Genoa V Juventus
19:45 UK
Serie A – Week 9 [29th October 2014] – Stadio Luigi Ferraris
Juventus
A formulaic if not flamboyant win against Palermo saw Juventus get back on track domestically following two disappointing matches in a row. The Bianconeri were hoping to put their midweek European woes behind them and duly did so with a comfortable 2-0 victory that included a Fernando Llorente goal.
Gianluigi Buffon plays his 500th game in Juventus colours against the side he supported as a child. Andrea Pirlo is fit and may start following a solid performance at the weekend but Max Allegri may opt for the more solid choice of Claudio Marchisio at the base of the midfield 3. Andrea Barzagli and Martin Caceres are both returning to fitness so Angelo Ogbonna will likely sit on the right of the defence with Chiellini and Bonucci filling the other roles. Arturo Vidal, Fernando Llorente and Carlos Tevez were all instrumental in the victory on Sunday and are expected to retain their places in the starting XI.
Predicted Lineup
3-5-2 : Buffon; Ogbonna, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Pirlo, Pogba, Asamoah; Llorente, Tevez
Injuries
Andrea Barzagli, Martin Caceres, Simone Pepe, Patrice Evra and Roberto Pereyra (Doubtful)
Genoa
Genoa are doing fairly well: they are in 9th position with 12 points. However, there’s some sense of dissatisfaction in the environment, maybe because the bar was set too high in the pre-season or because Giampiero Gasperini is not the friendliest coach. After the 1-1 draw against Empoli, he lashed out against some fans on the stands after the final whistle and vented in the post-game presser. Genoa supporters are usually very loud and passionate, we’ll see what the atmosphere will be on Wednesday night.
They have won three games (against Lazio at home, Parma and Chievo on the road), drew against Fiorentina, Hellas Verona and Empoli and lost against Napoli and Sampdoria. Mixed results that don’t tell much about the real quality of the team and this is maybe part of the problem: the roster has been built very well, but the squad doesn’t seem to have found its real identity yet. They scored only nine goal in eight matches, uncharacteristic for a Gasperini team that usually imposes its will, especially against the lesser teams. They have not that level of confidence yet. They have quality players and it’s probably only a matter of time before they start playing entertaining football, even though they have been able to obtain decent results while being scrappy.
Gasperini has used indifferently 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 (switching also during the games) as Luca Antonelli can play both as LB and LWB and Edenilson can be fielded as RWB or CM. He has used 4-4-2 when the team needed to score, but he has been reluctant to start Alessandro Matri and Mauricio Pinilla together, even if they have often finished games and they are both playing well (the Italian scored four goals, the Chilean three) and they are not incompatible.
Attacking down the flanks is their forte: Diego Perotti and Edenilson combine well on the right and Antonelli is having a strong season on the left. Maxime Lestienne was their most touted purchase of the summer: he showed glimpses of talent, but he’s been inconsistent. Juventus reject Iago Falque hasn’t really played that well, however, this depth allows them to have at least a fresh pacey winger that can hurt the opponent always of the pitch. Gasperini continues to use Juraj Kucka in the offensive trident, a la Hamsik in Mazzarri’s Napoli: the Slovakian is surely a fine player, but I’m not sure that’s his best position.
Gioannis Fetfatzidis (groin) and Tomas Rincon (thigh) won’t be available on Wednesday. The Venezuelan midfielder has been a regular starter so far, providing for muscles in the midfield. Juventus-owned Stefano Sturaro is questionable due to a knee sprain and he hasn’t played in the last two games. If he’s available, Gasp will probably field him along with Andrea Bertolacci in the middle, with Kucka as left-winger. If he’s not, Kucka will slide in the midfield and at that point Lestienne would be favored to start over Falque upfront. Leando Greco could be an option in the midfield if they rotate the players a little bit. They have another defensive midfielder in Franco Mussis but he has played only nine minutes so far.
Facundo Roncaglia-Nicolas Burdisso-Sebastien De Maio appears to be Gasperini’s favourite defense, even though he had to change it often because of injuries and disqualifications (Luca Antonini and especially Giovanni Marchese have been fielded from time to time). It’s a very physical defense, but a little too much prone to blunders. Juventus will have to keep them under pressure and avoid being overwhelmed by their muscularity.
The last games in Genoa have always been battles and you may remember that Juventus prevailed in the past season only thanks to a late free kick by Andrea Pirlo. Juventus will have to be very careful, especially in the midfield, because Genoa thrive when they are able to recuperate the ball quickly and dish the attackers in the open field.
