been closing opposition down.

i think Llorente played a good ass game. i believe that after 3 to 5 more games he is gonna be used to playing in Juventus

Every team plays with 3 forwards... many with 3 forwards and a AM. I don't understand why it's such a foreign concept for Juve...

Luca wrote:

inderbaby wrote:I think Vucinic playing behind Tevez and Llorente in a 4-3-1-2 would be devastating!

On FIFA

Sorry mate, didn't know playing Vucinic who is probably our second most creative player behind 2 strikers was tactical suicide and would only work on FIFA. Thanks for the great reply...Very constructive criticism on your part.

inderbaby wrote:

Luca wrote:

inderbaby wrote:I think Vucinic playing behind Tevez and Llorente in a 4-3-1-2 would be devastating!

On FIFA

Sorry mate, didn't know playing Vucinic who is probably our second most creative player behind 2 strikers was tactical suicide and would only work on FIFA. Thanks for the great reply...Very constructive criticism on your part.

agreed that was quite harsh on Luca's part, let's just take it Luca was having a bad day

elmystique wrote:

inderbaby wrote:

Luca wrote:On FIFA

Sorry mate, didn't know playing Vucinic who is probably our second most creative player behind 2 strikers was tactical suicide and would only work on FIFA. Thanks for the great reply...Very constructive criticism on your part.

agreed that was quite harsh on Luca's part, let's just take it Luca was having a bad day

Apart from Vucinic never playing as a trequartista in his career, my comment was made rather lightheartedly. You want constructive criticism? On paper it's plausible.