After five seasons together, Juventus and Max Allegri decided to part ways in the summer 2019. During his last season, the Tuscan manager has been heavily criticised for his defensive approach of the game and the issues his team had to create chances, producing more often than in previous seasons some disappointing performances. With the signing of Ronaldo, a large part of the media and the fans were expecting a more entertaining and attacking football from Juventus. They should have known that Allegri would not change his philosophy, especially after four very successful seasons.
It was then becoming clear that a change was needed, with a view to attract a more attacking-minded manager. The likes of Pochettino and Guardiola were named favourites for the role, but both are currently in a good place at their clubs, so Juventus turned to Maurizio Sarri, who have had a difficult season at Chelsea despite winning the UEFA Europa League. The ex-Napoli manager is of course well-known by Juventus’ tifosi, and in all aspects, he is one of the most anti-Allegri the board could have chosen.
After five official games in charge, it’s time for a first assessment: What has already changed? Has the team shown any weaknesses?
Games observed
| Parma 0 | Juventus 4 | Fiorentina 0 | Atletico 2 | Juventus 2 |
| Juventus 1 | Napoli 3 | Juventus 0 | Juventus 2 | Hellas Verona 1 |
Organisation
Injuries have been a recurring problem for Juventus in the last five or six years, and it doesn’t look like this season will be any different. Chiellini started the first match against Parma, but due to injury has been replaced by De Ligt. It’s a similar situation for De Sciglio, who started against Parma and Napoli, but picked up an injury early in the latter game, and has since then been replaced by summer signing Danilo. Lastly, Costa was the starter until the Fiorentina game, when he also got injured early in the game and got replaced by Cuadrado. New signing Aaron Ramsey has also started the season at the J Medical, before making his first appearance against Hellas Verona. As the starting eleven, I have therefore picked the players who have started the most games so far.
Out of possession, the team is set up in a classic 4-4-2, with Ronaldo and Higuain as centre-forwards.
In possession, it’s a more unusual shape, sort of an asymetric 4-3-3. Whether it is Costa or Cuadrado on the right wing, there is only one actual winger on the pitch. On the left wing, Matuidi has an hybrid role, between a central midfield and a left midfield. He is familiar with this role though, having played this regularly with both the French national team and Juventus last season. However, this creates an unbalanced shape, and different dynamics whether the team attacks form the right or the left wing.
Differences with last season
In only five official games, there are already obvious differences in each phase of the game, between Allegri’s and Sarri’s Juventus.
In possession
Sarri is known for his possession based football, applying broadly the positional play’s principles. In this model, players must hold specific positions when the team is in possession of the ball, laying out clear structures and patterns of play. Allegri has a completely opposing view, giving as much freedom as possible to his creative players, and avoiding using too many passing circuits.
A major change with last season is the use of the wide areas, keeping possession on a wing to attract pressure, and create a 1v1 situation, or an overload, on the far side, unbalancing the opposition’s defensive shape with a switch of play.
When the ball is played on a wing, the ball carrier will receive support from three teammates, creating a diamond shape around the pressure. Basically, creating rondos all over the pitch, ensuring to always have at least one free player to pass the ball to.
To escape the pressure then, Sarri is implementing some passing circuits. The most commonly used is what we call up-back-through, where the ball carrier at the bottom of the diamond pass the ball to the furthest player, who in turn lays off a third player who can then either play a forward pass through the opposition, or switch the play.
Another principle we are likely to see develop throughout the season as the players get familiar with it is the positional rotations. On the left wing, the movements between Higuain, Ronaldo and Matuidi seem to be in a more advanced stage already. The rotations are important because they allow the structure to be dynamic, while making sure the space is still rationally occupied. In the second clip, Matuidi’s forward run creates a space in which Ronaldo can drop to be the free man, while maintaining the diamond structure around the ball.
