The onus is always on the chasing team when involved in a late-season race for table positioning. They need to keep winning games in order to put pressure on the team they’re pursuing, and any slip-ups can see the gap between the two teams widen at inopportune times.
Juventus are in that unenviable position right now, and they allowed a monkey wrench to be thrown into their race for the top four on Saturday, when they dropped points against Sassuolo, drawing 1-1 despite—stop me if you’ve heard this
one before—allowing a single shot on target.
Poor finishing, including an absolutely awful penalty in the dying minutes of the game, was again the culprit. While it has to be said that Sassuolo goalkeeper Arijanet Muric made a couple of impressive saves, especially in the second half, Juve’s superiority in the match—they had nearly two-thirds of the possession and outshot Sassuolo more than two to one—should’ve seen them get the goals they needed to pull away. And then there was that penalty.
The result gave themselves a much tougher road to overtake Como for Champions League qualification with eight games to go.
How did everyone on the field fare? Let’s take a closer look.
MATTIA PERIN – 5.5. Unpopular opinion, but Perin should’ve done better when Andrea Pinamonti scored Sassuolo’s equalizer. Given the direction of Pinamonti’s run, there was really only one direction he could’ve taken his shot, which I thought Perin should’ve anticipated. Instead he was completely flat-footed and barely moved. He may not have gotten to the ball, but he could’ve—should’ve—given himself a better chance. It’s a shame, because up to that point he had one of the highlights of the game when he claimed a corner and fired a quick punt upfield into the path of Francisco Concieção to set up Juve’s goal. I’m still not 100 percent convinced that he’s a serious upgrade over Michele Di Gregorio, even considering Di Gregorio’s poor run of form.
PIERRE KALULU – 7. Did some excellent work today, making four tackles and adding in two key passes and 92.3 percent pass completion. Unfortunate not to score at the end of the first half, bending a shot just beyond the far post. A typical high-level performance.
BREMER – 5. Despite my criticism of Perin, Bremer’s marking on Pinamonti’s goal was remarkably poor, and was certainly the main factor in conceding the goal. He’s looked uncharacteristically shaky in recent weeks, which is the last thing Juve needs. He has to pick up his game over the last eight weeks of the season.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. A pretty good day in defense for the Englishman. Juve’s domination of possession meant there wasn’t much in the way of counting stats to rack up, but he was solid when he needed to be and moved forward to join the attack whenever he could.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. Basically a non-factor out of the left-back spot today. Hard to tell if his frustration after being subbed off was at Luciano Spalletti for taking him off or at himself for a poor display, but if he had any self-awareness it would be the latter.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5. Most of his time on the field was pretty good. He forced Muric into a good save early in the game and led the team with five tackles, also making a pair of key passes. But a penalty miss like that limits the upper reaches of what a player’s grade can be. Last year with the top four on the line he was nails, today he completely overthought his penalty and got cute instead of just hitting the damn thing.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 7. Made a fantastic run to assist Juve’s opener on a lightning-fast counterattack, and was a force in the first half especially. He led the team with four dribbles and four key passes—the latter number a huge deal given the compact winger’s tendency to put his head down and charge when he’s got the ball at his feet. Weirdly, all three of his shot attempts were blocked. Did lose steam in the second half, but that’s to be expected after working so dang hard.
WESTON McKENNIE – 6. Made a pair of key passes and ran like an unhinged distance racer, covering almost every blade of grass on the pitch. Could’ve perhaps been a bit tighter with things in some areas but overall another solid game.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 6. Tied Locatelli for the team lead in tackles and was incredibly impressive given he was only on the field after a late fitness test on his ankle. Made some of the really powerful runs through the middle that define him when he’s at his best.
KENAN YILDIZ – 7. His goal was fantastic, a powerful low shot that beat Muric at his closer post, and he added in a pair of key passes, including a late cross that saw Arkadiusz Milik denied a winner by an excellent Muric save.
JÉRÉMIE BOGA – 6.5. Had three key passes and found the target with two of three shots, including a point-blank header at the far post midway through the second half that by some black magic Muric kept out.
SUBS
FABIO MIRETTI – 5. Didn’t make much impact creatively. Needs to have more of an impact off the bench.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5.5. Had a shot blocked shortly after coming on and blocked one himself in stoppage time, but could’ve had more influence on things.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC – NR. Touched the ball only twice but wasn’t as anonymous as that suggests—he was in good positions a few times only to have Sassuolo’s defense scramble a delivery away while he was lurking in good position. Agonizingly close to getting the rebound on Milik’s late header but couldn’t get his leg around in time.
ARKADIUSZ MILIK – NR. In his first game in 22 months he came tantalizingly close to winning it when he glanced a header down to the far post, but Muric clawed it away with one hand. What a story that would’ve been.
EDON ZHEGROVA – NR. An emergency throw-on after the missed penalty, he lofted in a couple of decent crosses that were well defended by Sassuolo’s defense with a target lurking in behind.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
With Vlahovic and Milik both on serious minutes limits and Jonathan David and Loïs Openda firmly in the doghouse, continuing the strikerless system that had done well against Pisa and Udinese was the right move by Spalletti. It wasn’t a mistake by any means, given the way the game flowed and the way Juve created chances, especially in the first half. It was simply a matter of finishing, which isn’t really something Spalletti can control beyond figuring out how to drill them down on it in training.
It’s pretty obvious that Spalletti’s confidence in David and Openda is completely shot. The two were glued to the bench while two strikers who haven’t played in four and 22 months, respectively, were given the responsibility of getting the goal that Juve needed was a huge red mark on their tenures at Juve, neither of which seems to be much longer for this world.
It’ll be interesting to see how Spalletti integrates Vlahovic and Milik into things as the season enters the home stretch. If either of them can give Juve the finishing edge they’ve lacked in recent weeks, it will be a huge boon, but it will be vital to do it in the right way. Yildiz and Boga seem undroppable right now, which means that one of them will have to kick inside as more of a CAM behind the striker at the expense of either McKennie or Conceiçã0, both of whom have been playing decently in recent weeks too. Could a return to a 3-4-2-1, with Boga and Yildiz behind the striker, McKennie at right wing-back, and Kalulu playing as the right-sided center-back with license to push forward in support, be the way to go? It would relegate Conceição to a supersub role, but there are certainly worse ideas than unleashing him on a tired defense later in the game.
With Como up three points after pounding Pisa 5-0 in Sunday’s lunchtime kickoff and holding the head-to-head tiebreaker (and Roma lurking just behind them) Juve can’t afford more mistakes like today. Both teams have games remaining where dropping points wouldn’t be a shock, but Juve have to get as many points as they can in order to overhaul their lakeside rivals and get themselves back into the Champions League, and Spalletti needs to optimize them to score as much as possible to make that a reality.
LOOKING AHEAD
It’s time for the international break, which will bring its own brand of agita for Italians as the Azzurri look to navigate the World Cup qualification playoffs.
If we all haven’t had a coronary by then, Juve’s next game is a home match against Genoa on April 6, followed by a tricky three-match set against Atalanta (away), Bologna (home), and AC Milan (away). In their first league matches of the year Juve drew with Atlanta (1-1) and Milan (0-0) and beat Bologna 1-0. They also lost 3-0 to Atalanta in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal in a weird game that saw Juve control the game but fail to score, while Atalanta were clinical with all of their chances. Como’s first four games out of the break will see them face Udinese (away), Inter (home), Sassuolo, and Genoa (both away), with a Coppa semifinal against Inter thrown in between the latter two.
