Re: Juventus 2017/2018 Champions League Winners Thread

[Warrior]

Higuain could face a 1 match ban for that stupid middle finger at Camp Nou. Like we needed this, we don't have enough starters unavailable...

Should perform instead of being frustrated.

[Warrior]

Higuain on the bench

Buffon - Sturaro, Barzagli, Chiellini, Alex Sandro - Matuidi, Pjanic - Cuadrado, Dybala, Douglas Costa - Mandzukic

classic Juve win imo: 2-0 in first half, defensive minded in second half

[Luca]

Just caught the game, they showed just about every other match live so I watched PSG-Bayern and caught the replay for Juve-Olympiacos.

Deserved win, somewhat underwhelming in our performance but we kept a clean sheet at home and won 2-0, that's fine.

I think if Pjanic started this match was done before it began with his form. But lets take a moment for Bentancur, immense today, for me. He does not misplace a pass, great player.

Douglas Costa is improving with every match.

Star of the night was Higuain, broke the match open. I'm happy for him

[DeviAngel]

allegri said post match that pjanic was rested because it's better to play without him 1-2 games than play him then have him sidelined for a month.

[Luca]

That's the right call of course but it was an unprepared switch as Pjanic felt off during warm ups according to commentators

[rincon]

Clean sheet, 2-0, Higuain goal, full game for Bentancur and Costa. Very positive.

It took a while to break down their bus but it worked in the end as it had to. I think their first shot on goal came at minute 70. Good display by the backline too.

[rincon]

Apparently today the only doubt is at RB. Sturaro vs De Sciglio. The rest seems set.

Buffon; Sandro, Chiellini, Barzagli, X; Khedira, Pjanic; Mandzukic, Dybala, Cuadrado; Higuain

I think we'll win. The front 4 plus Pjanic are all in form, it'll be hard to stop.

[juvealbanian]

Not really a big difference if Stu or MDS starts.Better not rush De Sciglio or he may get injured

[Warrior]

Cuadrado RB and Bernardeschi RW please, i want to see him against tough opponents, next match is Benevento at home.

For today i expect a win, 2-1 or 3-1 if things go well. Sporting have injury problems.

[DeviAngel]

All I want to see from this team is confidence, the same confidence that RM, Bayern show before a game. You can feel when they step on the field teams like Sporting know its game over even before the game begins they give up.... It hurts me to say this but the last Italian team that had that effect on top teams and small teams was AC Milan...teams were/are afraid from their name.

[rincon]

Of course we have that effect on teams. Its just that Sporting isn't Qarabag or Zagreb. They lost to Barca because of an own goal and showed a great face to us over two games even if they only got 1 point.

We have to respect them as well. They didn't shy away to us and they didn't shy away to Barca. They don't have a small team mentality.

[Luca]

I don't think that's an issue. I think were just a bit too complacent to start these matches.

Tonight's goal and the goal in Torino against Sporting, they were mainly self-inflicted wounds and we didn't start to play until later into the game. The real difference from last season is that our defence did not make such mistakes.

I'm not bothered, Allegri made his substitutions early enough to impact the match. He adjusted but even if we won tonight, there are much improvements to be made. Let see if Allegri can make some fresh ideas on the field because we have the personnel to do good things

[rincon]

^Yep that's how I see it as well.

Regardless of drawing or winning tonight, the team is getting started and there's still things to figure out and improve. Everyone knows, Allegri knows it too. He'll keep working on it and we'll keep improving.

The important thing is to get to the next stage. It'll go down to the end probably. Unless an upset with Olympiacos happens, we won't be safe until matchday 6.

[rincon]

The strange thing about today's game was that some of our best players let us down imo. Barza, De Sciglio, Khedira and Cuadrado were good but then our stars Chiellini, Sandro and Pjanic were poor the first half.

Chiellini got destroyed on the goal. Sandro got wrecked in his flank and did everything wrong. Pjanic got marked out of the game for 45min.

The Chiellini incident is impossible to account for. Sandro was bad against their winger, it happens, it shouldn't cripple us so much. The problem was that Pjanic was eliminated from the game so we only had Dybala and Cuadrado to get things going.

Dybala (who was marked as hard as Pjanic) managed to still come through because he is awesome and Cuadrado did his thing down the wing in an individual level. This is not enough to play well on a collective level with Pjanic missing. We needed an extra playmaker. Marchisio or Bernardeschi need to be there in games like these.

