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Juventus: 3 things that went wrong in the defeat against Empoli

By Jyotirmoy Halder

TURIN, ITALY - AUGUST 28: Paulo Dybala, Manuel Locatelli and Alvaro Morata of Juventus protest to the referee Davide Ghersini following a decision against their team during the Serie A match between Juventus and Empoli FC at Allianz Stadium on August 28, 2021 in Turin, . (Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
TURIN, ITALY - AUGUST 28: Paulo Dybala, Manuel Locatelli and Alvaro Morata of Juventus protest to the referee Davide Ghersini following a decision against their team during the Serie A match between Juventus and Empoli FC at Allianz Stadium on August 28, 2021 in Turin, . (Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images) /
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2. Juventus’ forward selection caused some chaos

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Federico Chiesa, Juventus (Photo by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images) /

Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t start the previous game against Udinese. But losing him on the back of a drastic change in fortune, Allegri seemed quite desperate for a positive result, chopping and changing his tactics as well as the personnel. It came as a shock that he opted to play Paulo Dybala and Federico Chiesa up top, with no natural forward being fielded to lead the line. Allegri seemingly wanted Dybala to utilise his magic and find the runs of Chiesa from the deep.

Chiesa made a couple of thriving darts, taking on Emopli defenders one against one. In fact, he came close to giving Juventus the lead, only for Empoli custodian in Guglielmo Vicario to fist the goal-bound shot away for a corner. Chiesa running through the space in the Empoli midfield was a frequent scenario on Saturday evening. But all those runs grew to no avail, thanks to the lack of support from an isolated midfield.

Paulo Dybala, per Whoscored.com, threaded six crosses into the box with an accuracy of zero per cent, meaning there was no one to meet the end of those deliveries. Certainly not playing a natural striker came to bite Allegri at his backside. Perhaps with Cristiano Ronaldo, the scoreline would’ve been better for the home side. If stats from SofaScore is taken under consideration, Juventus attempted seven shots in the first half of the game.

After Alvaro Morata took the field as a second-half substitution, Juventus found a striker around whom they could orchestrate their play and who could also cunningly lead the line. However, soon came the change that made no sense at all.

One of the best players on the night, Federico Chiesa was taken off at the 65th minute of the game, making way for Dejan Kulusevski. Changes as this were erroneous and the ones Allegri might look to work on going forward. In the second half, Juventus created better goalscoring chances, attempting 11 shots in the process.

The pre-season was there to assess the strengthens and weaknesses of his squad. Now that season has started, there is no room for mishaps and trying out new combinations. Well, who are we to instruct Allegri, a five-time Scudetto winner with the Bianconeri? We are here to say that it didn’t work out on Saturday.

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