Juventus 2017/2018 Champions League Winners Thread

[salmano9]

Our group:

Juventus
Barcelona
Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon

[rincon]

Tough group. Lets do it

Gonna be awesome to beat Barca again.

[Luca]

Obligatory post whenever I see a Juve/Olympiakos mention

[juve_gigi]

I feel sorry for Barca really. Losing their star player and now having to get beaten by Juve again. Will be such bad memories for them really. They may never recover from this...

[Warrior]

Not an easy group, but no so bad either. We can top this.

Barcelona we don't know yet what will be the state of their team, probably not superior but they are always dangerous. Top 10 club at the very least. Messi never scored against Buffon.

Olympiakos is the best club in Greece by far. No idea how they look on the field. I know some names in that squad: Tachtsidis, Emenike, Romao, Marko Marin... in any case not top tier players. Sporting is an offensive club. They have a lot of talented players and i can see them causing trouble to Juve & Barca.


Taking the dust off my crystal ball to unveil my predictions

Juve 14
Barca 10
Sporting 10
Olympiakos 0

Everyone beats Olympiakos. We draw once against Barca away, once against Sporting away.
Barca & Sporting neutralize each other and are separated from goal average.

I think it's realistic.

[salmano9]

Not an easy group, but no so bad either. We can top this.

Barcelona we don't know yet what will be the state of their team, probably not superior but they are always dangerous. Top 10 club at the very least. Messi never scored against Buffon.

Olympiakos is the best club in Greece by far. No idea how they look on the field. I know some names in that squad: Tachtsidis, Emenike, Romao, Marko Marin... in any case not top tier players. Sporting is an offensive club. They have a lot of talented players and i can see them causing trouble to Juve & Barca.


Taking the dust off my crystal ball to unveil my predictions

Juve 14
Barca 10
Sporting 10
Olympiakos 0

Everyone beats Olympiakos. We draw once against Barca away, once against Sporting away.
Barca & Sporting neutralize each other and are separated from goal average.

I think it's realistic.

Allegri is always a pain in CL C'mon we drew with Sevilla at home last season. I don't think we will win Ali games at home. Olympiakos can be an inferior side but not that bad!

[juve_gigi]

Marchisio, Khedira, Cuadrado, Chiellini and Mandzukic are all out. So I hope we see this tomorrorow in a 4-2-3-1:

Higuain

Bernardeschi Dybala Costa

Matuidi Pjanic

Sandro Benatia Rugani Howedes

Buffon

Howedes on the right can cover for Costa. Dybala, Higuain, Bernardeschi and Costa as a front four would be fap worthy against Barca.

Forza Juve!!!!

[Luca]

Howedes isn't included in the squad.

That line up won't happen in Barca. We have no attacking options on the bench and that's way too offensive to play.

[juve_gigi]

Howedes is injured? Didn't see that anywhere.

I agree it's a pretty offensive lineup. And it's awesome. I hope we play it for 45 minutes in the second half. Dybala with a brace would be a site to behold at the Camp Nou...

[Luca]

Nah I don't think he's injured. He just probably isn't Allegri certified for the squad.

[salmano9]

I read that Howedes has a specific training program. It will take him time to adapt to the squad.

[rincon]

What do you think about this game? I can't predict it at all. It's too early to really know how we (or them) will fare in bug games. We have so many players missing. 6 starters missing and Sandro in doubt.

Barca didn't look good vs RM but that was preseason and now they won every game like us.

The only certainties in either team seem to be Messi and Dybala beasting. The problem is that when Messi is at his best it's really hard not to lose.

If we take points from the Camp Nou with such a depleted team then it will be great news.

[Warrior]

The big question here is the defense without Chiellini, on paper Barca has the edge. I absolutely don't expect to keep a clean sheet.

So if we want to get out of there with at least 1 point a great performance from the attack is needed. Thank god Dybala, Pjanic and Higuain are top shape, to get more scoring chances we have to start Bernardeschi as well. 4 players of this caliber vs Barca defense + Busquets should be good enough for a couple of goals.

Let's go with a draw. 2-2

[Warrior]

Imagine playing Sturaro with zero offensive task, only for the sake of this sole match. I mean as a pure DM sentinel, who covers the whole first front of the defense and stays there.

Pjanic, Matuidi in a mezzala role. Dyb+Hig+Ber upfront in whatever combination.

What do you guys think of this 3 a.m. idea ?

[rincon]

I think we'll probably see Sturaro. I don't know if as a mezzala (in a mid 3) or if as a wide midfielder (in a mid 4).

Something like
Sturaro - Matuidi - Pjanic - Costa
Behind Dybala and Higuain.

Bentancur or Bernardeschi would be bold choices, let's see what Max does.

[Warrior]

Sturaro has the grinta and is somewhat useful to recover the ball in a crowded midfield, props to him for that. But i have one problem about Stefano Sturaro #27... and you'll see it's a damn big problem.

