We have a lot of problems in our club/team, but from a tactical point of view I think our problems are:
1- THE HUGE number of injured players.
2- We are switching from one formation/strategy to another before adapting to the first. 4-3-1-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1, 3-4-1-2.
3- We usually play with TWO DMs and 1 CM and 1 AM. Thats too defensive. Thats fine if we want to defend, but when you ask those players to create and attack things go wrong. They start doing things they do not know how to do well. Being stressed on trying to do them, they stop defending well. Sissoko is a DM, how many times have we seen him in the box or running on the sides?? He is not that kind of player.
4- Playing with a lone striker up front. With our shaky midfield, reducing the number of forwards just puts added pressure and stress to the midfield and defense. We start to loose possession easily, we don't have enough players up @ the opponents area, and it gives the opponent a chance to push forward with everything they've got.
5- Why didn't the "new age" "three dimensional" "entertaining" 4-3-1-2 or 4-2-3-1?? The answer is simple, to make these formation proper the "3" in the former should have more creative ability and crossing capabilities, in addition the Full backs have to be really good. While the "3" in the latter should know how to move around the field properly and alternate places. It also depend on having a proper DMs who know how to pass the ball and hold possession. With Melo's up and down performances and Sissoko's zero ability to "maintain" possession 4-2-3-1 did not work.
6- Why did the boring, 2 dimensional 4-4-2 work better with us. With our "average" full backs, having two dedicated wingers (side midfielders) helped alot. We never played with more than 2 DM/CM, so we always had at least 4 attacking players (2 wingers and 2 forwards). We stuck with this formation for a decent time that the players knew exactly what to do and when to do it. The boring 2 dimensional 4-4-2 was always switching for that to 4-4-1-1 with Del Piero dropping back to help with the setup. In addition, the side midfielders used to drift inwards when Del Piero pushes outwards. These small things are what gave us abit of more creativity in the past.
7- I know many of you might jump on me on this one, but tactically speaking, selling Marcchionni was a shot on the foot. Its not that Marco is such a great player, but last season he played more games than camoranesi for a simple reason that Camo was injured. Selling him without buying an alternative was simply stupid. Thats why getting Candreva was a good move.
8- Melo for Zanetti. This was not a bad in theory. Melo was a promising signing while injury prone Zanetti was not getting younger. Tactically speaking, this left us with only one CM in our squad, i.e. Marchisio (Tiago doesn't count). When Marchisio gets injured we do not have a replacement.
9- Lack of offensive midfielders: Last year we had Nedved, Camoranesi, Marcchionni. This season we have Camoranesi and Deigo.
10- Lack of CBs: We only have 3 CBs in our team, although we should always have 4. If two CBs are injured/suspended we are left with one (The fulham game).
11- Lack of stability in the team. Every since the Calciopoli, Juventus was supposed to go through a rebuild. You really cannot do that when you do not have a stable management. We are changing coaches like sox. Deschamps, an interim coach, Ranieri, Ferrara and Zaccharoni. 5 coaches between August 2006 and January 2010.. 5 coaches in 3.5 years. The only time during these almost 4 years that we have seen improvement was the period under Ranieri, and thats not because he's such an amazing coach, but simply because the team was more or less stable with one coach for two years. First term we got 3rd and CL position, second term we got the knock out stage in the CL (got barely knocked out by Chelsea) and finished 2nd in the league.
In order for us to achieve better results next season, the above points must be addressed seriously.