[Luca]

I feel like a midfield 3 corrects a lot of those problems, but then you're forced to drop one of our attackers so we suffer elsewhere.

Dybala needs to stop taking these long shots when there are better options in front of them, he took 3 tonight. 2 went far over the net, the other went comfortably to the keeper. I understand wanting to take your own shot sometimes, but matches like these are decided by these moments.

Higuain should've done better with that header but he took his chance really well and that's what we need from our striker. If Higuain is scoring in these games, our results will be favourable.

Sporting aren't pushovers by any means, they were playing at home and for their own CL qualification, so I guess that we can take this in stride.

We were never going to do this the easy way. We didn't start off the group particularly well, so it was always going to be an uphill battle

[rincon]

@Warrior get hyped.

Allegri said that he is evaluating who will be left out between Costa, Mandzukic and Matuidi (not that Bernardeschi picked up a knock and misses the game). Which means that the pseudo-christmas tree is a real possibility. Tuttojuve speculates that Mandzukic won't play and we'll see:

Higuain
Costa - Dybala
Matuidi - Pjanic - Khedira
Sandro - Chiellini - Barzagli - De Sciglio
Buffon

[Kaladin]

Why Khedira lol? Why not Bentancur or switch to 4-2-3-1

[rincon]

Asking why not the 4-2-3-1 is a dangerous question around these parts

Bentancur is still a kid. As promising as he is, Khedira>>>. The question if anything is why not Marchisio, but Max has said that given that Pjanic (and Matuidi) is a midget, he needs Khedira's airgame over Claudio's.

The preference of 3 or 2 midfielders comes from trying to adapt to Barca playing with 3-4 midfielders plus Messi.

It's not set though, it might change and turn into our usual 4-2-3-1.

Honestly (don't @ me, it's just an opinion) this the wrong game to give up on Mandzukic. I guess he must be really tired/unfit since he has been dealing with an injury lately. His height, physicality and sheer manliness should be needed to manhandle the Spanish dwarfs.

[Kaladin]

Never been convinced of Mandzukic as LW even if he does bring workrate, blood, sweat, tears, grinta, sweat, sweat, hardwork, thunder and energy.

If everyone was available, fit and in prime form this is how i would line up:

Howedes-Rugani-Chiellini-Sandro
Pjanic-Marchisio-Matuidi
Costa
Dybala-Higuain

[rincon]

Bernardeschi has done everything better than Costa so far and he is an actual AM. If everyone was available I would have the same lineup as you except Berna over Costa and MDS over Howedes. Howedes hasn't played a single minute and just came out of a long injury (he is called up now), starting him against Barca is a no go.

[Luca]

Would love to see the 4-3-2-1. Seems like the right match for it

I’ll be surprised if Khedira plays after Allegri ripped him on the weekend

Rincon. I misunderstood your early post, did you mean that Bernardeschi picked up a knock and isn’t available?

Seems harsh to drop Cuadrado. He’s been our best CL player but it’s time

[rincon]

Yes, Bernardeschi is not available.

The latest is that Cuadrado is playing, Costa is dropped. Khedira plays for sure if we do a 3 man mid.

[Luca]

I didn't really expect to see Bernardeschi in this match, I read its just muscular fatigue, hopefully he's not out long

I feel like at some point we have to go with Douglas Costa more, we invested heavily into him. Not just his transfer fee (which if I recall correctly is not an option but an obligation), but his wages. It's the wrong time to think about that but still something that should be considered in the future

Lets hope we can get it done, this is a pivotal time of our season

[rincon]

We should go with Costa more when he plays better than his competitors. If he doesn't play better than the alternatives then just playing because he is expensive is a dangerous slope.

If Max plays him is because he thinks he can offer for that particular game, be it this one or any other one.

[Luca]

Only problem with Costa is he fades horribly into the matches he starts but in any case, its virtually impossible to outplay your competitors in such limited capacities. Its the same for Bernardeschi, though he doesn't fade, he doesn't complete matches either

They're both suffering because there are trusted players in front of them who are afforded a much larger leash in my opinion

Not saying Costa wins matches on his own, far from it, but at some point we'll have to see what we have and I'm sure we will

But I really don't care about line ups anymore, at all, just hoping we play well

[rincon]

I really don't know what to expect in this match. If the team plays focused all the way we should win but if the performance is like most this season, then Barca should take it. They are in a much better streak.

[Sponsored content]