When we have possession of the ball, Sturaro is not passively bad like Rincon and Lemina were. No, he is actively contributing to us losing the ball. No passing repertoire, no anticipation, bad dribbling, horrible first touch, at times he even struggles at carrying the ball, so mezzala...wide midfilder...mmm

i won't insist on that but DM ala Makelele is how to get the best out of him in my humble opinion.

[rincon]

It's not what I want, I would probably go for Bernardeschi. It's one of the options based on what Max usually does.

For Sturaro as a central DM, I don't like it. In a midfield 3 the central player needs to deal with the pressure. He must be able to pass well, evade the pressure and start up the passing game. Sturaro can do none of that. We need a Pjanic or a Marchisio there. If it's in a double pivot then yes. But Pjanic has to remain central, not as mezzala.

First touch and passing repertoire are much more needed at the centre than at mezzala. Someone like Sturaro or Matuidi with poor first touch can still play mezzala because the can carry the ball and cover ground.

With the possibility of Messi and Suarez drifting to/from the right plus Deulofeu or Dembele possibly on that side, Sturaro might be preferred to tackle everyone there. Specially since we have no Mandzukic.

[salmano9]

Lads! Bentancur could start!

Juventus (4-3-3): Buffon; Barzagli, Rugani, Benatia, Alex Sandro; Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi; Douglas Costa, Higuain, Dybala.

[Warrior]

It was very late into the night when i wrote the Sturaro post and i was sincere. But your refutations are correct, can't see my idea materialize in a Juventus/italian team perspective.

As mezzala, wide midfielder against Barca i can foresee the disaster. Hope Sal's 11 is right.

[Luca]

Sturaro usually has a tendency to show up in these matches approximately once a year.

Tonight could be his game

[Luca]

We got thrashed lads

I can't think of a single good takeaway, maybe Bentancur who was decent enough.

I don't think there is a single player who would have made a difference tonight, the bunch of injuries surely didn't make the challenge any less than what it was though.

De Sciglio even looked decent before sadly getting hurt.

We sucked though, we deserve to hold this L tonight brothers. Dybala was poor, Higuain is just starved for service, Costa wasn't awful but not a difference maker- played a couple of neat passes in the first half.

In the middle, Matuidi, Pjanic and Bentancur were not the worst by any means. It isn't easy playing against Barcelona, let alone away in the Camp Nou.

The defense is where we lost this match, too slow from Benatia and Barzagli. Underwhelming from Alex Sandro who also offered nothing going forward. On the right, De Sciglio was alright, I expected him to be much further from his depth but he was ok, Sturaro is human garbage in sporting form. Normally I would feel bad to talk about another human in such a way, but it's a millionaire athlete, so I'm sure he won't mind calling him utter crap, out of position crap too.

I'm sad we had no faith in Rugani, who is at least the quicker of Benatia and Barzagli but maybe not featuring in this game will spare him the psychological damage of a 3-0 thrashing.

I can't imagine a worst start to our Champions League campaign.

Add De Sciglio to the list of injuries

[salmano9]

Nevertheless how finish the season, I think that this year is Allegri's last. I think that we have strong players, but maybe a change of tactics from another experienced coach will help us a lot. I think we need a World Class coach to win the Champions League, like Ancelloti.

We started the game well, but we messed up and messi did his magic. It is too early to judge the rest of the CL campaign with this game, as we did not have some of our key players like Mandzukic, Chiellini, Khedira, (Marchisio), (Cuadrado)...And most importantly, our players are not at their best physical form at this point of the season. It is just unlucky that we had to face Barca away in the first game.

[Luca]

I don't think Allegri is to blame, he's a top, top manager.

When you have that many players out and you have to travel to Barca, it's never going to be an easy match.

3-0 losers, maybe that's a bit much but that's as much the fault of the team as it is Allegri.

I can't fault mad Max tonight, the 11 were the right personnel for who was available. The De Sciglio injury set us back and I'm sure he was kicking himself for not including Lichtsteiner in the squad or Howedes for the match.

Its better to get a match like this out of the way now than later.

[salmano9]

I don't think Allegri is to blame, he's a top, top manager.

When you have that many players out and you have to travel to Barca, it's never going to be an easy match.

3-0 losers, maybe that's a bit much but that's as much the fault of the team as it is Allegri.

I can't fault mad Max tonight, the 11 were the right personnel for who was available. The De Sciglio injury set us back and I'm sure he was kicking himself for not including Lichtsteiner in the squad or Howedes for the match.

Its better to get a match like this out of the way now than later.

I am not putting the blane on Allegri here. I was just saying that maybe it would be his last year with us. I still have faith in him, but a change in scenery could help us. Maybe the players need someone new in the dressing room.

[Luca]

Fair enough, well that can only happen in one of two ways: he resigns or he is fired.

It would be an abysmal season for him to be fired, which I don't see happening.

There would have to be a compelling reason for him to resign, that remains to be seen.

I hope he stays. I like him as a manager and a person. We can't really talk about changes of scenery when we change 5-6, often core players, each season. Also, this could be the last of Buffon, Barzagli, Lichtsteiner and others.

We are transitioning as we speak.

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