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[red]

Plenty of good things, with a mix of the usual failings.

Juve played at a good tempo in the first half and kept the pitch nice and big with the wingbacks playing really high up and Giaccherini moving very well.

That allowed Juve to get into any number of dangerous situations, but the decision making and/or final ball was consistently poor when in good positions. It should also be said that the forwards did not make a good job of getting into goal-scoring positions when Juve created dangerous situations.

For all Juve's dominance, it was hard to see where the goal was going to come from. A special goal like that really shouldn't be needed to get the break-through in a game you are dominating to that extent.

Then Juve still managed to give Udinese a chance to get back into the game in the second half. Despite Juve having the lead, they still left the wingbacks really high up the pitch. That - combined with Pogba getting out of position - allowed Udinese a four on three attack, which should never happen, and certainly not when you are ahead.

Thought Udinese's tactics were a bit odd. It looked like they (not unreasonably) thought Juve could be vulnerable and wanted to get their midfield pressing quite high up. However, they didn't have the balls to get their defence to follow the midfield up the pitch in order to really squeeze the game, so Juve were consistently able to find space between the Udinese defence and midfield.

[Bagg10]

I thought today's result had more to do with how poor Udinese was playing rather than how well we played.

I guess I've gotten used to us pegging the opponents back and playing mostly on their half, although today we did it without Pirlo or Marchisio. I think this is really a testament to how good a manager Conte. He's installed a system and style of play that focuses on team play and not individual talent. That being said, the team is clearly more efficient when our best 11 is out on the pitch.

A lot of credit also has to be given to Marotta (and whoever else helps make transfer market decisions) for making this team as deep as it is. A year or two ago, if a couple players were injured, it would mean the end of the season for us. Today we played without Pirlo, Marchisio, Asamoah, and Chiellini; and we still got the job done. It also allows our players to take their time to fully heal before stepping back on the pitch.

Overall, nothing to complain about at the moment. Big game against Lazio this Tuesday.

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Udinese were dreadful.

There are only two players who Juve don't really have replacements for in the squad: Vucinic and Bonucci.

Looking forward to the Lazio game. Really like how they play. Thought the game against them in Turin was one of Juve's best performances of the season, and they could still only create a couple of clear chances.

[Bagg10]

[Bagg10]

Monday January 21 2013

Conte to ‘invent’ Juventus attack
By Football Italia staff

http://www.football-italia.net/29747/co ... tus-attack

Juventus boss Antonio Conte faces a striker shortage ahead of Tuesday’s Coppa Italia semi-final against Lazio.

Sebastian Giovinco and Nicklas Bendtner are injured for the first leg clash, Fabio Quagliarella is banned and Mirko Vucinic may not be risked from the first minute after recent fitness issues.

“We’ll have to evaluate Vucinic,” Conte stated on Monday. “He played 90 intense minutes at the weekend after a period in which we had to preserve him because of his ankle.

“I’ll need to speak to Vucinic, but I have to evaluate everything. I don’t want him to get injured again, I want to be cautious.

“We’ll have to carefully consider whether to give him another 90 minutes, especially as we only have one striker left in Alessandro Matri.

“Matri will play tomorrow as Giovinco will almost certainly not be at my disposal. Matri came on in the second half against Udinese and did well. I'm impressed by his desire to improve.

“There are other players who can be used as a striker with Matri or as a trequartista. I'm not yet able to say who will play, I'll have to deploy someone out of their natural position.”

Conte will also be without midfield creator Andrea Pirlo again after the latter also missed the 4-0 win over Udinese.

“Pirlo won’t play, that’s for certain,” he added. “However, Claudio Marchisio should return.”

The tactician confirmed that January signing Federico Peluso would be in his starting XI at the Juventus Stadium.

“I thought Peluso played well against Sampdoria [on his debut]. He’ll play tomorrow, but I don’t know yet in what role – in defence or on the left of midfield.”

Lazio frustrated Juventus in Serie A earlier this season and the tactician has respect for the side who are joint-second in the championship – just five points adrift of the Old Lady.

“I expect a tough Lazio, one who will look to not give us a lot of space and hit us on the counter,” Conte added.

