Wednesday was a strange one for Juventus. They entered the final game of the Champions League league phase with an outside chance at making it to the top eight, but also stood to lose some ground in the playoff draw should they lose. Do you go gung ho to win, or do you set the squad in cruise control and just make sure nothing bad happens?
It looked as though Luciano Spalletti tried to split the difference against Monaco. When the tangled web of circumstances actually giving Juve a window to the top
eight at halftime, he made some aggressive-looking substitutions, but the team never got itself out of second gear, even with more of their top players on the field. Ultimately, fate validated that approach, as other results cut off the opportunity for a top-eight finish, and Juve finished out a goalless draw, jumping themselves two places to finish in 13th.
That set them in a draw pod with Galatasaray and Tottenham Hotspur. More importantly, no one was injured or tipped over the suspension threshold ahead of the playoffs.
How did each player do on a bland day at the Stade Louis II? Let’s take a closer look.
MATTIA PERIN – 6. Dear God, man, what was going on with that turnover in the first minute? That could’ve completely changed the tenor of the match. Thankfully Maghnes Alikouche met the mistake with a high-level shank, and after that Perin didn’t have any more catastrophes, although his distribution wasn’t the greatest for the entire match. His work with his feet drags his performance significantly, but he made some good saves, especially his two against Vanderson.
PIERRE KALULU – 6. Solid defensively—Monaco was forced to start most of their attacks on their right with Alikouche and Vanderson—but wasn’t as effective in supporting the attack, despite picking up a key pass. There were times late that he looked seriously tired. It may be time to finally give him a rest.
BREMER – 6. Led the team with three clearances and blocked a shot, although he was beaten for pace a few times by Folarin Balogun down the middle, with Kalulu bailing him out a few times.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. Had a key pass and made a couple of important interventions on crosses. He did make a mistake or two passing while deep in his own half, but nothing came of it.
WESTON McKENNIE – 6.5. Had a game-high five tackles and led the team with a pair of interceptions while contributing a key pass on the other end. He too looked a little bit gassed by the end of the match.
TEUN KOOMPEINERS – 5. With Manuel Locatelli looking at a suspension if he was booked, Koopmeiners was given the opportunity to start in his place but didn’t exactly cover himself in glory. He was the only Juve player above 90 percent pass completion, but did next to nothing with them. Still such an awkward fit.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 6.5. Ran hard in midfield and at times seemed to be the only Juve player who managed to make it past second gear.
JUAN CABAL – 5.5. Made three tackles but completed less than three-quarters of his passes and didn’t influence the offensive side at all.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5.5. The only attacker with a key pass this evening, Chico still found hardly any dribbling room and never got himself into position to shoot, or really to make any crosses exciting.
FABIO MIRETTI – 5. Made one or two neat passes into the box that teammates couldn’t do anything with, but couldn’t elevate his game. Did co-lead the team in dribbles (2).
LOÏS OPENDA – 4. Completely flat. When Juve did get him into the box he could never get his feet right. It wasn’t that long ago that we thought he was rounding into form, but he’s nosedived since.
SUBS
KENAN YILDIZ – 5. Tried to put in a shift as a supersub, but just never had the influence he usually does.
VASILIJE ADZIC – 5. Had a pair of dribbles but also committed four fouls. Not very influential in the final third or in midfield.
EDON ZHEGROVA – 5. Apart from a wild stoppage time shot didn’t get anything moving.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. Kinda felt like an afterthought after he was introduced.
JONATHAN DAVID – NR. Didn’t get anything like decent service in his brief time on the pitch.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
It’s easy to get upset about a performance that was so aggressively meh, but ultimately I think Spalletti’s instructions to his charges was to not chase too hard after a win that, while nice, would ultimately mean little in the grand scheme of the rest of the table. Juve didn’t control their own destiny and needed six of a possible nine results to go their way in order to have a chance at finishing top eight, so not overexerting themselves, not getting injured or suspended, and not losing in a way that hurt their spot in the draw were the big success here.
I know I might be pressed on this analysis given my constant criticism of Max Allegri for coaching not to lose as opposed to coaching to win. It’s true, I do despise that particular breed of pragmatism, especially so because I under Allegri such thinking was the default as opposed to something taken on a game-by-game basis. Spalletti hasn’t shown any inclination to do that in most games, and this one had a specific situation that was the exception to that rule. This was good squad management on considering how congested the fixture list is going to be in the next few weeks. As much as you’d like to see them turned on and firing on all cylinders all the time, the players aren’t machines. A day to take it relatively easy is a good thing when that happens.
LOOKING AHEAD
Parma are next on the schedule in prime time on Sunday. Then Juve hit the road, traveling to Bergamo to face Atalanta in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal on Thursday and then another Sunday matchup against Lazio in Rome. A week after that comes one of the bigger games of the entire year: the second Derby d’Italia.