3-4-3 : Perin; Roncaglia, Budisso, Maio; Edenilson, Bertolacci, Sturaro, Antonelli; Perotti, Matri, Kucka
Injuries
Ioannis Fetfatzidis , Tomás Rincón, Stefano Sturaro (Returning to fitness)
First and Happy 500th Game to Gigi!!!
cinquecento giorni di felicita! tomorrow we celebrate 500 games with SUPER GIGI!
And possibly his 300th win!
money all in? 😛
I dont feel comfortable making that decision for you… plus im a terrible decision maker :p
wheeew. big escape from this lost! 🙂
go for it.
big escape for me bro! big escape!..
Put it all on us to destroy Empoli this weekend.
it depends if the odds is good and worth it to bet.
Forza Juve!! Hoping for a statement today…
A win is a must, go juve
Again no Morata or Coman
Morata shouldve started.
Not a bad start, at this rate a goal can happen any moment
Genoa are battling like crazy.
come on juve!!!!!!!!!!
Morata for Llorente, Pirlo for Asamoah and change the formation, please.
super max will bring on padoin lol
llorente really struggling at the moment.
Tevez cmon man that should have been on goal..
ogbonna ffs!!
Very unlucky though..
WHat the………………..
God somebody score please, this is aaargh xD
im ripping my hair out!!!!!
Meanwhile Roma winning 2-0..
merda!
Against these small teams we should run rampant to score asap, so they can’t just sit back and hold the game even. Pressure, score and force them to look for an equaliser. Is it that hard to see this allegri?
Everyone knows by now that Llorente is in bad shape, why the hell is Morata still not a starter? He has done more in 15 minutes than llorente in an hour.
Wake up
WTFFFFFFFF MATRI WHAT DID YOU DO??????
not much?
2 things. An assist and ruining his hair.
Oh my god, you have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME
Allegri vai vaffanculo
that looked offside to me
I think it was. Twice for Antonini although he didn’t get the ball the first time.
Well, all we can hope for now is Allegri will get a boot up his ass soon.
FUCK FUCK FUCK NOOOOOO, GOD DAMMIT!!!! FUUUUUCK!!!
bastard fuck shit wank arrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Had to let it out somewhere lol
Just cant believe it
I guess this is where Conte’s Juve officially ends and Allegri’s Juve begins. These players are shameful and played with no hunger. Lazy tactics, always playing for a 1-0.
I dont want to watch Allegris Juve, can I get a shortcut to the new coach?
I’ll join you.
well said…no hunger and desire…..allegri is really leaving his mark on this team
We have great players though.. If Allegri continues what he’s good at, we will not win the title and our best players will leave. That will be it for us in europe for the next decade atleast.
Vidal will be gone in the summer and Pogba will follow in 2016.
One phone call from Zidane in the summer and Pogba is gone.
Probably he wants to buy some random hasbeen like he wanted matri at Milan for 12mill and he’ll note that Vidal doesnt suit his plans anymore, unless he plays on the left wing now. Sounds familiar, doesnt it Pirlo
This has got to be Juve’s worst match i’ve seen in a long time. Even if they didn’t lose.
Of all people to beat the defenders, its matri
Well if Allegri keeps playing this 3-5-2 then we’re out of the cl for sure. This guy looks to scared to implement his own ideas.
His ideas? Like what? I’ve seen potatoes with more tactical insight than allegri
Like for example playing a formation he actually knows something about.
I’m curious to see one he knows something about
Here’s our new coach then. He actually looks like he could have more control over the players than Allegri.
https://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100310003227/pixar/images/7/7a/Mrpotatohead1.jpg
yup.. recently, after the international break, Juve and Allegri played like a potato.. I really hate international breaks!
i will be surprised if he has any
We couldve won with the 3-5-2, the players just played with no desire. Our lazy tactics need to go, pass all the way up to their box, then drop it back to defense, switch sides, and try again…We need to pressure teams, we need to move faster, pass faster, waste less time in possession, attack more direct, take more chances shooting/passing/dribbling around their box.
Thats Allegris tactics for you. A dirt poor mans Wenger basically
Never name Allegri and Wenger in one sentence.
I didnt. They were two separate sentences.
My bad. Still though xD
I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with adp. We are a shit team. The more this shit happens the more it looks like it. From when we drew against Copenhagen I’ve had my doubts.
