Andrea Pirlo (21 Viewers)
- Thread starter Mark
- Start date
- Tags the goat of midfield
In general, you can't play attacking football in the way we are trying with so many players spread in attack and don't let open space in the middle (L'pool, BM, Atalanta, City). Our problem are (1) our attack is not good enough yet, we don't use the flanks properly and don't have enough automatisms and (2) we still are trying to defend using the space and that's something you shouldn't do.... Pep's Farca pressed high and hard, BM and L'pool did that last couple of seasons
Attack is going to improve and our defend with Demiral and Chiello would have options a little bit more appropriate for it
Attack is going to improve and our defend with Demiral and Chiello would have options a little bit more appropriate for it
I really like some of the things he's trying to do with this team. Especially at the attacking end we at times look like we could absolutely trash some opponents when some small things click. Then sadly on the other end it's all a bit too chaotic for my taste. It's okay to not commit all all your mids forward at the end of the game when you're leading 3-1.
The picture below is from the 91st minute. It's basically a four on three as Danilo, Arthur, Berna, Rabiot and McKennie are all struggling to get back below the ball to defend. McKennie and Rabiot our two central midfielders you can barely see in the picture. This is just stupid football and if Maldini picks the right pass, Diaz has a brilliant chance to score.
And this is from the 93rd minute with Maldini running 40 meters free with the ball through our midfiled. Only Rabiot makes it in to the picture from our mids but even he is basically mispositioned. At least we have the man advantage here with all the four defenders below the ball.
These kind of positional mistakes can cost us dearly when we face better teams. I really can't even blame the players because this stuff happens so often it has to be by design. All three midfielders simply can't get forward at the same time, there needs to be some balance.
The picture below is from the 91st minute. It's basically a four on three as Danilo, Arthur, Berna, Rabiot and McKennie are all struggling to get back below the ball to defend. McKennie and Rabiot our two central midfielders you can barely see in the picture. This is just stupid football and if Maldini picks the right pass, Diaz has a brilliant chance to score.
And this is from the 93rd minute with Maldini running 40 meters free with the ball through our midfiled. Only Rabiot makes it in to the picture from our mids but even he is basically mispositioned. At least we have the man advantage here with all the four defenders below the ball.
These kind of positional mistakes can cost us dearly when we face better teams. I really can't even blame the players because this stuff happens so often it has to be by design. All three midfielders simply can't get forward at the same time, there needs to be some balance.
he really MUST solve this if he wants to win this scudetto because we lose points against minnows left and right
Unfortunately I think Pirlo is the main factor holding this team back.. He's in charge of easily the best squad & best players in the league..
If he doesn't win Serie A this year he must be gone..
Weve seen us play great under him but also very terribly.. that inconsistency is unacceptable for a club like Juve..
If he doesn't win Serie A this year he must be gone..
Weve seen us play great under him but also very terribly.. that inconsistency is unacceptable for a club like Juve..
Something I find hilarious about this team's defense. I definitely agree that the defensive shape, particularly against counters is a big issue. A poster said above said he feels like we can concede at any moment and I completely agree. Stresses me out to watch this Juve defend when under Allegri or Conte it was beautiful to watch our defense.
Yet somehow we have the best defensive record in Serie A
Serie A teams have been pretty shocking defensively as a whole. Gasperini, Fonseca, Pirlo, De Zerbi at the top, it makes sense, coaches that attack before defending, but wtf are Conte, Gattuso, and Pioli doing?? Conte should be locking teams down with the defenders he has at Inter and the 352.
Its strange to watch a Juve that could concede at any moment but scored 3 or 4 goals every other match. Its entertaining but bad for my health.
Yet somehow we have the best defensive record in Serie A
Serie A teams have been pretty shocking defensively as a whole. Gasperini, Fonseca, Pirlo, De Zerbi at the top, it makes sense, coaches that attack before defending, but wtf are Conte, Gattuso, and Pioli doing?? Conte should be locking teams down with the defenders he has at Inter and the 352.
Its strange to watch a Juve that could concede at any moment but scored 3 or 4 goals every other match. Its entertaining but bad for my health.
