Juventus’ first match out of the international break was a severe disappointment. They created little, and while they prevented Fiorentina from creating a whole lot of anything in turn, a mistake from one of their most reliable players over the last season-and-a-half doomed them to yet another draw.
The 1-1 result was their third straight, and unlike the first two, there weren’t any silver linings to take away from it.
How did the players do? And could Luciano Spalletti have done any better? Let’s
look and find out.
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 5.5. Had absolutely no shot at Rolando Mandragora’s goal, and made the only other save he was force into, getting down to push away a shot from Moise Kean. So why is his rating this low? His distribution was awful, often sending the ball right back to Fiorentina or missing his target entirely and putting the ball out of play. Also uncharacteristically mishandled a cross in the second half, although he was able to quickly cover it.
PIERRE KALULU – 6. Led the team in tackles (4) and interceptions (2) and is starting to excel in the role that Alessandro Bastoni takes on at Inter, pushing up to support the attack from the back three. He had a key pass and a lot of his balls into the box looked better than Andrea Cambiaso’s.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. Forced into the middle of the back three by injuries and tactical decisions, Kelly was solid in the less familiar role, leading the team with seven clearances and limiting Kean’s strike partner Roberto Piccoli to only 13 touches in an hour’s worth of play.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5.5. His passing numbers looked good—he had a key pass and a 98.4 percent completion rate—but he was utterly incapable of matching up with Kean, who blew past him for pace every time. This is the big limitation on Spalletti’s new idea for him, and we’ll have to see how long he keeps it up if the better strikers the team faces continue to abuse him defensively.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. An awful day for him. He completed only 75 percent of his passes and never looked like creating any danger, despite at times roaming all over the field. His last few matches had looked promising, but this is a significant step backward.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6. Rock-solid in defense in the midfield, racking up five clearances and blocking a shot, while taking three of his own, including the shot that bounced off his own teammate for Kostic to finish.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5. Numbers were decent, but my god, what on earth was he doing with that header? Such a massive mistake on what should’ve been a simple play gifted Fiorentina the tying goal within five seconds.
FILIP KOSTIC – 6.5. Raise your hands if you thought Filip Kostic would be the highest-rated player in a game for Juventus this season back in August. OK, now put your hands down, you dirty liars. But man, did he play well today. Obviously the goal was a special shot, and he was also second on the team with three tackles. Likely came off for rest, given the fact he captained Serbia twice over the break.
WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Made a pair of key passes and was ever so close to putting Juve back on top late in the game, but his header was pushed over by De Gea. Still, the trequartista role isn’t the right one for him, as his passing range isn’t quite right for it.
KENAN YILDIZ – 5. Cut a frustrated figure out there today, as his teammates were almost entirely unable to get him the ball. He only touched it 13 times in the first half, and simply couldn’t get the most out of what touches he was able to get later on.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 5.5. His effort was great, his positioning actually quite good, and yes, he was completely jobbed out of a legitimate penalty, but dear God, man, you have to convert that one-on-one. The only reason he isn’t a flat five is that he did have three key passes to his name—including, hilariously, being given credit with the assist for Kostic’s goal after Locatelli’s shot banged off his back.
SUBS
FABIO MIRETTI – 6. His first touch resulted in a giveaway and a foul, but it went up from there. Made a pair of key passes and a couple of tackles in 25 minutes. Hopefully this is the start of a run that will solidify his place at the club.
JUAN CABAL – 5. Also gave the ball away with his first touch, but didn’t have the same kind of improvement. Only completed 62.5 percent of his passes and never looked like contributing.
FRANCISCO CONCEICAO – 6. Pushed things in the last 15 minutes of the game after he was introduced, and was much more interested in taking on his man than McKennie had been. His introduction shifted momentum in the late stages.
LOÏS OPENDA – NR. Was given no time to make an impact.
JONATHAN DAVID – NR. Like Openda, he simply didn’t have the time to make any sort of impact on the game.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Yeah, Spalletti made some mistakes today I think.
First and foremost were his substitutions. By the time he made his first change in the 65th minute, Paolo Vanoli had already made three. Given the dire straits Juve were in in the first 15 minutes of the second half, how there was no thought to an early change to shake things up is a bit of a mystery. When he did go to the bench, both his player selection and his timing was off. Sending Cabal in to the left wing-back spot was probably his only option given Kostic was probably gassed and Cambiaso was playing so poorly that he needed to come off as opposed to switching sides. But pushing McKennie to the right after Conceição came on as opposed to, say, the offensively-minded fullback/wingback he had on the bench in Joao Mario, wasn’t very helpful when the object was to change the result. Conceição’s own arrival also seemed a tad late given how many problems he had started giving the Fiorentina back line, and throwing on Openda and David with only two minutes of regulation remaining felt pointless. Unless one of them hit a golden BB with one of their first touches, there was no time for them to have any impact on the match at all.
As I mentioned before, McKennie isn’t really the greatest fit behind the striker, especially when you have players like Conceição and Edon Zhegrova available. It’s possible Zhegrova not getting into the game was a result of his snapping at some fans in the pregame warmup, something Spalletti took him to task for, but given what happened later with Vlahovic it wouldn’t surprise me if the crowd had used the Kosovo international as a warmup themselves.
But the big problem is going to be Koopmeiners. The experiment with him at the back has been intriguing, but we’ve always known that it was likely to be dicey against higher-level strikers than the ones Koopmeiners had encountered so far. Kean made that plain by routinely abusing him on the dribble, including the play where he hit the crossbar. Had Juve’s lead lasted longer, it probably would’ve become necessary to send Federico Gatti on in his place to protect things. Spalletti is going to have to think long and hard about how his passing out of the back balances out with his clear defensive deficiencies, especially against better teams.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juve’s next match sees them take a scenic trip to Norway….in November….yeah this trip to face Bodø/Glimt is not going to be fun, especially given must-win nature of the game at this stage of the league phase. After that, though, come winnable home games against Cagliari in the league and Udinese in the Coppa Italia before Spalletti’s sternest test yet: a trip to Campagna to face defending champions Napoli (barf).