“They have excellent players, ones of class and experience. They’ll fight until the end in the championship and they’ll do well in Europe too.

“Lazio will be strong, compact and well-organised. They have consolidated the good foundations established by Edy Reja.”

Conte then cut-short any questions about the January transfer window. “We're playing in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia. I'm focused solely on the game for the time being, not the transfer market.”

[Bagg10]

I think Giach is the obvious choice to partner Matri. If not, maybe Beltrame.

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Yeah, I'm expecting it to be Giaccherini.

Expecting the team to be something along the lines of: Storari; Barzagli, Bonucci, Caceres; Isla, Pogba, Marrone, Marchisio, Peluso; Matri, Giaccherini

Only change I'd guess to that would be Padoin at LWB and Peluso playing instead of one of the CBs.

Klose hasn't been included in the Lazio squad.

[Bagg10]

Marchisio is back? And no Vidal? I can see him starting Marrone and giving Barzagli a rest.

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Conte said Marchisio should be back.

Think Vidal has been playing despite not really being fit recently, so would expect him to be given a break.

I also forgot about the existence of De Ceglie. Must be a sporting chance he'll feature.

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Sky is predicting:

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Lots of stuff suggesting that Marchisio will play trequartista with Giaccherini in midfield, which would be interesting.

Sounds like Lazio are going to play the strongest team they can.

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Not a bad performance overall.

No space whatsoever in the midfield with both teams playing 3-5-1-1, so playing through the middle was pretty well impossible for both sides.

Juve engineered a couple of good situations with Isla early on and I thought they could have tried harder to get down that side throughout the game. Nothing doing on the left, though, which made it even harder for Juve to find space.

Conte clearly told Juve to play longer in the second half to try and stretch things out and that worked well - forcing Lazio deeper and opening a little space between their defence and midfield.

Once Juve got the goal and Lazio brought Candreva on for Ledesma, the game really opened up and Juve played a burst of very good football that should have resulted in another couple of goals and the tie being over before the second game.

As much as I dislike goals being conceded from set-pieces, that was a tough one to avoid: Vucinic has to go for the ball, even though he's not sure he can reach it, and it's very difficult for De Ceglie to stay in control of the situation against Mauri after the ball is flicked on like that. Ideally, Matri, who was just behind Vucinic, would have given him a shout to leave the corner for him to clear, but that's a tough call to make.

It's not like Juve concede a lot of goals from set-pieces, so that not really an issue - unlike the continuing failure to take the chances to make a game safe.

[Bagg10]

I thought it wad poor marking for de ceglie. You always keep your eye on the player not the ball.

Not a bad result considering all the injuties, but we should've scored the second goal.

Second leg should be exciting.

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Yeah, looking forward to the second game.

You would have looked for De Ceglie to either block Mauri properly or to go and try to clear the ball.

[Bagg10]

Once again we failed to score the second goal to put the game away.
Should've had a couple penalties, though.

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Tough to do anything in the first half as Genoa did well to keep things tight - mostly due to Granqvist doing a good job of stepping forward to make sure Vucinic didn't have the time to turn and make passes.

Genoa then dropped deeper in the second half for some reason, so Juve were able to find space between their defence and midfield more easily.

Still, Juve didn't create very much. They are ridiculously reliant on Vucinic for creativity just now and, while he's playing reasonably enough, he's not the sort of player you want to be particularly reliant on. There was no sign of anyone else in the team doing anything incisive.

The midfield was terribly static for most of the game. It may not be possible to get in behind a deep defence with a single run, but Juve used to be really good at getting multiple runners in order to open up the space for a midfielder to dart forward and find space in the box.

Juve need to stop using De Ceglie as anything other than an absolute last resort. He is just too harmful defensively. Fuck knows how he managed to get himself so far away from Kucka without Kucka really doing anything.

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Seems it wasn't a penalty because the ref didn't feel like giving it, despite the assistant behind the goal telling him it was a penalty:

http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Squadre/J ... 6857.shtml

[Bagg10]

[RomaShield27]

Conti is pathetic. A manager should know better. No class, no dignity. Typical of the club he is at, really.

[juventino_italiano]