Something I find hilarious about this team's defense. I definitely agree that the defensive shape, particularly against counters is a big issue. A poster said above said he feels like we can concede at any moment and I completely agree. Stresses me out to watch this Juve defend when under Allegri or Conte it was beautiful to watch our defense.
Yet somehow we have the best defensive record in Serie A
Serie A teams have been pretty shocking defensively as a whole. Gasperini, Fonseca, Pirlo, De Zerbi at the top, it makes sense, coaches that attack before defending, but wtf are Conte, Gattuso, and Pioli doing?? Conte should be locking teams down with the defenders he has at Inter and the 352.
Its strange to watch a Juve that could concede at any moment but scored 3 or 4 goals every other match. Its entertaining but bad for my health.
Yet somehow we have the best defensive record in Serie A
Serie A teams have been pretty shocking defensively as a whole. Gasperini, Fonseca, Pirlo, De Zerbi at the top, it makes sense, coaches that attack before defending, but wtf are Conte, Gattuso, and Pioli doing?? Conte should be locking teams down with the defenders he has at Inter and the 352.
Its strange to watch a Juve that could concede at any moment but scored 3 or 4 goals every other match. Its entertaining but bad for my health.
Pirlo isn’t finished as a coach now – he is only just getting started
By James Horncastle Jan 7, 2021
Andrea Pirlo played it as cool as if he were sat in his vineyard twirling the stem of a wineglass and contemplating the latest vintage of Pratum Coller.
Apparently, Juventus’ place in the league didn’t bother him or the club’s chief football officer, Fabio Paratici, going into Serie A’s round of fixtures on the day of the Epiphany. “We’ll take a look at it later, around March-April time — when it matters more,” Paratici said.
The weight of significance attributed to Wednesday’s 3-1 away win over AC Milan did not appear on either of their inscrutable poker faces. It was instead up to the players to share the palpable anxieties of the moment. All could not have been calm as the team bus pulled into San Siro. “We came here with the awareness that this was a very very important game,” Leonardo Bonucci confided.
The history and tradition of this rivalry usually guarantee as much. But as Milan’s technical director Paolo Maldini observed before kick-off, “There’s more at stake for them than us.” Results elsewhere meant Milan could lose and still end the night top of the league.
By contrast, had Juventus lost on a frostbitten night at the Giuseppe Meazza the result would never have been taken in isolation. A defeat would have left the champions 13 points adrift of the league leaders and led even the most ardent Juventino to ask: Is this how it ends? An era of dominance unprecedented in its duration beginning nine years ago when Milan foolishly allowed Pirlo to walk into the Old Lady’s arms and make her a queen again.
He wasn’t finished as a player then and he isn’t finished as a coach now. Pirlo is only just getting started. The 41-year-old managerial rookie expected his credentials to be challenged given his sudden promotion from the under-23s post to the top job in the space of the week. Club president Andrea Agnelli got the distinct impression some people couldn’t wait for one or two bad results to call his decision to appoint Pirlo into question.
Wednesday’s victory brought another measure of vindication and keeps the prospect of Juventus winning 10 titles in a row alive. For all the faith shown in Pirlo, he has to win. This is Juventus after all, where retaining the Scudetto wasn’t enough for Max Allegri and Maurizio Sarri to stay in the job he now holds. More immediately, he needed to capitalise on Inter Milan and Napoli losing earlier in the day and take advantage of a Milan team decimated by injuries, COVID-19 and the suspension of his lookalike Sandro Tonali, which left opposite number Stefano Pioli with no option but to play a full-back, Davide Calabria, in midfield.
None of those issues should diminish the achievement of winning 3-1 at San Siro. Milan were the last undefeated team in Europe’s top five leagues and ending that streak is no mean feat. The Rossoneri have overcome injuries to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ismael Bennacer, the stress and strain of playing with 10 men for an hour in Benevento on Sunday and hitting the woodwork 11 times this season to remain invincible for 27 games. The feeling that nothing can stop Milan this season surged once again when the out of position Calabria, of all people, was the one who levelled the score. But halted they were, despite the problems Pirlo had on his plate.
