Watched the game for a second time.
Rundown:
Problems:
Nervosity
We look extremely shaky playing out from the back: Fiorentina is pressing us high. Still, we try to play out from the back, but keep giving the ball away, often looking for a long ball thats misplaced, or a backpass to Buffon, who has to send it over the throw in line after being pressed by Fiorentina attackers. This happens several times.
Its all exemplified by Sturaro who sends a simple backpass to the free throw line instead of passing it back to Barzagli.
not convincing, to say the least.
Concentration:
we make a lot of sloppy clearances, often directly to a Fiorentina player. They win 75% of the 50/50 duels, if not more. They seem a lot more focused and much more composed than us.
Offensive Rythm:
We look clueless going forward. Higuain is ruled out for offside several times after running after crosses that are fed behind the Florentine backline without any real intent. Frustrating.
Astori easily dispossess Dybala in the middle of the Park. He tries to dribble past the midfield directly towards the central defenders without any luck.
Fiorentina, on the other hand, look very lively:
Bernardeschi is pulling trickery in the middle of the park and is playing between our lines with ease.
Vecino is a great attacking threat and is giving us problems.
Kalinic's hold up play gives us all sort of problems.
Defending:
Our backline makes an awful lot of mistakes. unusual. often because they are pressured to the point where they have to whack the ball away. Our midfield is not giving them enough options.
They really struggle with Kalinic. He drags them wide, and takes the ball down with ease. should not happen this easily, but it does.
Time and time again.
Finishing:
two huge chances: first Higuain, then Dybala. We need to be more deadly if we want to win these matches.
Mentality:
We don't press aggressive or work hard enough to win back the ball. We make stupid fouls, and spend a lot of time complaining to the referee. Dissapointing.
Positives:
Higuain: : keeps on scoring and Looks in good shape. Unlucky to not score another one, but should head it somewhere else than directly at the keeper. Nevertheless, does his job well, which is promising.
Pjaca: Comes into the game and gives us more positives. Unlucky not to receive a penalty after a great run. The intent and potential is truly there. Needs to continue to work on his game and he will be a big hit for us.
Summary:
A game we should learn from and forget as soon as possible. All in all, piss poor performance, especially from our veterans that usually are so balanced/solid in these types of matches. We look like a serie C team at times and this kind of performance can only be described as totally unacceptable.
Allegri should field the 11 that gives everything for the team, is in form and is best prepared for the match.
Yesterday it did not look like he did.
Hopefully we take a deep look at ourselves in the mirror and work our asses off to improve.
As for the midfield situation, there is really no more room for playing Sturaro and khedira together in a competetive match.
They offer nothing creative and is truly destructive to our teams chances to win games.
We bought Rincon, and hopefully Alllegri fields him more in the future.
May we face our next game with more grinta and some real intent.
Forza Juve. Sempre.
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