Coming out of the international break, Juventus’ two games were characterized by two things: an attack that wasn’t producing enough quality consistently create danger, and late goals to secure a result — a draw in the case of Cagliari last week and a big victory on Thursday in the Europa League against Celta Vigo.
Sunday’s game against Lazio saw a whole lot of the former, and, unfortunately, very little of the latter. Unlike those first two games, Juve weren’t able to keep the game close enough to even
threaten a late comeback, as Lazio put on a course in clinical finishing, finding the net with all three of their shots on target while Juve flailed their way to just two, neither of which produced a particularly impressive save from Christos Mandas.
It was an ugly, ugly 3-0 loss that exposed just how badly this team needs improvement in almost all areas. That being said, how did everyone do during the debacle? Let’s take a closer look.
GUGLIELMO VICARIO – 5. I’ve been hard on Vicario this season, but this rating actually has very little to do with any of Lazio’s goals — none of them was particularly savable, unlike some others he’s conceded this year — and everything to do with one number: 51.9. That was Vicario’s pass completion percentage, which included a 1-14 rate on long balls. The defense was often seeing the ball come right back at them after Vicario tried to pass the ball out of the back, and that helped not even one little bit.
PIERRE KALULU – 5.5. Co-led the team with five tackles but struggled to find his center passing the ball, leading to an 88.3 percent completion percentage. Not the only one that had some problems with the Lazio press, but problems he had.
BREMER – 5. It is not often you see him get out-jumped the way Oliver Provstgaard did on Lazio’s first goal. He was worked over pretty well by Fisayo Dele-Bashiru in the final moments, too, getting burned for pace by the 25-year-old before he finished the game off.
JHON LUCUMÍ – 5.5. Made a pair of tackles and led the team in interceptions (also two) but like the rest of the defense really struggled trying to pass the ball, in his case completing only 83.8 percent in the face of Lazio’s press.
WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Made five tackles but his pass completion, like a lot of his teammates, left things to be desired, and his offensive push was limited.
DOUGLAS LUIZ – 5. Really got overwhelmed in the midfield, where the two-on-three disadvantage really turned into a problem at times. Completed only 81.6 percent of his passes and rarely if ever looked like he was going to orchestrate something dangerous.
PAPE MATAR SARR – 5.5. One of only two starters to complete more than 90 percent of his passes,
Sarr still felt like he was being surpressed by the Lazio midfield for much of this game. Gave a solid effort, but the end product wasn’t there for anyone in this game.
ZEKI ÇELIK – 4.5. Not what I’ve expected to see from him defensively. He was beaten far too easily buy Gustav Isaksen on Lazio’s second goal, hardly even putting up a fight. Given his stellar work on that end early in the season, I wonder if he’s 100 percent physically, seeing as he trained seperately for large portions of this past week.
NICO GONZÁLEZ – 4. Misfired on a full third of his passes and for the second game running was put in really good position in front of goal only to be unable to attack the ball and clang it in the vague direction of the goal off his knee. Not his best week by any stretch.
KERIM ALAJBEGOVIC – 5. Took an early pot-shot from range that might’ve been better off being played down the side, and otherwise didn’t look evry convincing before coming off at half.
RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 5.5. Looked more confident that he did at the start of the season and was a key contributor to some of Juve’s best attacks, including a gorgeous dribble in the first half and the counter that Nick Woltemade missed early in the second. Still, he was a relative bright spot in an otherwise dim affair.
SUBS
NICK WOLTEMADE – 4. Only touched the ball 13 times in 45 minutes on a team that was trailing. Couldn’t get a promising counterattack on target, and ultimately did little to create anything in attack.
FRANCISCO CONCIEÇÃO – 5. One deeply tame shot on target was all the diminutive Portugal international could muster trying to turn things around.
EDON ZHEGROVA – 5.5. Had a shot and a key pass but couldn’t push the offense forward like he sometimes has.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5.5. Had a key pass and an actually good completion percentage, but wasn’t going to turn te game on its head.
JÉRÉMIE BOGA – NR. Nice to see him back on the field after his injury, and looking forward to seeing whether he might be able to breathe some air into such a lackluster attack.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Luciano Spalletti clearly came up with the game plan, but it wasn’t all that good, nor was the execution of what he had by stand-in manager Marco Domenichini, who was running the touchline with Spalletti serving a ban after his row with Cagliari manager Fabio Pisacane after last week’s game.
What we got was a jumbled up mess, with the 3-4-2-1 unable to provide the necessary creativity in attack to muster up anything to challenge Mandas in goal, who may have had the easiest game against Juve in his career tonight.
The on-field performance was only the beginning of the story, as it led to a high-profile crash-out by stand-in captain Bremer to the media after the game, and even left Spalletti questioning his rapport with the team.
Whatever *gestures at everything* that was, it needs to be turned around quick with Juve already eight points out of the league lead and four points out of the top four. It’s early, which is the saving grace for this, but Spalletti needs to fix this, and he needs to do it fast.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juve face off against Stade Rennais in the early slate of Europa League matches on Thursday, then face a whirlwind run before the second international break, traveling to Lecce and Genoa before hosting Napoli at the Allianz, then traveling for a European match against AZ Alkmaar and a league game to Fiorentina.