Juventus got 2021 off to a good start with a 4-1 win over Udinese, however, the game was considerably closer than the scoreline suggests. The Old Lady still carried the scars of her last outing before the Christmas break, a damaging 3-0 defeat by Fiorentina, and when Rodrigo De Paul put the visitors in front in similar circumstances to Dusan Vlahovic’s opener in the previous match, there was considerable relief when the VAR disallowed it for handball. Udinese went on to hit the woodwork twice and, although much of the attention fell on Cristiano Ronaldo matching Pele’s all-time goals total, the rampaging Federico Chiesa and Paulo Dybala managing to score at home for the first time in six months, it was difficult to put the team’s vulnerability to the back of one’s mind.
Compounding matters was the unavailability of their two best performers this season. Pirlo was without his principal creator Juan Cuadrado and Alvaro Morata, who had quickly emerged as Ronaldo’s most compatible strike partner following his return to the club from Atletico Madrid in September.
Juventus were not at full strength and nor were they flawless by any means. This was not a performance to rival the one at the Nou Camp against Barcelona a month ago. They needed Wojciech Szczesny to make eight saves. He even parried one from team-mate Aaron Ramsey, who was also fortunate not to be punished for a misplaced pass that almost turned into an assist for the lively Rafael Leao.
The Welshman wasn’t the only one careless in possession. Rodrigo Bentancur lost the ball in his own penalty area and, as much as Milan’s equaliser attracted controversy for the referee’s failure to call a foul on Adrien Rabiot, the Uruguayan was equally lucky to avoid a second yellow card after scything down Samuel Castillejo. Bentancur very nearly left Juventus with 10 men for the seventh time this season with 20 minutes still on the clock and the score at 2-1.
Ronaldo was largely peripheral too, with Fabio Capello opining from the Sky Italia studio it was as if they “won without him”. Aside from a clever inside pass to send Weston McKennie through on goal, Milan kept Juventus’ top scorer quiet. The damage was instead done by the in-form Chiesa and Dybala, whose balletic back-heel assist for the opener was the star turn of the evening.
Capello thought Juventus “won without” Ronaldo against Milan (Photo: Matteo Bottanelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Exposed either by a lack of midfield protection or the difficulties Theo Hernandez faced in defending Chiesa, Milan’s captain Alessio Romagnoli was made to look like a revolving door on a couple of occasions.
The night instead belonged to Chiesa. He followed up his goal against Udinese first by scoring with his right and then his left, creditably beating the finest goalkeeper in the league, Gianluigi Donnarumma, from distance.
Paratici must have savoured the win too. Juventus’ recruitment figurehead has drawn some criticism over the last year for not equipping the team to play the style of football Sarri and now Pirlo aspired to implement. Promoted after sealing the Ronaldo deal, Paratici’s contract expires at the end of the season and his future is uncertain.
But as Dybala and Chiesa, Juventus’ major deadline day signing in October, were withdrawn from the action, Paratici’s other buys Dejan Kulusevski and McKennie came on and combined to put the result beyond all doubt. McKennie has now scored at San Siro, the Nou Camp and in the Turin derby. The first American ever to play for Juventus has not only established himself as a fan favourite but a man for the big occasion too.
The greater depth at Pirlo’s disposal on Wednesday and his adept use of it tilted the balance of the match away from Milan and for that he deserves credit.
On December 22, you could be mistaken for thinking Juventus lost twice. That evening, Napoli won their appeal to play a game they didn’t show up for in October. The 3-0 win awarded to Juventus was overturned. Later that night, Fiorentina recorded their biggest victory in Turin since the 1950s. It left Juventus shell-shocked.
Last night went a long way to cancelling that out. The satisfaction was double. Juventus beat the league leaders and their other rivals lost. The title race is wide open.
Of course, the gap between Juventus and the summit is still seven points and, while Pirlo has a game in hand, they need greater consistency to prevail. They have put together back-to-back wins on only a couple of occasions in Serie A this season and this is a particularly competitive year with at least four teams in contention for the Scudetto. January isn’t about to get any easier either with Sassuolo, the Derby d’Italia and the Super Cup coming up in the next fortnight.
