Key players in the Bianconeri squad have been getting hurt in recent weeks and their coach will have his tactical nous and character tested in upcoming Serie A fixtures as he looks to respond
With the amount of injuries starting to increase at Juventus, Massimiliano Allegri will have his coaching ability placed under examination in the following weeks.
Defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Dani Alves came off hurt in La Vecchia Signora’s 3-1 defeat to Genoa and they will be out for two and three months respectively.
Losing two vital players like Bonucci and Alves clearly makes things worse for Juventus, who are also missing defender Andrea Barzagli, midfielder Rolando Mandragora, and forwards Marko Pjaca and Paulo Dybala with injuries. Veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini appeared as a substitute in the 3-1 victory against Sevilla in the Champions League but he has battled with muscular problems recently.
This is arguably the worst time for the Bianconeri to have fitness concerns because they will be facing city rivals Torino and a high-scoring Roma in the next two weeks of Serie A action. If a mid-table side Genoa were able to shock Juve, then La Vecchia Signora’s next opponents should fancy their chances of winning their respective fixtures.
Despite sitting on top of the Serie A table with a four-point lead ahead of Roma and AC Milan, the Bianconeri’s performances have not been convincing and they have scrapped over the line even against the weakest of opposition. Their league performances could become greater struggles now with more players on the treatment table.
Aside from the injury woes, why should there be any cause for concern for the Juventus faithful?
If they had played badly and won in their previous league fixtures, they surely played poorly and lost against Genoa, and the blame has to lie with Allegri’s tactics and choices in personnel.
The Juve tactician has occasionally played with a back four but he has often been stubborn by persisting with the 3-5-2 formation, which was the hallmark during the Antonio Conte era.
When Conte used the formation, it played to the strengths of his squad and it laid the foundations for another period of dominance for the Turin giants. Now that Allegri is in charge, the system doesn’t work so well anymore because the players who made it function properly are injured or they have left the club.
In addition to the formation problems, he has experimented with Dani Alves as a centre-back and used Juan Cuadrado as a support striker. Alves is known for his attacking prowess down the right flank and not his defensive capabilities so that plan failed and Cuadrado cannot play as a no. 10. He too is a player who does his best work sprinting down the right-wing.
Absurd experiments are not new for Allegri though as he tried central midfielder Kevin Constant as a left-back and left midfielder Urby Emanuelson as a trequartista at AC Milan with no success.
When he was at the Rossoneri, he also had to deal with an abundance of injuries as players such as Alexandre Pato and Stephan El Shaarawy became injury prone.
Although his experience at AC Milan ended sourly with the sack in 2014, Allegri needs to learn from those lessons. Juventus are going through a bad run with injuries at the moment but it could just be a small phase and they could end up doing well at the back end of the 2016-17 season.
If not, Allegri’s fear of change or inability to deal with a crisis could spell the end of Juventus’ recent hegemony in Serie A.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com