It’s hard to think of a more frustrating game than what played out on Saturday at the Allianz Stadium.
Juventus dominated Lecce from start to finish, but failed to follow through on it. They couldn’t score
the goals that their dominance warranted, and a single solitary mistake led to them having to chase the game. They equalized quickly, but they could never get ahead, even wasting a penalty kick in one of the worst ways imaginable.
The game’s result obscured the fact that Juve showed a lot of improvements in this game. They played quicker, they were more willing to play the ball into dangerous areas, and completely suffocated Lecce, sealing them in their own half and recovering the ball quickly almost every time they lost it. It was the kind of display we’ve been hoping for for a long time—except for the lack of goals.
How did the players fare in this frustrating contest? Let’s take a look.
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – NR. He can’t be at fault for the goal, having been completely left out to dry, but it’s hard to justify giving him a rating when he touched the ball nine times. Nine times. That’s a mind-boggling number.
PIERRE KALULU – 6. Completed 95.3 percent of his passes and was constantly up helping out with the attack. Excellent job as a full-back for the first time in a while.
BREMER – 6. Did well to snuff out any potential counters, and kept Lecce’s strikers completely quiet.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. Pushed up to help the attacking left a lot, and won six aerial balls.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. His error was horrific. You learn not to make that kind of pass by the time you’re 10. It was even more disappointing because up to that point Cambiaso had been having a pretty good game. He’d forced a fingertip save out of Wladimiro Falcone and really should’ve scored from another shot after getting free at the far post. He made six tackles as part of the effort to keep Lecce pinned back, and made a key pass as well. But it was all a waste after a mistake like that.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6.5. Came incredibly close to scoring in the first half off Cambiaso’s layoff, firing inches wide with a first-time screamer. He had two key passes, completed seven of 10 long balls, and both of his through passes, including a glorious ball to Edon Zhegrova to trigger the play that ended with the equalizer.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 6. Made five tackles and completed 92.5 percent of his passes, but was curiously absent from most of the action in the box, making only one shot.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5.5. Had a pair of key passes but didn’t cause as much trouble as you would’ve expected, especially given so many chances on the ball (he had 48 touches in only 45 minutes). Hopefully being subbed out at halftime had nothing to to with aggravating his injury.
WESTON McKENNIE – 7. Played quite well in the trequartista role, which is a little bit of a surprise because he had struggled when put there last season by Thiago Motta. Luciano Spalletti is clearly asking him to do something different, and it worked today. He had three key passes and was ready when Kenan Yildiz’s shot was deflected to him at the top of the six.
KENAN YILDIZ – 7. Seeing a forward who makes 106 touches is rather incredible. He made good use of them, contributing an insane 10 successful dribbles and four key passes. The fact that none of the six shots he took were on target is a misleading number—he had a few blocked that would’ve at least made Falcone work, and that last-gasp shot that bonked the post…man, that looked like it was going in, didn’t it?
JONATHAN DAVID – 5. We’ll get the big one out of the way first: that penalty was abominable. I don’t necessarily hate the idea of having him take it, but for a man who’s confidence is at a point where he second guesses how to brush his teeth, to choose to do something fancy like that was a poor one. It reminds me of an old saying about a baseball pitcher who’s struggling: he’s aiming, not throwing. He would’ve been much better off picking a side and smashing it. Aside from that, David’s day was defined by bad luck as much as anything. He had an early shot that was saved, then rolled along the goal line off the post and back to the keeper without going over, and Falcone made a fantastic save of a powerful shot with less than two minutes left. This man needs Leonardo Bonucci’s old mental coach.
SUBS
EDON ZHEGROVA – 6. Didn’t directly contribute to any goal chances, but his dribbling pulled defenders out of position and leaving room for others to exploit.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5.5. Had a key pass but didn’t really look like he made the team any more dangerous.
FILIP KOSTIC – 6. Came very close to scoring and set David up for the late shot that Falcone managed to save. He had 46 touches in 22 minutes, which feels insane.
LOÏS OPENDA – NR. Only touched the ball eight times and missed an open goal on the rebound of Yildiz’s shot in stoppage time. It should’ve won the game. If he’d qualified by minutes for a number grade, it would’ve been low indeed.
VASILIJE ADZIC – NR. Perhaps this more than anything shows how dominant Juve was. He touched the ball 16 times in eight minutes on the field. Completed all 11 of his passes but didn’t cause much direct threat.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
There’s been a lot of discussions about Spalletti and the choice of penalty taker. It seemed pretty clear to me that sending David to the spot was a collective decision on the field as opposed to something on the sideline. Spalletti was clearly OK with it—David has taken penalties for Lille and for Canada before. Like I said before, I’m not particularly bothered by the decision, or about letting the players make the call on the field, as it can be a very good man-management tactic, but clearly it didn’t come good this time.
Obscured by the penalty miss and the result in general was the fact that Spalletti had finally shifted Juventus into a four-man defense. The 4-2-3-1 that he put out was incredibly successful. Juve dominated the entire game, save for a three-minute period right after halftime. I will say that moving Yildiz out wide instead of closer to goal isn’t ideal in my eyes, but he had a fantastic game anyway.
The question now will be how to sustain the improvement this switch made. McKennie played well in the trequartista position, but he’s struggled there before, so it will be interesting to see whether Spalletti’s style will suit him there better. Depth up front is also going to be a question. There’s obviously some play at the striker position—especially once Dusan Vlahovic returns—but the trequartista spot doesn’t have as obvious a backup, and it’s harder to see who would play on the left wing. Adzic could play in the hole, as could Fabio Miretti, but the wing spot is a different thing entirely. It might be a question to answer in the January transfer window, but finances will be tight this month.
These are all questions that Spalletti will have to answer in the coming days. For now, the indications are that this could be a big step in the right direction.
LOOKING AHEAD
Midweek games make their return in earnest starting this week. Juve finish the andata with a trip to play Sassuolo on Tuesday. Then they get a few more longer layoffs, with Cremonese coming to Juve on the following Monday, and a trip to Cagliari the Saturday after that, after which Champions League play resumes.
