Hmm, nobody reacted on the "passes" stats, eh?
Don't you guys find it strange? Look at the full list:
http://sport.virgilio.it/calcio/serie-a/statistiche/squadre/passaggi-utili.html
Up until this year, ALWAYS, Juve were in the middle of the list. Always between 9-13 place. We were never a passing team. We were a hit and run team and these tactics were successful in Capello's time, ok but not as successful in Ranieri's time (due to the poorer quality of the players).
This year we're third, right behind Milan and Inter.
In these last years it was always Milan-Roma-Inter and Juve had thousands and thousands of passes less than these three teams.
Now something's changed. We pass the ball much more than we did. We're not very good at it though so most of these passes are useless, so we suffer.
Now look at Sampdoria. Third from behind and yet 2nd on the table.
Sampdoria play exactly the same way Juve used to play in the past. Strong defense, long balls from their half to Cassano, and Cassano's job is to do the rest with Pazzini in front of him and Mannini coming from behind.
There is no reason not to expect the same on this match. Sampdoria will let us have the possession and they will hit us on counters. You can bet on this.
So those who say that marking Cassano will be the key for this game are right. Lets not make fun of what they say because they are indeed right.
Samp won't take the initiative, won't have the possession. They will simply play their game and their game is defend+long ball to Cassano on counter+Cassano to do something out of nothing.
If we stop Cassano, even man mark him, we'll take their main weapon away from them. If we intercept those long passes and stop Cassano from receiving the ball, we'll do half of the job and we can keep pushing them into their own box, and score goals eventually. If we score one first, then Sampdoria will not be able to play their game. Knowing Ferrara we'll let them have more of the ball, and Sampdoria are not good at this.
Then we can beat them with their own weapon. We can be the ones who'll kill them on counters. But we'll need more than Diego to do this. We'll need Giovinco.