But Pirlo remains composed and handles the pressure in much the same way he did when pressed as a player. He drops a shoulder, sends his opponent the other way and, the next thing you know it, Juventus are on the attack again.
By James Horncastle Jan 7, 2021
Andrea Pirlo played it as cool as if he were sat in his vineyard twirling the stem of a wineglass and contemplating the latest vintage of Pratum Coller.
Apparently, Juventus’ place in the league didn’t bother him or the club’s chief football officer, Fabio Paratici, going into Serie A’s round of fixtures on the day of the Epiphany. “We’ll take a look at it later, around March-April time — when it matters more,” Paratici said.
The weight of significance attributed to Wednesday’s 3-1 away win over AC Milan did not appear on either of their inscrutable poker faces. It was instead up to the players to share the palpable anxieties of the moment. All could not have been calm as the team bus pulled into San Siro. “We came here with the awareness that this was a very very important game,” Leonardo Bonucci confided.
The history and tradition of this rivalry usually guarantee as much. But as Milan’s technical director Paolo Maldini observed before kick-off, “There’s more at stake for them than us.” Results elsewhere meant Milan could lose and still end the night top of the league.
By contrast, had Juventus lost on a frostbitten night at the Giuseppe Meazza the result would never have been taken in isolation. A defeat would have left the champions 13 points adrift of the league leaders and led even the most ardent Juventino to ask: Is this how it ends? An era of dominance unprecedented in its duration beginning nine years ago when Milan foolishly allowed Pirlo to walk into the Old Lady’s arms and make her a queen again.
He wasn’t finished as a player then and he isn’t finished as a coach now. Pirlo is only just getting started. The 41-year-old managerial rookie expected his credentials to be challenged given his sudden promotion from the under-23s post to the top job in the space of the week. Club president Andrea Agnelli got the distinct impression some people couldn’t wait for one or two bad results to call his decision to appoint Pirlo into question.
Wednesday’s victory brought another measure of vindication and keeps the prospect of Juventus winning 10 titles in a row alive. For all the faith shown in Pirlo, he has to win. This is Juventus after all, where retaining the Scudetto wasn’t enough for Max Allegri and Maurizio Sarri to stay in the job he now holds. More immediately, he needed to capitalise on Inter Milan and Napoli losing earlier in the day and take advantage of a Milan team decimated by injuries, COVID-19 and the suspension of his lookalike Sandro Tonali, which left opposite number Stefano Pioli with no option but to play a full-back, Davide Calabria, in midfield.
None of those issues should diminish the achievement of winning 3-1 at San Siro. Milan were the last undefeated team in Europe’s top five leagues and ending that streak is no mean feat. The Rossoneri have overcome injuries to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ismael Bennacer, the stress and strain of playing with 10 men for an hour in Benevento on Sunday and hitting the woodwork 11 times this season to remain invincible for 27 games. The feeling that nothing can stop Milan this season surged once again when the out of position Calabria, of all people, was the one who levelled the score. But halted they were, despite the problems Pirlo had on his plate.
Juventus got 2021 off to a good start with a 4-1 win over Udinese, however, the game was considerably closer than the scoreline suggests. The Old Lady still carried the scars of her last outing before the Christmas break, a damaging 3-0 defeat by Fiorentina, and when Rodrigo De Paul put the visitors in front in similar circumstances to Dusan Vlahovic’s opener in the previous match, there was considerable relief when the VAR disallowed it for handball. Udinese went on to hit the woodwork twice and, although much of the attention fell on Cristiano Ronaldo matching Pele’s all-time goals total, the rampaging Federico Chiesa and Paulo Dybala managing to score at home for the first time in six months, it was difficult to put the team’s vulnerability to the back of one’s mind.
Compounding matters was the unavailability of their two best performers this season. Pirlo was without his principal creator Juan Cuadrado and Alvaro Morata, who had quickly emerged as Ronaldo’s most compatible strike partner following his return to the club from Atletico Madrid in September.
