Juventus: 3 takeaways from the 2-2 draw vs. Torino

Making the same mistakes with Dejan Kulusevski

I recently wrote about the issues with using inverted wide midfielders, and I’ll summarize the analysis as follows. Basically, inverted wide midfielders are not inverted wingers. Wide midfielders will be further away from the penalty box both vertically and horizontally, so if you have an inverted wide midfielder, you are not going to get the same penetration while you are also then likely to get interference with the overlapping fullback.

It doesn’t make sense to play Dejan Kulusevski in this kind of a role, because he is isolated away from the box and cannot cut inside to shoot as easily. Worse yet, he must cut inside to cross, which is a process that slows play down and forces Juan Cuadrado into playing deeper or dealing with more defenders attempting to block his crosses if he does overlap Kulusevski.

We saw these issues play out on Matchday 29, as Kulusevski was woefully ineffective, outside of one great cross for Cristiano Ronaldo that forced a save out of Torino’s veteran goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.

Kulusevski’s biggest error was an individual mistake, similar to his giveaway against Lazio. He made a “blind” backpass that was soaked up by Torino, with Antonio Sanabria gleefully finishing past a shockingly weak Wojciech Szczesny.

Although Kulusevski must be blamed for the error, he cannot shoulder the full blame for the position he’s in on the pitch. It is not ideal for him, and I am befuddled as to why Pirlo continues to deploy a strategy that does not work and may be actively hurting one of his most promising players’ development.