Juve was certainly in complete control of the match, but things weren’t exactly going their way. Does that makes sense? I hope it does. Juventus attempted 29 shots against Cesena. TWENTY-NINE. They had 74 percent of the possession. And this was without Andrea Pirlo and his glorious hair on the field. But only eight of those were on goal. Not exactly a kind of ratio we were all hoping for.

But like we’ve seen in the previous couple of seasons, it was a match that Juve might have dropped points in. Be it a fluke equalizer late by (insert low-table team here) or continuous chances being blown, the past few editions of our beloved Bianconeri had found a way to come away with one or no points rather than three in the kinds of games against teams they should beat.

Yes, it should’ve been put away much earlier, but they got the job done. Three more points and back on top of the table. Business has been taken care of.

LE PAGELLE:

Buffon: 6 – Only had to make one save, and that wasn’t even difficult. Probably could have sat on a Chaise lounge chair with Alena and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. It was nice of the guys to pass it back to Gigi every now and then to make sure he was still awake.

Lichtsteiner: 6.5 – Back to normal for the Swiss right back. He did his usual running, got involved in the offense frequently. With Cesena sitting back and defending the whole time, Licht was able to push up as much as he wanted to. Getting Forrest Gump back to normal was definitely a good sight considering how much he struggled — especially defensively — against Napoli.

Barzagli: 6.5 – If I were to tell you that he’s the only guy to play in every single minute, what would you say? Crazy, isn’t it? Didn’t have to do much with Cesena sitting back trying to weather the Juve storm in front of their goal, but he didn’t have any major screw ups either. Sound performance.

Bonucci: 6.5 – The only blemish for Leo was his screw up in the match’s opening moments. Other than that, things were solid. There was no Napoli hangover. Obviously we’ll see in the coming matches against more attack-minded teams (Hi, Udinese) whether that is still the case.

Chiellini: 6.5 – Like his teammate on the other flank, was really able to push up the field with Cesena doing nothing on offense. Had a part in a lot of the attacks, be it crosses or going more centrally toward the middle of the pitch.

Marchisio: 7 – On a night where goals were extremely hard to come by for the Juve offense, leave it to Il Principino to get the game-winner. An extremely well taken effort, both with his first touch and then the finish with his left foot, for his sixth (!!) goal of the campaign. I love this man.

Vidal: 7.5 – He was an absolute warrior in the midfield; Vidal was all over the place against Cesena — breaking up a potential attack, contributing to his own team’s attack. The stats back it up: 91 percent pass accuracy, 10 tackles. Had the assist on Marchisio’s opener and then got a goal of his own with the late penalty. Man of the Match.

Pazienza: 6.5 – He’s certainly not Pirlo out there, but it was a smart match from Pazienza. Did his work, put in a good shift. A solid performance by the former Napoli man making his first start of the season. Now back to your role of being the official victory sub, Michele.

Pepe: 6 – Oh, Simone. Where were your finishing boots from the previous three games? Pepe had three incredible chances in the 2nd half to put his name on the score sheet for a 4th consecutive game. He didn’t finish any of them, blasting one right at Antonioli, one over the bar, and heading one just wide.

Matri: 5.5 – A frustrating night for Matri, without a doubt. Had chances but never really got into the flow of things in front of the goal. Was definitely a battle for him against Cesena. First time in a long time he had been substituted for that early in the second half.

Vucinic: 5.5 – He definitely had a better first half than he did against Napoli, but it just seems like there’s something missing with Mirko. He was involved in setting up some scoring opportunities, had a few scoring chances of his own, but he’s still struggling with that final step involved in scoring a goal. Was correctly yanked by Conte early in the second half.

Subs:

Quagliarella: 5.5 – Wait, Quags is allowed to play before 80 minutes is off the clock? Huh, who knew? He struggled to make a huge impact on the match. Understandable seeing how little he’s played this season.

Del Piero: sv – Finally got a chance to get a good chunk of playing time. But within eight minutes, he was being carried off the field after being kicked in the head. What about that backheel when he was in, though? Sexy.

Giaccherini: 6 – He came on after Del Piero had to be taken off. Got involved right off the bat and subsequently crashed into Antonioli for the resulting penalty.

Coach:

Conte: 7 – He’s now in charge of the only team in Europe to not lose a game this season. It’s incredible how well this squad is doing under Conte. He went back to the usual 4-3-3 setup and it looked much, much better. Obviously playing against a team that was just sitting back and defending the whole time helped, but there wasn’t any kind of tactical madness and chaos like there was against Napoli. Extra kudos for his celebration after Marchisio’s goal. He’s such a Juventino.

