Not much can be said positively about Juventus’ 2-0 loss to Como on Sunday. Most of the players were unsatisfactory, and manager Igor Tudor has some questions to answer as well.
How did everyone fare? Here
are our rankings.
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6.
Made a few good saves and was generally in control of his area. He was completely betrayed by his defense, and there was nothing he could do to stop either of Como’s goals.PIERRE KALULU – 4.5. Had a key pass and two dribbles on his stat sheet in attack, but the way he lost Kempf on the opening goal was completely inexcusable—and it’s not the first time he’s done it this year.
DANIELE RUGANI – 5. Had a pair of tackles and as many interceptions, but his passing was dismal, failing to connect on nearly a quarter of his attempts and very nearly causing a nasty situation in the back with a late first-half giveaway.
LLOYD KELLY – 5.5. Wasn’t great in the back, but he led the team with five clearances and even registered a pair of dribbles out of the center-back spot.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. Got absolutely bamboozled by Paz on Como’s second goal. Paz has done that to a lot of players who can defend a lot better than Cambiaso, and will likely continue to do so for a very long time, but it was still tough to watch.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 6. Really not a bad performance on Sunday, which is a bit of a surprise given his current form and how poor everyone else was. Came very close to tying the score with a free kick, did well to get the ball and was a little unlucky to have defenders in the way of a couple of other shots from good positions. If only he’d been onside on that disallowed goal…
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5.5. Led the team in interceptions (3) and also had a pair of tackles. He was credited with one key pass, and his lofted ball for Koopmeiners on the disallowed goal was weighted perfectly. He just didn’t do that enough to create those kind of chances on a regular basis.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Quite wasteful in front of goal, missing the target with some decent chances. He did lead the team with three dribbles, but the energy that we’re used to seeing from him seemed to be diminshed.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5.5. Tried to make things happen off his wing, but too often put his head down and tried to get things done himself instead of looking for better-positioned teammates.
JONATHAN DAVID – 5.5. Was unlucky to have that goal called back—it would’ve done wonders for his confidence. He worked his ass off and took five fouls, two of which resulted in DFK opportunities, but he needs better service.
KENAN YILDIZ – 5.5. Looked awfully isolated on the left wing and wasn’t able to show his skills as much as would be liked. Even then he put out a few highlight-reel moments like that insane dribble between a double-team in the first half. But being on the left wing like that doesn’t exactly put him in a position to succeed (we’ll get to that in a minute).
Subs
DUSAN VLAHOVIC – NR. Found the target with a free kick and did what he could to push the attack, but by that point the game was well and duly wrapped up.
WESTON McKENNIE – NR. Honestly could’ve forgotten he’d been subbed in by the final whistle.
JOAO MARIO – NR. A throw of the dice to see if he could do something late, but never got into a position where he could create danger.
FILIP KOSTIC – NR. The hope was for him to pump some crosses in for Vlahovic, I assume?
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Whooo, boy, where do we start here?
Igor Tudor did a whole lot of things wrong in this game. It’s not accurate to say that the loss is on him—the players have to execute on the field, and they certainly didn’t. But Tudor’s decisions both pre-match and in-game presented some real head-scratchers.
First off was the formation. Given the mad howling of a lot of the Juve-sphere over switching to a three-man midfield, four-man defense, or both, it was encouraging to see that Tudor was at least willing to shuffle his deck a bit. Would he have done so without the injuries in the back? We’ll never really be able to say. But the formation he did pick was, in my opinion, a mistake.
Specifically, it was a mistake up front. We got used to seeing Kenan Yildiz playing on the left wing last year under Thiago Motta, but that’s never been the young Turk’s strongest position. Indeed, perhaps his two best matches under Motta were the first two of the season, when he was playing the trequartista in Motta’s 4-2-3-1. Yildiz played better football after Motta’s sacking and Tudor’s installation of him into one of the CAM spots in the 3-4-2-1.
That’s why I think it was a big mistake for Tudor to use a 4-3-3. Yildiz was often isolated on the left wing, allowing Como’s defense to double-team him and keep him from dangerous areas. Yildiz’s sheer brilliance dribbling helped a little bit, but for the most part, he was pushed out of the flow of the game for long stretches.
I think the attacking setup of two CAMs behind a sole striker is the right one for Yildiz to thrive in, as well as players like Vasilije Adzic and, when he gets healthy, Edon Zhegrova. Even Conceição has learned to handle the position far better than we thought he would, and Jonathan David and Loïs Openda can also drop into that line in a pinch.
If I’d been making the lineup, I would’ve gone to a 4-3-2-1. The Christmas tree is a personal favorite formation of mine, because you can get the strength of a midfield trio while maintaining flexibility up front, allowing a coach to mix and match traits in the CAM spots to best attack a given opponent.
It’s pretty much established at this point that Yildiz needs to be in the middle to maximize his abilities. A 4-3-2-1 will put him there, and if Tudor is to continue trying out a four-man line, I think that’s the formation he should go to.
But the biggest question for Tudor on Sunday was his use of substitutes. It feels unusual to be making this criticism, because Tudor has generally been good in this area. Usually, he hasn’t dawdled about making changes, which is why it was so surprising to see him wait until the 77th minute to make his first one. Como, by that point, had already used three of their five, one of which had come at the half to get a player carrying a card off the field. To leave it so late to make changes when you’ve been chasing the game for 73 minutes at that point doesn’t make any sense—especially so with players like Joao Mario, who could have given the team an attacking boost from the right back spot but didn’t come in until after Nico Paz had sealed the game.
Criticism of Tudor is, for this match, entirely warranted, and if he continues to perform like this, the rumors about his job might start to have a foundation.
