Juventus: 3 things that went wrong in the defeat against Empoli
Juventus began the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era with an odd taste of mediocrity, losing 1-0 to newly-promoted Empoli in front of the 20,000 fans allowed to enter Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday.
Ronaldo was gone already, and the Juventini were seen accepting that, with no jersey bearing the name of Cristiano Ronaldo or the iconic #7 apparently spotted in the crowd. Stiffened by a mild catch of perplexity, the line-up came out. It was an unanticipated 4-4-2. We will come to this later. But following a tepid performance, Juventus saw themselves behind on the scoreline going into the break.
In the second half, Empoli looked much more threatening, albeit on the counter-attack, than the home side, resulting in the newbies gaining their first and all three points in what was initially thought to be a hugely difficult away fixture for the Tuscans.
From two games into the Serie A 2021/22, Juventus have finalised just one point coming from their 2-2 draw against Udinese on the opening matchday. The team has a long way to cover. Nevertheless, it is not a great start to the season, by any means, for the Bianconeri.
That being said, let us discuss three things that went wrong in what was initially expected to be a walk in the park for Le Zebre.
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3. Massimiliano Allegri’s 4-4-2 backfired drastically
In our pre-match piece, we emphasised how Empoli are adept in controlling things with the help of 4-4-2. They have mastered the way of toying with their opponents in 4-4-2, where the midfield lines up in the shape of a diamond. Allegri, like us, might have foreseen that they would play in the same formation against Bianconeri. And that’s why he, out of nowhere, introduced his 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield.
Before the game, the expectation among the enthusiasts was that it would be Manuel Locatelli’s first start in the Black and White colour. But Allegri had other intentions. He ended up fielding Danilo in the deep midfield role, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Adrien Rabiot playing as two box-to-box midfielders and Weston McKennie occupying the head of the diamond.
Allegri made up that plan in an attempt to cut sword with a sword. He might’ve thought that the team with better midfielders would top the battle. Ignorant of what radical changes could do to a footballing side, Allegri was intended to outsmart Aurelio Andreazzoli. But the latter prevailed when the two swords eventually clashed with each other.
Danilo started the game well, but things got worse for the Brazilian when Empoli midfielders and the forward line kept on pressing and pushing the 30-year-old back. At a time, he could no more keep hold of the midfielder. To say the least, he seemed powerless, unable to fix his authority in what is regarded as the most crucial part of the field.
While Bentancur, who completed the most number of tackles (3) for the hosts, was doing his best to mop up the pressure in his box-to-box midfield role, the pair of Rabiot and McKennie was not up to the task assigned to them. Hence, despite having a better set of midfielders (on paper), Juventus lost the game. Allegri’s plan to nullify the threat of 4-4-2 with the implementation of his self-made 4-4-2 comically backfired on Saturday evening.