Things I think I think

#1: Only Il Capitano posts a picture of himself in an ambulance on Facebook to let everybody know he’s okay.

#2: That wasn’t a red card on Antonioli. That wasn’t even a penalty. And you might be saying right now “WAY TO STICK UP FOR THE KEEPER, YOU BIASED PUNK.” Yeah, well, the ref got both of the calls wrong.

Now I will patiently wait for everybody to disagree with me.

#3: So if that’s a red card in the ref’s mind, how is Rossi booting ADP in the face not a card? I don’t get it. Rossi was already on a yellow, give him another and he’s done … OH NOEZ! Incidental or not, that kind of challenge has to warrant something, right? I mean, Del Piero’s head needed eight stitches, so he obviously got a pretty good knock.

#4: Finish 2011 on a high note. Four more matches — three Serie A, one Coppa (this Thursday) — before the Christmas/New Years break. A struggling Roma side is next, then Novara, and finally Udinese. Those are all winnable matches, with the match at Udine being the toughest. Get nine out of nine points and things will be looking awfully nice going into a few weeks of vacation. Make it happen, boys.

THE JUVENTUS OFFSIDE SHITLIST:

- Krasic: Another game on the bench for poor Meelosh.

- Zebina: (lifetime award)

- Amauri: (lifetime award) #IBlameAmauri

If you’re strong, you’ll leave [team team] great, if you can’t do it, you’ll come out quickly because they’ll eat you after two draws. You’re not allowed to mess up, these younger players haven’t understood what Juventus is, what kind of history it has. There are a few in the Old Guard that can transmit this. Now there’s only Del Piero, because I see Gianluigi Buffon playing with a lot less enthusiasm.

Juve needs to return to being disliked- when I see my ex fellow players and managers, I tell them “you were obnoxious, unpleasant, and disliked.” Now it’s not like that anymore. Like Buffon, who after a loss caused by his error, was laughing with Gattuso at the end of the match. Before games, I had blood in my eyes, and when I played against the Rossoneri above all, I didn’t speak with anyone, not even with Ancelotti who I had a special relationship with. At most I spoke to him after the game to say hello, when it was all finished. Now the players at Juve act differently.”

Two notes on today’s match:
-After the game, Chiellini had harsh words for everyone and everything, and was visibly furious. He refused to speak on transfer speculation of him to Real, saying “I’m not going to talk about it when I’m this angry.” [Many of his comments regarding what Juve needs have unsurprisingly not been reported on the official site.]
-Gigi Buffon on the other hand was joking and laughing with Bojinov.

It makes me even more furious than the pathetic match did. Gigi, you’re an idol and a legend, but you are treading dangerous waters here. Del Piero was angry and stormed off the pitch when the game was done. Chiellini raged. Buffon? You’re the vice-captain- act like it.

You can read my review of the Catania game, and it rings exactly true. We meet a crappy squad at the Stadio Olimpico, one that has little left to play for. We dominate the first half, score two goals. One goal conceded- and we fly into a mad panic, showing no tactical shape or defending capability whatsoever. And sure enough, we take a sucker punch. Thank God that Uribe sucks and Marchisio was as always, in the right place at the right time, otherwise I’d be even more bitter than I am.

There is something seriously wrong with this team, and I blame most of it on Delneri. As a coach, he has miserably failed to make the Stadio Olimpico a home fortress. We are by far worse at home than on our travels, unable to keep a clean sheet or maintain a goddamn lead. We might talk about our garbage fullbacks, and that is a valid concern, but for God’s sakes, Ranieri managed to grind out games with Molinaro and Grygera on the flanks.

That’s what is greatly disappointing to me about Delneri. When I wrote about Gigi Delneri’s prototype “plan” for Juve you’ll note I spoke about his defense, particularly the ability to hold out leads. His teams are usually stingy. They grind out wins, much in the way Claudio Ranieri did, and while I expected more drawing than normal like we did with dear Claudio, not in the way we have been. Today’s game might have been endlessly entertaining to a neutral, but there is no doubt I’d take a boring 0-0 Ranieri draw over a Delneri draw. At least when Ranieri is up, he finishes out the game, and moreso, when he makes a defensive sub even at 0-0….it stays that way. Delneri makes defensive subs against Catania and we concede 2 more. We may play with grit on occasion, but we lack the steel reserve that the old Juve had.

