Juventus' Champions League Campaign 2018/19

What a beautiful win!!

Forza Juve!!!!!!!!!!!

Kommander gonna lead us to the promised land...

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. SPINAZZOLAAAAA BERNARDESCHI!!!!!!

Finally Allegri decides not to put in a defender & sit back in minute 75+ when we need a win!!!

Finally a great performance from the whole team and especially CR7 delivering when it mattered the most for us.
If you read my posts above you can easily tell Allegri been lurking this forum section for sure.
I was quite confident when I saw our starting lineup and the way we started the game.

Hopefully now Allegri has understood that this team is also capable of doing such performances when we must.
We should play it safe only when we got a good lead to defend. You can't progress or win in CHL being defensive.Period.

Forza Juve!!!

This should be a great tie, i think we can advance comfortably but not easily. The key is to play at our best and not overestimate nor underestimate. In other words, no conservative approach and no slowing down.

It's an opportunity to scout some good young players Van de Beek, Onana, Neres but particularly Mattias De Ligt. He seems to be the real deal in defence. Last year i didn't want him because of Rugani-Caladra... well one is a proven B- by now, the other is at Milan

Also take a look at Ziyech, he's damn good. I rate him better than Douglas for example, he's more creative and would be a good fit for Juve.

Definitely gunna be a good tie. I hope we keep our momentum rolling and win 3 - 0 or 3 -1 even, making the 2nd leg in turin low pressure/stress.

If that is the case though, I wuld like to see allegri pull a Barca and really put them to the sword like they always seam to do at the Camp Nou. Its all about momentum, which we have now, and would like to see us capitalize on it.

Furthermore, I agree with Warrior... would like to get a real good look at de Ligt and Ziyech as I think both would be a good fit for us.

And... here comes the good ol late season classic... Chiellini out

We have the worst injury record out there. Chiellini, Ronaldo, Can and Cuadrado out. Khedira and Costa maaaaybe fit. Caceres and Barzagli recovering, maybe they make it maybe not.

Feels like the winter NT break is a curse for us. We always get at least one injury during it, and most of times an additional injury one week after.

DYBALA-KEAN-BERNARDESCHI
MATUIDI-PJANIC-BENTANCUR
SANDRO-BONUCCI-RUGANI-MDS

i think that's the best possible formation we can afford (isn't Cancelo out also ?)

Mandzukic will play and has to play

Kean can come on as a sub later on

The worrying thing is BOTH Can and Chiellini are out and it makes us a little feeble physically/defensively.

If Khedira starts, I'm not going to bet on us getting a result at Ajax.

Forgot about Mandzu yes Kean later as super sub

Khedira is the least physical player on the team despite having the biggest body, it's disappointing. We could be safe on this matter because i don't see a lot of big players at Ajax. If the game goes skills we have the advantage. We aren't crazy fast on the wings but our transition is quick enough.

More so if we don't play conservative it should be fine, let's keep the catenaccio for the return leg if needed.

Cancelo is available. Allegri will have his press conference in a couple of hours.

I really don't want Khedira again vs a young, and fast team. The Spurs matches exposed his absurd limitations in these games.

Maybe something like this

Damn i hope not for Rugani as LCB. His duels would be mostly vs Ziyech and he'll get eaten alive. Can't give too much space to a guy like him.

I hope we'll defend agressively and go for the tackles, so we hold the ball closer to their territory. And more possession time to create scoring chances. Against this kind of team, if we impose our game they will get disorganized.

What makes me say this is the reminiscence of last year Juve vs Spurs, we played conservative yet passively... in other words we played like pussies and got bullied, could never start any attack properly. It was a mental bug from underestimating the opponent who was weaker on paper, and the same trap awaits tomorrow. If the guys are focus 100% they'll leave Amsterdam with a W

Another season in the bin, another waste of precious time

Soooo promising at the start of the season, yet, it ends the same way as every year recently

By questioning myself for having faith in a team that is wrongly built

I see there isn't a lot of activity on the forum. I came looking to commiserate with my fellow Juventus fans.

I need to vent my frustrations. This team just seems soft. Without Chiellini, this team has no toughness to it.

The midfield is way too soft. Pjanic is a liability in a three man midfield and Matuidi and Can just aren't good enough to make up for Pjanic's weaknesses.

The defense looks awful from a man-marking perspective when Chiellini isn't there. Bonucci isn't a good defender unless he plays along someone that is great like Chiellini. He has too many weaknesses. Rugani also looks lost in defense. Di Sciglio is garbage. Sandro does not look great when he is in one-on-one defending situations.

Changes are needed. Ramsey will be a welcome addition because right now there is no link between the central midfield to the attackers. I think we need a solid CB and another CM with Ramsey. I'm starting to feel like Pjanic needs to go and some players in attack may need to go if Allegri can't consistently find space for them (like Costa and Dybala). I think adding Ronaldo hid a lot of the problems with this team, but he can only do so much.