If the players and the coach don’t get their heads out of their asses in the next few weeks we’re fucked.
Shit team after international breaks.. I am still 60% optimistic with our squad at the moment.
what the fuck does 60% optimistic mean? 60% of what?
“after international breaks..”
Really?
Real Madrid destroyed Barcelona after this break. Juve couldn’t score against fucking Genoa.
There is no excuse for this.
Juve aint Real Madrid or Barcelona.. ok?
He didnt say we were. He said have no excuse for our pathetic display
Tell that to the management who always says things like “Juve is a top club”.
After the Roma game Gigi said “loosers find excuses”. Allegri complained about the pitch before we played the game. Yet these people want us to believe we are a top contender in CL.
Thank you.
The team badly needs Barzagli…
Hes too slow now. We need Caceres back.
i was expecting a loss like this soon. Why is Tevez playing every game. Give the guy a rest and play giovinco whos been great coming off the bench all season. Ive been sick of the 352 bullshit for over a year. Buy fast wingers
Why, well because thats everything Allegri knows to do, play the best striker every single game and hope he wins it for you. If he doesn’t: bring in more strikers
Still stunned by this… wtf happened?!?
Allegri out, we need fast wingers like Shaquiri
What fucking retards, hate them both
easy…
you can’t blame our poor form on international breaks. all the big teams go through international break. not just us. RM, bayern, barca, chelsea don’t let international breaks affect them. problem is, allegri has just one set of tactics. it’s been figured out and he has no plan b. he won’t change what he has and it’s costing us. it was already clear that without pirlo, tevez is supposed to drop deep. when tevez drops deep, llorente is left all by himself and he struggles to do anything. so why the hell was llorente playing again when tevez was supposed to drop deep? why didn’t allegri have morata from the beginning when he knew tevez was supposed to drop deep?
this has seriously come to the point where even pogba has criticized allegri. after the olympiacos game when everyone was bashing on pirlo, pogba said that allegri tells him to move out wide but he needs to be close to pirlo to help pirlo out. allegri clearly has no idea what he’s doing. he has his own ideas and he tries to put square pegs in round holes instead of adapting his tactics to the players he has
in some good news, marotta and paratici are trying to work to sign alessio romagnoli because they’re dreaming of a rugani-romagnoli cb pairing. that could be incredible. the future juvetalia defensive duo for the next decade. it’s gonna be tough since roma owns romagnoli but they bought manolas and are gonna make yanga-mbiwa’s deal permanent. also, they’re trying to sign river plate’s eder balanta. if they do, they just might be willing to let romagnoli leave.
wow! good news!
https://football-italia.net/57959/juventus-lichtsteiner-%E2%82%AC1m-apart
Lichsteiner and Juve close to an agreement. Licht holding out for 3m, while Juve offer 2m and bonuses. Or we could just sell Lichsteiner, who has already peaked, and buy Darmian, and pay him less than 2m.
we’re paying evra 3.5 and we won’t pay licht 3? that’s ridiculous. as a fullback, licht is one of the best in the world. he’s still got another year or 2 at top level in him
Evra came in for cheap. Its common to pay a higher salary to an older WC player you bring in for cheap, or free. That being said, Lichsteiner is at his peak, I wouldnt be upset at all if he did indeed go to Arsenal, because then we could potentially bring in Darmian, who has wayyy more potential and will be a better player than Licht.
i don’t think he’ll be a better player than licht but he is a long term solution. then again, we could keep licht for a couple years and get a better RB in a couple years
More potential in attacking aspect, probably. But in defending it’s hard to believe.
With Conte we would be playing 4-3-3, we would also have Iturbe, which would make our attack insane and solve our winger problem. We would most likely have 2 wins and 1 draw in the cl. We would have 8 wins and 1 draw in the Serie a, or maybe 9 wins out of 9. Anyone agree?
We can still play a 4-3-3. Tevez/Pereyra-Morata/Llorente-Gio/Coman
True, but we need wingers at the quality of Shaquiri, and plus Allegri is to scared to change from the 3-5-2 to the 4-3-3
You can never know, but as a big Allegri hater i must agree.
Conte adopted the 3-5-2 back in 2012 and stuck with it until he left. What makes you think he would have changed?
Conte also had a record of draw draw loss in the first three games of the group stages last season. Allegri has more points.
You can tell by the players Conte wanted to sign. Why sign Evra and try to sign Sanchez and Iturbe for the 3-5-2? Plus when Allegri took over we started trying to sign more strikers.