Juventus were not at full strength and nor were they flawless by any means. This was not a performance to rival the one at the Nou Camp against Barcelona a month ago. They needed Wojciech Szczesny to make eight saves. He even parried one from team-mate Aaron Ramsey, who was also fortunate not to be punished for a misplaced pass that almost turned into an assist for the lively Rafael Leao.
The Welshman wasn’t the only one careless in possession. Rodrigo Bentancur lost the ball in his own penalty area and, as much as Milan’s equaliser attracted controversy for the referee’s failure to call a foul on Adrien Rabiot, the Uruguayan was equally lucky to avoid a second yellow card after scything down Samuel Castillejo. Bentancur very nearly left Juventus with 10 men for the seventh time this season with 20 minutes still on the clock and the score at 2-1.
Ronaldo was largely peripheral too, with Fabio Capello opining from the Sky Italia studio it was as if they “won without him”. Aside from a clever inside pass to send Weston McKennie through on goal, Milan kept Juventus’ top scorer quiet. The damage was instead done by the in-form Chiesa and Dybala, whose balletic back-heel assist for the opener was the star turn of the evening.
Capello thought Juventus “won without” Ronaldo against Milan (Photo: Matteo Bottanelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Exposed either by a lack of midfield protection or the difficulties Theo Hernandez faced in defending Chiesa, Milan’s captain Alessio Romagnoli was made to look like a revolving door on a couple of occasions.
The night instead belonged to Chiesa. He followed up his goal against Udinese first by scoring with his right and then his left, creditably beating the finest goalkeeper in the league, Gianluigi Donnarumma, from distance.
Paratici must have savoured the win too. Juventus’ recruitment figurehead has drawn some criticism over the last year for not equipping the team to play the style of football Sarri and now Pirlo aspired to implement. Promoted after sealing the Ronaldo deal, Paratici’s contract expires at the end of the season and his future is uncertain.
But as Dybala and Chiesa, Juventus’ major deadline day signing in October, were withdrawn from the action, Paratici’s other buys Dejan Kulusevski and McKennie came on and combined to put the result beyond all doubt. McKennie has now scored at San Siro, the Nou Camp and in the Turin derby. The first American ever to play for Juventus has not only established himself as a fan favourite but a man for the big occasion too.
The greater depth at Pirlo’s disposal on Wednesday and his adept use of it tilted the balance of the match away from Milan and for that he deserves credit.
On December 22, you could be mistaken for thinking Juventus lost twice. That evening, Napoli won their appeal to play a game they didn’t show up for in October. The 3-0 win awarded to Juventus was overturned. Later that night, Fiorentina recorded their biggest victory in Turin since the 1950s. It left Juventus shell-shocked.
Last night went a long way to cancelling that out. The satisfaction was double. Juventus beat the league leaders and their other rivals lost. The title race is wide open.
Of course, the gap between Juventus and the summit is still seven points and, while Pirlo has a game in hand, they need greater consistency to prevail. They have put together back-to-back wins on only a couple of occasions in Serie A this season and this is a particularly competitive year with at least four teams in contention for the Scudetto. January isn’t about to get any easier either with Sassuolo, the Derby d’Italia and the Super Cup coming up in the next fortnight.
But Pirlo remains composed and handles the pressure in much the same way he did when pressed as a player. He drops a shoulder, sends his opponent the other way and, the next thing you know it, Juventus are on the attack again.
Love Pirlo, if he can fix the turnovers and defensive issues then he could have a pretty good team here while being the handsomest and coolest coach in Europe.
Still a big if though. Even in the good performances this season (like against Milan) we gave away way too many good chances to the opposition. Our attack can outscore the opposition in Serie A but we will get raped by a good team in Europe.
Still a big if though. Even in the good performances this season (like against Milan) we gave away way too many good chances to the opposition. Our attack can outscore the opposition in Serie A but we will get raped by a good team in Europe.
Win against Milan will fade away if we fail to win tonight. Not an easy task considering absentees but one of Juve's strength has always been raising to the occasion and getting the most out of difficult scenarios, in Italy at least. Pirlo's Juve to follow the suit? It's time to start putting in more consistent performances or we may say farewell to 10th title in a row.
