Team Focus: Desperate and Wayward Shots Summing Up Juventus' Season
La Stampa defined it a “golden opportunity.” “If we win,” insisted Max Allegri, “it will be decisive.” Overcome a resurgent Borussia Mönchengladbach in Turin and Juventus would be on maximum points and have a foot in the knock-out stages with a genuine chance of winning the Group of Death. Alas on Wednesday night, Allegri was made to lament “throwing it to the wind.” A 0-0 in the Derby d’Italia at the weekend was followed up by another as Juventus once again huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the haus down.
For a brief moment in his post-match press conference, Allegri drew on the positives. His team had put together back-to-back clean sheets for the first time since April 22. Captain Gigi Buffon went untroubled and has now played more minutes (48,884) than any other Juventus player in the club’s history. Andrea Barzagli gave another masterclass in defending and was voted Man of the Match, just as he was against Inter on Sunday. The return of Claudio Marchisio has restored balance and order to the team. Juventus are beginning to manage games better.
Those costly and uncharacteristic individual errors that compromised other results earlier this season have, for now, been ironed out of their play when out of possession. So too has the bad habit and bad luck of conceding from their opponent’s first and sometimes only attempt. Incidentally only Fiorentina have faced fewer shots on target (20) than Juventus (21) in Serie A this season.
On Wednesday, last season’s Champions League runners’ up gave Gladbach little. All the visitors could muster at the J Stadium were five shots, none of which hit the mark. And yet the prevailing emotion Allegri felt wasn’t one of satisfaction. It was frustration and disappointment. “I’m really angry,” he vented. Juventus had no fewer than 22 attempts. However, only twice was Yann Sommer, the Gladbach goalkeeper, forced to make a save. Allegri had made a couple of changes to the team involved in the stalemate at ‘San Zero’. Both were conceived to make Juventus less predictable and more dangerous.
Of all their players this season, the one to really spark their play into life and break a game open has been Juan Cuadrado. In acknowledgement Juventus have started to look to him more and more. Perhaps too much. Against Inter 51% of their attacks were launched down his side. They lacked balance. Patrice Evra couldn’t, nor should be expected to replicate the same dynamic on the left. He’s 34, a full-back, not a winger and while he might get to the byline every now and again, doesn’t offer the same threat as Cuadrado. After playing 798 minutes, a rest was maybe overdue too.
The competitor for his place, Alex Sandro, a €26m signing from Porto, had by contrast clocked up only 195 minutes. Fresher, more energetic and attack-minded he was awarded only his third start since moving to Italy, the first Juventus’ 1-1 draw with Frosinone a month ago when he created nine chances and made 18 crosses into the box. Mario Mandzukic was selected presumably to get on the end of them. Back on his Serie A debut, a 1-0 defeat at home to Udinese, his teammates crossed the ball 43 times, the highest tally by Juventus in more than two years.
It highlights a change in emphasis from last season when one of the reasons Fernando Llorente faded was because his team were no longer whipping them in at quite the rate they were in his first campaign. Only Lazio (221) have made more crosses than Juventus (203) this term, although those made by the champions are the most accurate at 31%. Back from a muscle injury - Juventus have suffered 11 already this season - Mandzukic made a 20-minute cameo against Inter and was evidently still lacking match fitness against Gladbach.
There was little understanding and chemistry between him and Alvaro Morata. Neither were as effective as they had been in the impressive 2-1 win away to Manchester City when Juventus had played a different system. On that occasion they had lined up in a 4-3-3 with Morata out-wide. This time it was closer to a 4-4-2 and, while they didn’t exactly step on each other’s toes, being closer together raised some issues.
Morata had scored in each of his last five Champions League games, matching the club recorded established by Alessandro Del Piero in the winter of 1995. Clearly wishing to extend his streak, there was one occasion when he shot instead of passing to the wide-open and better-placed Paul Pogba, provoking an exasperated reaction from his teammate. Pogba later did the same to both Morata and Mandzukic, mustering twice the number of shots as the entire away team in total (10).
This is what maddened Allegri: “the egoism,” “the decision of the final pass” and in other situations, “the quality of the final pass” or distinct lack of it. Juventus also had “three or four counter-attacks” in which mistakes in technique, a heavy touch here or too many touches there slowed things down, allowing Gladbach to re-organise and see out the danger.
Unable to carve them open and create anything clear-cut, Juve and Pogba in particular once again resorted to shooting from distance. This was a forte last season when Juventus scored 25 goals from outside the box in the league and Champions League combined, including five from the free-kicks taken by Andrea Pirlo and Carlos Tevez. This season, it looks desperate. Juventus have only scored one in Serie A, their conversion rate is 2.1%.
Responsible for Juventus’ two shots on target against Gladbach, one of which was a free-kick, the other an effort from outside the box in open play, Pogba is trying to make up for the shortfall in goals from midfield, where so many have come from over the last four years. Only Lorenzo Insigne (38) and Gonzalo Higuain (31) have had more shots than he has (29) this season in Serie A. Just seven have tested the goalkeeper.
It’s symbolic of Juventus’ season. No team has had more shots in Italy (152). No team has a worse shooting accuracy (26.3%). Allegri got all his weapons out on Wednesday. Morata, Mandzukic and Cuadrado started. Simone Zaza, Roberto Pereyra and Paulo Dybala came on. But the killer instinct wasn’t there.
Allegri has been criticised for not starting Dybala against Inter and Gladbach. La Gazzetta dello Sport even get the impression that he is blind to his talent. “Do you see Dybala or not, Allegri?” asked the front-page of the pink on Thursday. Juventus paid €32m for him and he has contrived to scored four goals even when the team has struggled.
Explaining his decision, Allegri argued that the player had done a lot of travelling over the international break, but Dybala only played 15 minutes for Argentina against Paraguay and should have recovered in time for Gladbach. Allegri is introducing him gradually like he did Morata a year ago, but back then he had Carlos Tevez to take care of business in the meantime. He doesn’t have that luxury now and besides, don’t the double figures in goals and assists that Dybala posted for Palermo last season indicate he is ready to make the difference in Serie A?
Juventus have scored only eight goals in nine games in Serie A. “If you want to win the Scudetto, you can't score so few,” Allegri said on Sunday night. You might say it’s finish or be finished in the title race.
What is the cause of Juventus' struggles in front of goal this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