Defensive transition
When possession is lost, the first objective of the team is to regain it as quick as possible. Under Allegri, unless there was a clear chance to win the ball back early, the team would usually focus primarily on getting into its defensive shape. The counter-pressing being implemented is only possible because of the way the team operates in possession though. With shorter distances between the players, there is more density around the ball when it is lost, therefore it is easier to apply quick pressure and regain possession. Besides, the role of the players directly around the ball is crucial. They need to cut any short options available to force the ball carrier to either play long or dribble. Forcing a player to dribble is not fundamentally a bad thing since a player dribbling will always be slower than a pass, giving time to the team to recover its positioning.
The below clip shows how every player is involved in recovering possession, with even De Ligt pressing in the attacking third. The pressure on the ball is then less important than actually cutting the short passing options.
Out of possession
Allegri and Sarri have two very different approaches as well in the defensive phase. In Allegri’s system, the zonal marking is man-oriented, meaning that players’ positions within their zones are dictated by their closest opponent. In Sarri’s system, they are option oriented, with the aim to prevent passes rather than react to passes. This implies that players shadow mark their opponents like on the below picture. In the meantime, the direct pressure on the ball carrier is not necessarily very intense, the objective being to force an opponent’s mistake more than winning challenges. It therefore requires patience, and defensive phases can be quite long depending on the opposition’s ability. This is also a reason why in the defensive transitions the team tries to regain possession quickly.
Lastly, Allegri’s Juventus would often defend with 10 or even the whole team behind the ball, while it seems like Sarri will defend with only 9 men most of the time.
Attacking transitions
The defensive system put in place encourage counter-attacks. As mentioned earlier, players are constantly shadow marking their opponents. Therefore, they most of the time regain possession by intercepting a pass rather than winning a challenge. It’s then easier to initiate a counter-attack since there isn’t any direct pressure on the ball. Besides, with two players remaining in high positions when the team is out of possession, there are always two forward options to support the counter.
Weaknesses
Building up against high man-to-man press
Against Fiorentina, Juventus have shown great difficulties to play out against a very aggressive pressing and a man-marking pressing. This is a problem both Napoli and Chelsea had under Sarri, although it was more pronounced with the English team. As explained previously, when the team is in possession, one of the main principle is to create overloads to have a free man to pass the ball to. When matched up by the opposition, and if it’s done properly like Fiorentina did, it becomes very difficult to find a player unmarked, and it’s then down to winning 1v1 situations.
The previous seasons, in similar situations, Juventus could play long balls to Mandzukic to escape the pressure. Whether he played on the left wing or as a centre-forward, his strength and ability in aerial challenges allowed the team to have a plan B if short play wasn’t possible. Since Mandzukic is very unlikely to play with Sarri, the Italian tactician will need to find other solutions to avoid this to become a recurring problem.
A key to solve this issue will be the positional rotations in midfield in order to disorganise the man-marking. Last season with Chelsea, opponents figured out quite quickly that Jorginho was essential in the build-up, and that once he was under control, Chelsea were struggling to develop their game. Pjanic is expected to be Sarri’s new Jorginho. However, his influence in the first games was nowhere close to the Brazilian’s one at Napoli or Chelsea, probably because Sarri can also count on Bonucci to organise the build-up.
Defending against switch of plays
This is an inherent problem to Juventus’ new defensive system. Since the players are ball-oriented when defending, they tend to be more compact on the width than other teams, Allegri’s Juventus for example. More compactness around the ball reduces the chances to be beaten by penetrative passes or individual actions, but in the meantime it reduces the access to the weak side when the action is on a wing. Although in most situations the block should have time to shift while the ball is travelling to the other wing, there is more distance to cover, and if the switch is quick enough it can lead to a dangerous situation.
Although this will always be a weakness with this defensive system, it will probably be mitigated in the future once the players have completely integrated its mechanics and understood the risks. In the man-oriented system, a switch of play was rather easy to defend, the team being more spread out on the width and therefore having quicker access to the opposite wing. It might therefore take few more games for the players to understand that they need to close down the ball carrier on the wing to prevent him from switching the play. Besides, the wide midfielders should also get familiar with the triggers and learn to anticipate those situations by drifting wider when a switch is possible.
