It was a must-win game on Saturday when Juventus visited Udinese. Well, they all feel like must wins in a race for the top four this late in the season, but this one more than most. With the two teams immediately ahead of them, Roma and Como, playing each other on Sunday, getting three points was vital to take advantage of a scenario in which one or both was certain to drop points.
After a mostly drab first half that saw Juve in control of an Udinese side that simply didn’t look like they wanted to
come out to play, the Bianconeri finally got themselves in front after Luciano Spalletti made a quick position swap in his false nine setup. What followed for the next 50 minutes or so of game time saw Juve remain in command, but they couldn’t quite get themselves the goal that would put things away. There were a whole slew of reasons why—poor finishing, poor officiating, and some outstanding work by Udinese’s defenders (occasionally) and goalkeeper (far more often).
Fortunately, Udinese’s seeming apathy toward attacking left them in firm control, and there was never anything more than a background baseline of real stress that the home side would find their way back into the match. The final 1-0 scoreline wasn’t exactly representative of how the game went—but it was enough to put the pressure on the teams above them heading into their head-to-head showdown.
Who stood out on the night? Let’s take a closer look.
MATTIA PERIN – 6. Had very little to do, and what did come his way was easily dealt with. Perhaps the most notable moment came in stoppage time when Perin dashed off his line to beat Nicolò Zaniolo to a flicked header, showing that he’s learned the lesson of his poor performance against Roma, where he stayed glued to his line.
PIERRE KALULU – 6. Had a relatively uneventful day defensively. His offensive contribution won’t register on the stat sheet but was still quite good. He sent in a couple of nice crosses that were either defended away or fractions of an inch off target.
BREMER – 6.5. Led the team in interceptions and clearances (three apiece) and kept Keinan Davis pretty darn quiet all night long.
LLOYD KELLY – 7. Kept Zaniolo quiet for all but a few brief moments, but his showcase today was his passing game. He dropped a couple of beautiful balls beyond the defense for Jérémie Boga to chase down, taking full advantage of Udinese’s seeming inability to deal with those balls all night. Co-led the team with four tackles as well.
WESTON McKENNIE – 6.5. Matched Kelly with four tackles and had a great day going forward, helping the front three discombobulate the Udinese back line. He finished with two key passes, and while he didn’t register a shot, that was in large part down to the reactions of his markers, because he was in excellent position to make a play on a cross multiple times, only to see the ball poked away from him at the last moment.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 7.5. Dropped some excellent long passes, going nine for 12 overall in that category, and causing a ton of danger with them. He was also denied a goal by a pretty great save from Maduka Okoye.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Looked a little bit off the pace for a lot of the game, finishing less than three-quarters of his passes. The fact that he was dealing with a knock made some things a bit clearer.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 6. Another pretty decent match for the embattled wing-back. Completed 94.2 percent of his passes, had a shot saved, and was generally untroubled defensively.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 6.5. Unfairly deprived of a goal by a poor VAR decision, he also racked up a pair of key passes and actually looked up to see what was going on with his teammates more than usual. A performance to build on.
JÉRÉMIE BOGA – 8. Tormented Udinese’s defense, consistently piercing their line to latch on to long balls. He was on target with four of his five shots, and the run he made for his goal was perfect, staying just behind his marker to give Kenan Yildiz a perfect target for his pass.
KENAN YILDIZ – 8. Should’ve had three assists today but had to settle for one. He had more key passes (6) than Udinese did as a team (5), and led the team in dribbles as well with three. He was clearly unlocked by the decision to swap him and Boga late in the first half, a decision that gave him a bit more room to operate. I still maintain that Yildiz belongs in the middle of the field more so than out wide, but that should be as a trequartista, where he has a striker and runners from the midfield to spread the defense’s attention, as opposed to a false nine that’s going to be the first man on the defense’s list.
SUBS
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 6. Solid enough in relief of an ailing Thuram. Could’ve had a goal but Boga’s cross forced him to back up ever so slightly and he got under it.
FABIO MIRETTI – NR. Should’ve scored late, but went for placement instead of power and presented Okoye with an easier save. Only hit the target with one shot in three.
FEDERICO GATTI – NR. Made a good interception or two late as Udinese tried to suddenly wake up late on.
JONATHAN DAVID – NR. A mighty fall from his January peak, he was on in mop-up duty during stoppage time.
FILIP KOSTIC – NR. Another mop-up move.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Spalletti stayed with what had worked in Turin last week against Pisa, benching the scuffling David for a false-nine setup. As noted, the change he made late in the first half in swapping Yildiz and Boga worked wonders to give his No. 10 some space to orchestrate, and once he got that space, he did how Yildiz do.
It remains to be seen whether the room that Juve’s attackers had to get behind Udinese was a product of Udinese defending poorly—seeing that much room in behind a team that has no intention of attacking is rare—or if the false nine forced them into playing a little higher up because there was no traditional striker to fall into the box with. It’s definitely worth finding out, especially with Juve’s next two games being against more provincial sides. Of course, the imminent return of Dusan Vlahovic is going to have an impact on how much that false nine is played in the coming weeks, but it’s worth testing whether or not it becomes a consistent opportunity to generate offense.
LOOKING AHEAD
There’s only one game before the international break, a home match with Sassuolo. Then after the World Cup playoffs (silently implores the gods to intervene on Italy’s behalf) the reason restarts with another home game, this one against Genoa.
