Re: Juventus 2017/2018 Champions League Winners Thread

[S]

The tie is not over by any means

Drop Mandzukic, go back to 433 with Matuidi returning and start with a Dybala-Costa-Higuain frontline

Atleast we know we have to attack now, no more sitting back pussy mode and that could actually be a good thing.

[S]

Dont agree with rincon's lineup.

This could easily go to extra time so i'd ideally prefer to have some attacking subs.

I dont want to see the 2 man midfield either especially with a fragile Marchisio partnering Pjanic. Thats asking for trouble. I think Matuidi is expected to return before the 2nd leg as per Allegri.

Also Khedira was indeed the worst player by far last night but he hasnt looked all that bad when playing in a 3 man midfield this season so i'd go with a Khedira-Pjanic-Matuidi midfield as that seems the safe option for now.

My lineup for the return leg

Buffon
De Sciglio-Benatia-Chiellini-Sandro
Khedira-Pjanic-Matuidi
Dybala-Costa
Higuain

This is also the same lineup we used against Napoli and we looked mighty impressive on the break.

Edit : misread rincon's post. I agree except i'd still persist with Khedira ahead of Marchisio, call me crazy.

[Warrior]

Luca

Well that was quite an extensive rant

Can't disagree with the football analysis it contains. Some day you might want to copy-paste the last paragraph in the Trollneral section as it certainly belongs there.

The Anti-Juve council has a strong influence on this forum and despite all the mockery they are the mistaken ones. In hard days like these our J-morale is affected but i prefer to focus on reality. Juventus is a great club in every possible aspect (and most notably benevolence), i am glad if our rivals dislike us.

[Warrior]

9.5/11 same line up for me, only Khedira doesn't feature. Don't mind if Douglas or Bernar play. But i expect the brazilian.

Buffon
De Sciglio-Benatia-Chiellini-Sandro
Pjanic-Marchisio-Matuidi
Dybala-????
Higuain

[Luca]

I honestly would not play Khedira because I don't think he can handle the pace of the game against Tottenham, they play fast and he's already quite slow as it is

[juvealbanian]

I think Allegri on the process of wanting to be kinda more offensive and secure us a victory on our home totally forgot that our 2 man midfield is shit and Mandzukic doesn't have the skillset to be a winger especially against top teams.

The early 2-0 lead from us made Tottenham react quickly and put us in pressure.Our midfield is painful to watch in such situations and ofc Khedira was beyond horrible.
After that 2-0 lead we should have switched to a 3-man midfield bringing Marchisio or Bentancur and maybe go with 3 central defenders as well by taking off Mandzukic who was useless as well.

All I'm saying is that if we were going old school mode of defending at least we should have brought the right players for that. It was sad to see Costa and Berna play so deep that they arrived late anytime Higuain was searching for someone to pass the ball to.

Next match there are no excuses, we MUST play 3 man midfield and make sure Dybala returns on good form.
Not sure if Cuadrado can make it too but he would be a great addition.

...............Szcezsney
DeS - Benatia - Chiellini - Sandro

...Bentancur - Pjanic - Matuidi

....Dybala - Higuain - Costa

With Berna & Marchisio to get playing time on second half.

[S]

I dont know man. I wished Marchisio was fit and healthy and we defo look much more fluid with him in midfield but seeing how he's used this year , i dont think Allegri trusts him to play in a high intensity game like this one. Guy doesnt seem to last more than 50-60 mins against Serie A teams.

I get what you're saying, but out of the two, Khedira's 'engine' just  happens to last longer.  

I definitely wouldnt play Bentancur or Sturaro over Khedira. Neither are good enough for a game of this magnitude so perhaps it would be 'safer' to go with Khedira.

We need Matuidi badly tho.

[S]

I dont know about Bentancur. He's clearly talented but he's very brash. His tackles give me a heart attack sometimes, he's almost like a red card waiting to happen. This is why i wouldnt throw him in against Spurs whilst Sturaro is useless in almost every way except for bullying kids on the net i guess

[Warrior]

Khedira has 0 stamina

[Luca]

A fit Dybala and Matuidi can really make a strong impact, not sure how Cuadrado's time line works out either but if he's not 100% then it is not worth it to play him

I also don't really see the point in playing Mandzukic these days, not if other players like Costa/Bernardeschi are fit- they are more likely to be game changers in the attack and Mandzukic cannot even be depending on to score chances in front of goal. All Mandzukic gives us, and I'm not downplaying it at all because its important, is the aerial presence that Higuain does not have and the work rate but work rate should be a given in matches such as these

[rincon]

I actually like Khedira and have defended him plenty but this game was just too much. He was already pretty bad against Fiore but whatever, bad games happen. To follow it up with such a bad display though. Its too much. He has 3 weeks to get his act together.

I don't know if its an overreaction but I would trust Sturaro and/or Bentancur for the next games and see if they step up. If not, ok Khedira. This all assuming that Marchisio isn't well enough which is a stretch honestly. I can't imagine a situation where Marchisio does that poorly. At least give him 40 minutes to boss for a while.

[S]

Khedira has 0 stamina

Well if Khedira has 0 stamina Marchisio is at -5 stamina right now

One has started the most games while the other has been used sparingly against Serie A teams.

Its just that we dont have good enough options right now.

I hope i'm wrong but i just dont see a Marchisio start coming ahead of Khedira.

[rincon]

@Luca Cuadrado is out, no chance for him.

With Dybala at least he helps so much in midfield and is so good (if he comes back well) that everyone will have an easier time.

[Tomwin Lannister]

Pathetic, end of days Conte esque comments from Allegri


If we're equal to spurs in his own words and a level below the 'elite' then quite frankly i'm done expecting anything from Juve outside of Serie A.

