Still trying to trade insults and avoid why juve lost ! lol
ARTICLE:
"Juventus are meant to be the most “Italian” of the Serie A clubs, conjuring up the familiar stereotypes: staunch defending, tactical awareness and, of course, a lethal counterattack. Last night, however, Juventus proved weakest precisely where they should have been strongest"
"Arsenal changed tactical formation — just as they had done against Real Madrid in the previous round — adjusting to their opponents, rather than making their opponents worry about them. And it was the Juventus defenders — the ordinarily cocksure and vastly experienced pairing of Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram — who were befuddled by the movement of the opposing strikers and victimised by the pace and guile of their counterattack.
It was not dissimilar to events on Saturday night, when Juve played host to AS Roma. The giallorossi — hard-hit by injuries to their strikers — had no recognised forwards and simply flooded the middle of the park, relying instead on midfield players to make forward runs into the penalty area. The champions were held 1-1 and shrugged it off as merely a speed bump on the way to a record-setting season. Alas, it was a lesson not learnt.
Arsenal employed a similar plan to Roma and created many of the same problems. The five-man midfield robbed Juve’s attacks of their fluidity, forcing them to go over the top once too often. At the same time, Thierry Henry’s movement left Cannavaro and Thuram with a difficult marking job — tracking space is tougher than following around a relatively static opponent.
The fact that Zebina, the right back whose pace was supposed to be the antidote to Henry when he drifts out to his favoured left flank, also sat and waited for much of the game further deprived Juventus of tactical cohesion. Effectively, three defenders sat deep, worrying about Henry moving as he pleased, while a badly undermanned midfield battled with the likes of Francesc Fàbregas, who crossed swords with the man he replaced, Vieira. "
"Arsenal had snuffed out their supply lines, which is particularly serious as David Trezeguet and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are the kind of strikers who need regular service. Thus Trezeguet was missing in action, while Ibrahimovic rarely received the ball where he is most dangerous: at his size 15 feet.
At half-time it became clear that Wenger had stopped Capello’s men playing their game, exactly the kind of “European adjustment” that, in the past, Arsenal had been accused of not doing. Capello, on the other hand, is a noted tactician, surely he would find a way to square the circle?
Not so. With Juve a goal down, he felt no change was necessary. Perhaps he had seen something that had escaped the rest of us. Either way, in the first 15 minutes of the second half, things went from bad to worse, as Juve’s midfield tired.
By the time Capello made adjustments, Juve were two down and it smacked of preserving the deficit. Off came an attacking midfield player (Mutu), on came a left back (Giorgio Chiellini). Off came Trezeguet, on came Marcelo Zalayeta, the fifth striking option. If the plan was to prevent Arsenal’s third, it worked. But at what cost? Under constant pressure, the last Juve hallmark — steady nerves in difficult situations — was shattered, as Camoranesi and Zebina received their second yellow cards.
Perhaps that is what hurt Capello the most after the match. The realisation that he was outcoached in terms of tactics and discipline, by a side that used the old-school Italian weapons to maximum effect.
[Gabriele Marcotti]
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