Speaking of comparisons between Delneri and Ranieri, what the hell was with substitutions today? He made one, and while it worked out alright, I didn’t agree with putting on a slow attacker when the game is blazing end-to-end stuff. Ranieri made late subs if he made them at all, and Delneri took a page from his book today. When your team is suffering badly out there, one of the easiest ways to turn things around is to jive things up with a few substitutions, it shows you’re unsatisfied with the way things are going, and can lead to a tactical shift. It is incredibly clear that this Juventus cannot hold a lead. Chievo was absolutely assaulting our goal, the team was in complete disarray, no one was performing on a tactical or individual level, it was chaos. That is the time you need to throw on two players, if only to pause the game and scream at the players to mentally press reset and get back into position. Instead, we just watched Chievo score two.

Another strange similarity between Ranieri and Delneri’s sides at Juventus is the complete failure to achieve a difficult objective. We can get fired up for the big teams, sure, but we can’t beat the little sides, and whenever we come close to reaching “the dream” be it the Scudetto under Ranieri, or the CL under Delneri, we fail, miserably. The squad deserves some tongue-lashing for this, but ultimately it may speak to the limitations of these two managers- they cannot inspire a team to break through that final barrier to achieve a tremendous objective with a great team. It’s probably why neither will ever win a league title.

Disappointed Gigi is disappointed

LE PAGELLE:

Buffon: 6- Didn’t have much to do, but could have been sent off again with a reckless exit against Pelissier.

Motta: 5.5- An okay display from Motta, at least he got one side of the pitch right today. Nearly permanently missing from his defensive duties, but helped out a lot up top and a key reason why Milos looked good today. Still- this was an improvement for Motta, still not good enough by any means.
Barzagli: 6.5- Andrea has been surprisingly consistent ever since arriving in January, and as I’ve said a few times, I think he makes a better pairing with Giorgio or Bonucci because he’s more like Legrottaglie- the two are rather similar and it can work, but not as naturally. Not responsible for the team entirely giving up any defensive performance.
Chiellini: 5- Alright, so he nearly scored a goal, but Keyser Giorgio was otherwise terrible today. Bad clearances, bad touches, bad giveaways, poor manmarking, it was a real disappointing performance. He was all over the place, and not in a good way.
Grosso: 5.5- Did okay. Grosso has actually been somewhat reliable in the last few months, but at his age and salary, he’s not the way forward. I’m still all for selling him this summer if we can get Ziegler in.

Krasic: 6- A much improved display from the last few months, particularly with his decision making. Previously Milos would sprint up the wing and deliver a terrible ball or worse, just simply lose it, but he delivered some decent ones today. Rightfully booked for diving- his reputation precedes him, but it’s probably just because he never rolls around agony. Look- everytime he dives, he just kind of looks around. You’ve gotta act better if you’re going to convince the ref.
Marchisio: 6- I thought he was better than a lot of sites are giving him- he didn’t see too much of the ball, but a few of his through passes opened up Chievo, and he was battling hard defensively. Still doesn’t look totally comfortable switching back to central mid after over a year pushed out of position, but you can’t knock his tactical intelligence.
Aquilani: 6.5- Really should have scored in the first half, when an excellent cross ball to Milos was headed down to Motta. A few misplaced passes aside, Alberto did well to spread play. Unfortunately, as a team, we surrendered the midfield around the 60th minute.
Pepe: 6- A hardworking, efficient performance. Glad to see some natural width on the left.

Del Piero: 7- Another excellent performance from Il Capitano, a perfect penalty, a lovely assist, and a few good plays here and there to open up the game. Came close on a set piece. Great individual performance to celebrate his contract renewal.
Matri: 6.5- Worked real hard up top and was largely starved of service during the first half, but turned on his Trezeguet mode to finish past Sorrentino beautifully for Juve’s 2nd. Drifted out wide as the game progressed, which hurt the team’s attack.

Delneri: 4- What can I say more? Poor subs, and he does not have this team drilled on set pieces or defending. The team was without any kind of tactical identity for about 15 minutes, and he did nothing other than throw Toni on.
Toni: 6.5- Thought he did real well with the brief time he saw. Hit the post with a header, knocked down several balls to teammates, and generally made a nuisance of himself up top.