I have a lot of other thoughts, but I needed to rant a little to this forum.

The most simple observation i can make: we don't have a team of winners

Only Ronaldo feels the urge to win, the rest are too soft. We need to restructure the team imo, i've had enough of getting the same problems every year.

I'm mad at myself for being complacent with Juve, we are not as good as i thought. Last summer i made rants about how i don't want CR near the club... turned out he is the only positive aspect this season

Warrior wrote:The most simple observation i can make: we don't have a team of winners

Only Ronaldo feels the urge to win, the rest are too soft. We need to restructure the team imo, i've had enough of getting the same problems every year.

I'm mad at myself for being complacent with Juve, we are not as good as i thought. Last summer i made rants about how i don't want CR near the club... turned out he is the only positive aspect this season

I'd add Chiellini under the urge to win category.

I actually feel like adding Ronaldo caused certain players to become too relaxed and created a mindset that Ronaldo would solve all of the squad's issues. I'd like to see some major squad changes.

I also put some blame on Allegri. I don't want to see him leave because, with Zidane not available, I'm not happy with any alternatives.

My problem with Allegri this season is that he never figured out a way to get all of our best players on the field at once. He really struggled in finding tactics and a formation that worked in getting Dybala and Ronaldo on the field consistently. It's gotten so bad that I'd rather Juve sell Dybala and get value for him rather than have him play inconsistently. It's a waste of his talent when we really need better players at different positions.

Yes Chiellini of course gets no blame

About Allegri idk what to think anymore. Would not be surprising if Allegri resigns at the end of the season but i won't ask for it. Embarassing in CL lately.

Part of me wants him back because he's still the best around, he's a very intelligent coach, but i wonder if it's time to change. The evaluation of a midfielder is broken, some of us thought the attack and defence would compensate but we were damn wrong, sadly. At 50 years old, the man is not gonna switch his mindset. The hypothetical new coach would be a worse coach in theory, but it has the advantage of getting some fresh air to the squad, new approach and new ideas.

Writing this i realize i am still very bitter about yesterday i rate Max and i'm glad he's our coach but what more solutions can he bring, it's my concern at this moment

i believe juventus has already an excellent team and i think its not easy to make it any better than that

a super talent like Pirlo who could improve the game they are not easy to find and i am happy with the clubs effort

I disagree

They put all their eggs in the same basket

It's actually not a big effort to improve on our midfield: only Pjanic is a special player
The rest are easily replaceable or can be moved as subs which is where they belong at Juve.

Matuidi and Can will stay because of contracts, Ramsey incoming... we still need 2 more. A creator and a DM of decent level please.

A rotation of 6 midfielders with various qualities is the best imo

2 creators (Pjanic, ??)
2 box to box (Ramsey, Can)
2 defensive (??, Matuidi)

Ronaldo and Dybala cannot coexist.  A major revolution is needed.

Out:  Dybala, Costa, Pjanic, Khedira, Sandro, Bonucci, Caceras, Barzagli, Higuaín, Pjaca

In:  Felix, Chiesa, Rabiot, Ndombele, Wesley, Romagnoli, De Ligt, Savic

With all those sales we have the funds to acquire these young studs.  Felix wants to play with Ronaldo, Chiesa will come to Juve, Ndombele will be a massive upgrade to our defence (Vidal 2.0), Rabiot is free so we can spend big money on the defence, Milan will have to sell Romagnoli if they don't make the CL (FFP problems), Raiola is pushing De Ligt to Juve or Bayern.  

We need an injection of youth and speed on this team and better defenders.  We can't waste the next 3 years with Ronaldo.  Allegri can stay unless Guardiola wants to come.  Or Deschamps.

Still find it rather unbelievable that you would sacrifice your young superstar Dybala to accommodate a 35 year old.

And all you fans go along with it as it wasn't absolute madness and counter to everything that made your club strong over the last decade.

This is an admittedly exaggeration, but honestly it seems like you're choosing the AC Milan path in terms of squad building.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Still find it rather unbelievable that you would sacrifice your young superstar Dybala to accommodate a 35 year old.

And all you fans go along with it as it wasn't absolute madness and counter to everything that made your club strong over the last decade.

This is an admittedly exaggeration, but honestly it seems like you're choosing the AC Milan path in terms of squad building.

Dybala neither starts for Juve or for Argentina. He needs to be the central piece in attack in order for him to succeed, so if Messi or Ronaldo are around he can't play to his characteristics and suffers as a result.

Ronaldo has won 5 Champions League trophies and a European Championship, Dybala has won nothing. So I'm okay to sacrifice Dybala to get two young studs like Chiesa and Felix who will compliment Ronaldo and help him win his 6th Champions League with Juventus.