We lose the midfield battle against almost every good team. In this game, Barca essentially played with four midfielders (Busquets, Iniesta, Rakitic, Paulinho) while Juve fielded two (Khedira and Pjanic). Meantime we had Matuidi, Marchisio and Bentancur on the bench.
We are always outnumbered in midfield, yet Allegri instructs our players to press high up the pitch early in the game. As a result, we run out of steam after 30 minutes because it's not possible to play at that intensity without having midfielders who hold the ball.
We ran out of steam against Bayern in 2016 and shipped 4 goals in the second half and extra time. We ran out of steam against Real in Cardiff and shipped 3 goals in the second half. We ran out of steam against Barca in Camp Nou and conceded 3 goals. This has became a signature problem of the team, and has nothing to do with our players being mentally weak (or whatever else we accuse them of). This is a fundamental problem in Allegri's tactics. We try to attack and press big teams without a proper midfield. Then we run out of breathe and bank in our own half until they inevitably score.
We played some good football in the final few minutes in the game against Barca, and would have won if not for a wondersave by Ter Stegen. We finally gained some control in midfield after Max subbed on Bentancur, Marchisio and Matuidi. Why didn't he start the game with a 3 or 4 man midfield? I was asking for a 3 man midfield just before the game. If we started Marchisio/Matuidi/Pjanic I genuinely think we could have won.
Here is my posts before the game:
http://www.juventuz.com/threads/433...er-22nd-2017?p=5640613&viewfull=1#post5640613
I called it, we needed more bodies in the midfield to compete with Barca. Then Allegri fields the same stupid midfield that got steamrolled in Cardiff. He doesn't learn from his mistakes.