We see ourselves as inferior to a large pool of clubs after 2 CL finals and a loss against Bayern in between where the ref robbed us. Makes me think we fluked it. We're admitting to being a 2nd tier club, and i'm no longer expecting a CL win in my lifetime unless we get a random sugar daddy type transformation eventually.

Picking apart our own team every Summer with spending habits that are literally a decade out of date, no strength when it comes to player demands and we can't get anywhere near buying a single ready made WC player without sales, whereas a good 5-6 clubs out there can buy 1 or more when the need arises.


Tl;dr club stinks of a lack of ambition in Europe, and the difference now is that our core loyal players I.E Buffon - Defence - Marchisio are all old and/or broken so they can no longer prop up the team every time we sell a star.

I still think we'll progress against Spurs, but the way Allegri sounds and Marotta for that matter we're at our level and we'll be lucky to maintain that level.

[Tomwin Lannister]

I think it’s one of the worst performances ever. At least the finals were on neutral ground, this was in Torino with 2-0 in 10 minutes. It was fraudulent

Agreed. Embarrassing doesn't cut it.

At one point we had 89 passes to Tottenhams 360 or so

That's worse than you'd expect from West Brom. We simply don't know how to play football outside of Serie A this season. We looked like a team of 40 year old plebs.

Every time we play teams with great attacks and shit / mediocre defences we end up playing to their strengths. They looked shit every time we attacked, however we gave up attacking in 10 *bleep* minutes. IT DOESN'T WORK, WE'RE NOT 2006 ITALY.

[rincon]

We need to sell Sturaro asap. The agent always says that he has 10000 offers but the club wants him to stay. I don't know if its true, just sell to whoever puts 10-15m on the table or something like that. Sturaro and Matuidi can't be the only two guys with proper energy hustling in midfield. Sturaro is a failed experiment, time to move on. Sell Khedira as well or just give him to an MLS club.

I would put the Sturaro money together with the entirety of the budget and sign a midfielder that doesn't make Bernardeschi seem like Mandzukic in terms of workrate. If Asamoah leaves then sign a fullback too.

[Warrior]

We need to sell Sturaro asap. The agent always says that he has 10000 offers but the club wants him to stay. I don't know if its true, just sell to whoever puts 10-15m on the table or something like that. Sturaro and Matuidi can't be the only two guys with proper energy hustling in midfield. Sturaro is a failed experiment, time to move on. Sell Khedira as well or just give him to an MLS club.

I would put the Sturaro money together with the entirety of the budget and sign a midfielder that doesn't make Bernardeschi seem like Mandzukic in terms of workrate. If Asamoah leaves then sign a fullback too.

Because i (sincerely) think the plan is to include him in the SERGEJ deal, to lower the cost. Lotito surely as a hard-on about him as he could become Parolo's heir. Hard to believe but he is only 24, so still a youngster in calcio standards.

[Warrior]

If SERGEJ deal doesn't work out then yeah offload both Sturaro and Khedira to whatever club that wants them, preferably to a rival.

[rincon]

If SERGEJ deal doesn't work out then yeah offload both Sturaro and Khedira to whatever club that wants them, preferably to a rival.

Send them to Inter.

[Luca]

Preferably to a rival

These are not issues we can solve now, unless Tom is going to take a lead pipe to the knees of both Khedira and Sturaro, and while I respect his sheer devotion to this club, it’s not a viable option.

Ideally, we find a way. I can’t say I have ever been a Khedira fan but he’s been serviceable for his Juve stint. The problem is, in matches like this where there’s quality over the field, he stands out in a poor way. A central midfielder who completes 7 passes essentially puts us a man down, combine that with Wingdzukic and we’re essentially at 9.5 men.

Go back and watch that game and see what Higuain, Pjanic, Douglas Costa, Alex Sandro and Bernardeschi were able to do and then compare it with everyone else on the field. These 5 stand up for their technical ability, they can dribble, they aren’t afraid to either, they take a touch, they make the important movements and interceptions but you can only do so much in possession. The funny thing is, the irony maybe, is that despite all the possession that Tottenham had, if we made better use of the clear goddamn chances we had then this would’ve been an easy victory.

[Tomwin Lannister]

I wouldn't wanna hurt Sturaro because I have a soft spot for technically shit players that have prime Grit, and he bullys kids online which is hilarious

Khedira has me pacing my living room flexing my baseball bat though.

[Luca]

Dybala has recovered from his injury and he should be available for the second leg vs Tottenham.

As long as we don't get a penalty in London and have to watch these beta cucks argue over who gets to miss the next one in this season's edition of: can Del Piero come out of retirement just to shoot penalties?

On a more serious note, this is obviously good news. Dybala has that technical ability that can almost mask a Mandzukic on the wing or a Khedira behind him- as it did just a season ago

[Warrior]

Pjanic or Dybala should take them.

In career Pjanic has a 6-1 record (yes i was surprised that he only took 7 penalties in a decade ) while Dybala's record is 17-3. Only one miss with Juve and it was this season.

Higuain ? 19-6. Clearly he isn't reliable at all as PK taker.

[Tomwin Lannister]

Dybala missed 2 pens in a row didn't he?

[rincon]

Yeah I think he missed 2 this season.

[Luca]

Dybala cucked his way against securing a draw to Lazio this season on the final kick of the match and then against Atalanta to secure the win. Those 4 points would have come in handy right about now but that is neither here nor there.

Anyways, the penalty part was for comic relief but I truthfully would sometimes rather us not get a blatant penalty call and watch our players get fired up and play harder than watch us receive the call and miss the penalty and deflate.

How good is Bernardeschi at winning penalties though?

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