Wednesday 24 February 2016

Juventus's Fighting Spirit Give them Slight Hope against Bayern




There is one positive that Juventus can take out of a match that they deserved to lose. Despite being schooled, and not being allowed to play their ball at all, especially in the first half; they can at least say that they have amazing character. Most teams would have folded and lost at two down, but to get back in the game shows that they never give up. That type of resilience is always needed in any team, and may need to rely on that to somehow cause an upset against a superior Bayern.

Now, to the match. Allegri has to hold his hands up and admit that he got the tactics wrong. Seeing that his team could not hold onto the ball, and Bayern were having an insane amount of possession, adjustments had to be made. But Allegri just left things as they were and Bayern continued to totally dictate the game, which isn't how it should go when you're the home team. Juventus had to fight too hard to get the ball and when they had it, there was no tactic or plan or spacing to keep the ball long enough to try and swing the game in their direction.






Allegri's plan was to allow Bayern to have the ball and hit them on the counter, which is what they did against Napoli and ended up winning that game. The only problem which Allegri did not see was how much better Bayern are with the ball than Napoli and how good their pressing game is. By allowing Bayern to have the ball and not putting pressure on them, it allowed Pep's team to easily keep the ball but they also really pushed and attacked for goals and did not just sit back and be patient which is what Allegri assumed they were going to do.

Luckly for Juventus, this did not end in 3-0 or 4-0. Bayern could have put this game to bed and ended this tie last night, but Juventus kept themselves in the game. When Allegri made the changes and they pressed Bayern and played at a higher energy, they actually put a lot more pressure on Bayern and got back in the game and could have even won it. So you have to ask the question why Allegri did not make his team play with the same kind of energy in the first half? Especially seeing how Bayern were able to easily pick their passes and create their chances?

There's still a game to play in Munich, and Juventus have got a chance. But Allegri needs to come with a whole new gameplan and find a way of playing a more direct game and getting the ball to their players when they do get possession. But they need to put a lot more pressure on Bayern because as it showed, if they allow these Bayern boys to keep the ball and they sit back, they will get beatdown. HH

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