On paper a home game against Lokomotiv Moscow should have been a straight forward win for Juventus, but as the old saying goes the game of football isn't played on paper. Lokomotiv Moscow made their intentions known early on, restricting space for Juventus to play into and make life difficult for their hosts, perhaps even nick a point too. If a draw sounded good to the Russian outfit pre-game then imagine how it would feel to take a lead against the Bianconeri, and that's exactly what happened. With almost half an hour played Juventus won a free kick that was delivered into the Russians penalty area, where an unmarked Bonucci was waiting to head the ball just wide of goal. The problem for Juventus began straight from the re-start as Guilherme took his goal kick long into midfield where an on running De Ligt challenged for the high ball, he failed to connect with the ball along with Eder, Miranchuk took advantage of the situation and shrugged off Bonucci who failed to deal with the threat, Miranchuk then found former Inter player Jao Mario inside Juventus penalty area but his effort was saved by Szczesny. Unfortunately for the Juve number one he could only palm the ball out to an unmarked Miranchuk, who was directly in front of goal to blast the ball high into the net for a shock lead. Once the Russian outfit had a lead to defend it doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next, defend defend and defend again. For the remainder of the match Lokomotiv Moscow made life very difficult for Juventus, limiting Juventus route to goal with crosses from out wide due to a lack of space to pass in central positions. However, Sarri wasted little time in making adjustments in the second half as Khedira made way for Higuain on the 48th minute and again on the 65th minute with Matuidi replacing Rabiot. Finally as the game approached the last ten minutes of normal time, Paulo Dybala took centre stage and struck a quick fire double to put Juventus ahead for the first time in the game, the first goal being the pick of the bunch, curling the ball into the back of the next from just outside the 18 yard box in trademark fashion. Despite winning the game and remaining top of group D, Lokomotiv Moscow highlighted some potential problems that Juventus could face down the line, especially against 'lesser' quality opponents. When an opponent restricts the space available on the pitch with compact defensive football, 'sarri ball' generally becomes nullified, as seen through out the game against Lokomotiv, resulting in Juventus being frustrated when trying to play their usual passing game and resorting to hopeful crosses from wide. This could be an effective method with Ronaldo on his A game, but if like against Lokomotiv CR7 isn't firing on all cylinders then there aren't many other options for a headed effort on goal, unless Bonucci or De Ligt are waiting inside the 18 yard box which would create it's own problems defensibly for Juventus. Thankfully Juventus ended the night with another 3 points, but it certainly wasn't easy and neither will Juventus next Champions league fixture, same opponent, different venue. The Lokomotiv Stadium, in Russia.
STAT FACT : Prior to Dybala levelling the score, Juventus had 20 shots on goal, with only two hitting the target, this stat alone tells its own story about this game
MANDZUKIC SITUATION :
The fan favourites days as a Juventus player have looked numbered for some time now, and with links of a move away from the club in January a departure looks incredibly likely. Early September the Juventus registered their squad list for the champions league, and a few eyebrows were raised when Mario Mandzukic was omitted from the squad. The omission was also confirmation that the Croatian was well and truly not needed by the club anymore, and at 33 years old you could understand managements line of thinking. However whats less understandable is how a player that just signed a contract extension during April of this year, can suddenly become surplus to requirements. So lets look at this one objectively. Once players start to creep above the age of 30 its probably a good idea to start planning ahead for replacing them, also if a club wants a decent return from a transfer fee when the player does move on, then extending that players contract is also a good idea, unless of course that deal includes an increase in salary, which is exactly what happened with Mandzukic. Why is this a bad idea? Well, for a start it becomes more difficult to sell a player that is on big wages, as seen during the summer when Mandzukic stayed firm & rejected moves away from Juventus. Now that its become crystal clear that Mandzukic has no place in the Juventus squad, never mind the starting 11, the question now is where does he go? And who would even want him? The ideal destination for Mandzukic would be a club in need of experience and lacking in options when it comes to strikers, basically the opposite of what Juventus have, step forward Manchester United. The Premier league club currently reside in 14th position, far away from where they want to be, and who better to turn to than Mandzukic? A proven player that is available and more than ready for some game time, and who can also play in wide positions if required. After all, the previous time Man Utd signed an aging but physical attacker in the form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic it worked out pretty well. Despite residing in the lower half of the Premier league it would still be a better move for the Croatian than say AC Milan, who have also been linked with a move for Mandzukic, don't believe me? Just take a look at how moves to Milan worked out for Higuain and Bonucci.
CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? :
the words Injury crisis and Juventus tend to go hand in hand, and whenever one comes around the usual feeling tends to be more 'here we go again' rather than a feeling of surprise. Losing captain Giorgio Chiellini after the opening game of the season against Parma was a big blow, however with the exciting prospect that is Matthijs de Ligt in the squad the absence of Chiellini was less harsh than it would have been without the young Dutch defender. The real serious blow to Juventus wasted little time in hitting, and hitting the Bianconeri hard, as the Old Lady suffered from a headache of an injury crisis in the full back position. During the summer transfer window Juventus sold João Cancelo and Leonardo Spinazzola who both played in the fullback position. Arriving in their places was Danilo and Luca Pellegrini who are also full backs, so far so good. However, the club decided to immediately loan Luca Pellegrini to Cagliari, which meant that Juventus would go into the new season with only 3 full backs in the first team squad. It was a strategy that didn't take very long to come back and haunt the old lady. First up was Mattia De Sciglio who would take a leave of absence with a thigh injury, quickly followed by Danilo who also suffered a thigh injury. This meant that the club had only one natural full back fully fit in Alex Sandro. So how would Sarri address his first big challenge of the season? Enter Juan Cuadrado, yes THAT Cuadrado. Usually Cudrado can be found playing out wide on the right hand side of the pitch as a winger with pace and as many tricks in his repertoire, though not always the best when it comes to his decision making, so with that description Cuadrado doesn't exactly sound like a good option to play as a right back, wrong. Despite having played as a right back only a handful of times during his time at Juventus prior to the current season (six to be exact), the Colombian has gone on to prove himself to be a solid option at right back. Contributing in attack with his usual forward runs out wide, and surprisingly coping well defensively as well. However, at the end of the day Cuadrado is more suited to playing as an attacking winger so he is always susceptible to a defensive error such as the one seen for Lokomotiv Moscow's goal (all be it not from his own creating, that falls on De Ligt & Bonucci). Still, despite Danilo returning from injury who is to say that Cuadrado doesn't remain as Juventus number one choice right back? After all the Colombian has more or less made the position his own since stepping up to the challenge.
ARGENTINE DUO PROVING THE DOUBTERS WRONG :
During the summer it very much looked like at least one of Dybala or Higuain would be playing their football outside of Turin. Higuain returned from a horrendous season at both Milan and Chelsea after failing to impress with either side, Higuain's time at Chelsea especially looked to have hurt any hope of remaining a Juventus player as the current manager Maurizio Sarri was at the time in charge of Chelsea. Despite this, Higuain kept his head down and looked a player determined to prove his worth during the pre-season friendlies with his selfless runs back, providing the odd goal and of course linking up well with Cristiano Ronaldo. Eventually the Argentine striker was deemed important enough to be kept on board for the season ahead, and his hard work and determination already looks to be paying off. As of writing Higuain has made ten appearances over 11 games, scoring 3 and one assist. Whilst this doesn't look overly impressive in numbers, all 3 goals have been scored in must win games for Juventus, coming against Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli and the match winning goal in Derby D'Italia against Inter. When Higuain has a point to prove he is a player you want on your team, and this season he definitely has a point to prove. Another player that has a point to prove is resident number 10 Paulo Dybala, who was deemed to be an expendable asset after a mediocre season by his standards. At one point it even looked like La Joya might even be wearing red in Manchester (Man United sure do like Juventus players lately) as according to reports in the summer a deal was agreed between Juventus and Man United that would see Dybala leave, and Romelu Lukaku arrive. Fortunately the deal never happened, as Dybala refused to join Man United or the club refused his wage demands, either way Dybala remained a Juventus player. Despite mainly spending his time on the substitutes bench during the opening games of the season, once the summer transfer window closed Dybala was finally given the opportunity to show Sarri that he could be an important player for the season ahead. So far Dybala has played part in nine of the the eleven games played so far, scoring three (a brace against Lokomotiv Moscow) and three assists. Now that Dybala is no longer being asked to play out wide (he can thank Douglas Costa's injury for that) his form and effectiveness for the team has increased, now playing in his more natural position as a support striker or centre forward. In order to maximise the Argentine's abilities he is best played closer to goal, and not further away in a wide position like seen time and time again last season. The question now is, what happens once Douglas Costa returns from injury? Will Sarri revert back to his original 4-3-3 formation? Or continue with the current variation of a 4-3-1-2 that has resulted in Dybala being more involved in play. With the current squad line up, namely the number of midfielders available, you would expect Juventus to continue playing 4-3-1-2, for Dybala it is a set up that he will be hoping continues throughout the season, Douglas Costa however is a different story.