Things I Think I Think:

#1- I hate Pelissier. I hate Sardo. I hate Chievo: Before the match, I was chatting with Papai about Pelissier, and I mentioned that he’s the #1 player I would like to buy for the explicit reason of never having to face him. Julio Cruz used to be “that guy” but has since completely disappeared. I think I said the same thing back in November when he scored the last equalizer against us. I hate that sonofabitch. I dislike Sardo too, who marked his 2nd goal against Juventus, the culmination of one of the most average careers in the league. And I hate Chievo- nevermind their affiliation with Inter, they are a godawful team, one content to play 10 men behind the ball for an entire season to stay in Serie A. They aren’t the real team from Verona.

#2- Delneri could choose his words better: Before the match, he said he’d give himself 100% chance of being on Juve’s bench next season. After the match, he merely said “the club will decide.” Also, worst reaction ever to the match. He was arguing with the referee Gervasoni as the game ended, for what, I have no idea. Then he follows that up with the stupidest comment during the post-match interview he could have possibly said. For a man who’s had doubts all season about whether he is merely a good “provincial” coach, he suggested maybe Juve weren’t that big of a club. The fans are scared we’re turning into that, with the powers that be currently residing in Milan and Rome. Don’t confirm it. Also- if we are a “small” side, shouldn’t you be doing well?

#3- Beppe Marotta had some interesting words: “The statistics are clear, we’re ubneaten in 8 matches, but with 4 draws, 3 of which we let a 2-0 lead slip to a lower table team, this shows a lack of personality and balance in the team, we need to work on goals conceded- unfortunately we were unable to in this year, but now we will do it. [Fuck you, Motta. Does this mean we get real fullbacks?] We have very clear ideas, soon we will have a general meeting to discuss the situation for the good of Juve, there are two games and we will take a final decision after Parma. [Before Napoli?? Strange] Delneri has a two year contract and has the necessary basics to be our coach next year, but we need to evaluate everything, and it’s not right to say yet what we will decide. This week the CdA will meet, and there is determination from John Elkann and Andrea Agnelli to support Juve, but it’s wrong now to name figures, since we’re a publicly traded company. The team and everything will be evaluated, Juve at 1-0 should manage far better, in the case you’re ahead, you cannot let the other team back in like a team with such an inferior character. We will find players who do not succumb to this, so it does not occur again.”

#4- Like I said v Catania, I don’t like the hybrid 4-4-2/4-3-3: I think we play immensely better when we have two natural wingers, and I don’t buy the idea that Marchisio needs to play there to accomodate Aquilani and/or Grosso/DeCeglie. Grosso is doing “alright” back there, and Aquilani has improved his defensive game. Where does that leave space for Marchisio, I don’t know, but playing him at left-mid (or any CM for that matter) just bogs us down immensely. Maybe play it against big teams, big away matches, whatever, but when we’re playing a “small” team at home, we need to unlock them. Our width caused Chievo a lot of trouble today.
#5- Pazza Juve- How Juve became Inter and Vice Versa: I wrote this over a year ago. Is it just me, or is it eerily accurate?
#6- The coaching situation: I’m very disappointed with Delneri, but I said this a few weeks ago after Catania and I still stand by it. Where the hell do we go from here? I strongly believe the coaching continuity is an underrated part of a club’s success, and we have not had it since Calciopoli. I remember being one of the few who thought sacking Ranieri with 2 days to go (the first Juve coach to be sacked mid-season in 30 years or so) was absolutely ludicrous. Then we sacked Ferrara mid-season, of course I think we all know now that sacking Delneri with 4 games to go is pointless. He can do a better job next season with an improved team, but can he make 3rd? Sadly, that’s our aim, and I’m not so sure. It depends on who’d replace him. Mancini, Spalletti, Gasperini, Mazzarri I don’t think any of them can do much better, and so it’d be pointless to can him to go for another year of “this coach needs time to mould us.” There’s one man that we need to give an iron-clad 4 year contact- Andrea Agnelli and Beppe Marotta need to fly to Marseille and beg Didier to come to us. He just won his 3rd piece of silverware in his 2nd year at Marseille, and possibly could hit a domestic double two years running.