Defending set pieces
This is certainly the biggest problem at the moment, and the most concerning. Indeed, it hasn’t been an issue only in the last five games. Like injuries, this has been a long-time problem under Allegri already, and one that need to be fixed quickly. This season already, Juventus have conceded six goals, four of them on set pieces (plus a penalty missed by Hellas Verona).
Juventus have shown in the previous seasons two major weaknesses when defending set pieces, both mental rather than technic: lack of aggression and concentration. Having switched to zonal marking since the start of the season, those weaknesses might be even more apparent now.
While players are very used to zonal marking in open plays, it’s very different to implement it on set pieces. There are two key risks with this marking system.
Firstly, players tend to ignore, or pay less attention, to their opponents because their main focus is on the ball and the area they need to cover, when with man-marking the focus is on the ball and the man. It’s therefore difficult to defend when one or more opponents make long runs, because they travel across different zones and often come off a blind side.
Secondly, when defending the zone, players are more static when the ball is played on, whereas the attacking players are in motion and can therefore attack the ball and the space at pace. In a 1v1 challenge then, the player in movement will always have more power and more chances to win the ball.
In terms of positioning on corners, there are four players responsible to cover the 6-yards box in front of the goal. Alex Sandro covers the far post, then De Ligt and Bonucci the central area, and finally Ronaldo the front post. Matuidi is just outside the 6-yards box in a central position and there are two players covering the front post as well in front of Ronaldo. Those seven players have been so far the base of the system. The other three players seem to be varying positions depending on the opposition.
This goal conceded against Atletico is a perfect example of the issues Juventus have in this phase of play. Ramsey, Dybala and Matuidi are in good positions to effectively cover the penalty spot area. However, both Dybala and Ramsey are facing the ball, and are at no point checking their backs, leaving Herrera (#16) and Gimenez (#2) in their blind side. Only Matuidi can react to the two Madrid players’ runs once the ball is kicked on, but he is late and too slow to win the challenge.
In the last game against Hellas Verona, we could already see some changes. Firstly, Cuadrado was positioned directly at the front post, with Ramsey or Khedira within a couple of metres from him. To cover the edge of the 6-yards box there were now three players, Danilo, Matuidi and Pjanic. More importantly though, the players had a better, open body shape (especially Matuidi and Bentancur), allowing them to have sight on both the ball and the opponents.
What next?
In the next few weeks, there will be specific areas to observe.
Firstly, the set pieces. As just mentioned, changes have been made already, but there were still some dangerous situations in the last match. In October, Juventus will face Inter Milan. With the likes of Godin, Skriniar and Lukaku, it will be a tough test.
Secondly, how is Sarri going to deal with the lack of left wingers? Matuidi was not at all expected to be a starter this season, yet he is one of the four players who have played the full five first matches. His work rate and positioning provide the team with the balance it needs, allowing at the same time Ronaldo to play as a centre-forward with reduced defensive duties. Of all the midfielders in the squad, there doesn’t seem to be another player who could play this role. Replacing Ronaldo on the wing would mean losing his presence in the 18-yards box and risking the team’s defensive balance. The only viable option would then be Bernardeschi.
Lastly, more teams should follow Fiorentina’s example and press Juventus high in a man-marking system when they play from the back. The Inter game will again be a very interesting opposition. Conte has always had well organised pressing systems with his teams, and Inter are no different. We could expect Sarri to implement a back three system in the build-up in the next few games, with Pjanic dropping between De Ligt and Bonucci, allowing Danilo and Sandro to be in higher positions and prevent the wide players from pressing high. Besides, as mentioned before, positional rotations are still at an early stage, but we should expect to see more movements especially in midfield in the coming weeks.