THE JUVENTUS OFFSIDE SHITLIST
- Andrea Agnelli: (2 weeks) Two words, Andrea. SILENZIO STAMPA.
- Mauro Bergonzi: (Lifetime Award)
- Gigi Delneri: (3 Weeks) A shambolic game v Catania followed up by a disgusting display v Lazio followed with a shambolic display against Chievo. Great.
- Catania: (Seasonal)
- Vincenzo Iaquinta: (Seasonal)
- Milos Krasic: Looked good today, particularly the final balls.
- Marco Motta: Good enough improvement.
- Jonathan Zebina: (Lifetime Award) The new Roby Baggio finishes his Brescia career on the bench?

“Alla Juventus vincere non è importante, è la sola cosa che conta”

Marco flanked by Brazzo/Grygera- “Hey, what’d you two do today?”

Could not have been any more stereotypical, right? Roma starts out brightly, playing 4-2-3-1, assaulting our goal. When it doesn’t go in, thanks to some miracle saves from Marco Storari, the Roman mentality kicks in- they despair. Some teams fight back when they go 1-0 down, they didn’t. Our mentality is a little different; this was an old-school Juventus performance, where we didn’t play the best, but we capitalized on our chances, and they didn’t. That’s essentially the story.

This result was very important from a morale standpoint, important as well looking at the table, as Udinese and Lazio both lost this weekend, but it doesn’t mean we’re back into the Champion’s League hunt, we threw away far too many points in January and February to consider that a possibility. We may finally be getting out of a funk, and a home match against a pretty terrible Genoa could serve as more chicken soup to rehabilitate the squad. This was our 3rd victory in a row against Roma in the capital…could it lead to our first 3 victories in a row this season?

BEAST.

LE PAGELLE:

Storari: 8- My goodness, what a game from Marco Storari. If he wanted to prove that he deserves the starting gloves for now, he could not have done it any better. Pulled up 3 goal-saving tremendous saves in the first half, and all credit for last night’s win and clean sheet go to Marco. We could have easily gone into the half 2-0 down, and who knows what would have happened there?

Motta: 6- A vast improvement on what we’ve seen thus far, managed to contain Mirko well enough for the most part. Occasionally gave Vucinic too much space to cross, didn’t even try and block his cross for Totti at the far post.
Bonucci: 6- Typical Bonucci performance- a bit too casual with the ball at times, but once he cut out the nonsense, was a solid showing at the back.
Barzagli: 6.5- A good performance from the ex-Palermo man. Covered the backline well. Playing-wise, he compliments Bonucci well, they just need to work on their partnership and moreso, one needs to assert themselves as leader of the backline.
Grosso: 7- By far Fabio’s best ever performance in Bianconero, as a result, the whole team is spending time at the tanning machines in Vinovo today. For the most part, he kept Menez quiet in defense, and was tremendous up top, pulling in two fantastic assists and nearly scoring himself. Good work Fabio- now take the rest of the season off.

Marchisio: 6.5- An all-action performance from the Juventus captain. Worked hard in defense, carried the ball well, and all-in-all, helped to control the midfield. I felt in a pure 3-man midfield, he got a lot more space than normal, and did well with it. When Pepe or Krasic carried the ball up the pitch, they passed it right to the opposition. Claudio’s got a very cool head, even when he goes on a 40 yard run, he makes an intelligent pass at the end.
Felipe Melo: 7- Rock solid performance from the returned midfielder- as Adam mentioned on last week’s podcast, Melo always seems to play his best against Roma. Played relatively deep, almost a defender at times, and never put a foot wrong. There was a point where he was dribbling with the ball under pressure from two Roma players, and I feared a Melo-of-old foolish turnover. Instead, he calmly passed it straight back to Storari. A very tactically disciplined performance.
Aquilani: 5.5 I was rather disappointed with Aquilani’s performance, perhaps the jeers of the Roma crowd got to him. In the first half, his passing was rather poor, failing to meet its target or forcing the player to take it wide. As Roma ceded the midfield in the 2nd half, Albertino grew into the match, but still all in all, a rather down performance.

Krasic: 6- I’m surprised by some of the glowing reviews that Milos is getting for the match, Datasport gives him a 7.5 and calls him “looking like the Milos of old.” There were three real positives about his performance- he saw a lot of the ball, was getting into excellent positions to receive the ball, and opened the scoring with a well struck right-footed volley. There were plenty of negatives too- he was frequently wasteful with the ball, either preferring to shoot (when others, say Pepe, were standing ready to run onto it) or making a 40-50 yard run only to pass it straight to Roma. He can be one-dimensional at times, switching flanks with Pepe helped, but he’s gotta continue developing.
Matri: 6.5- Worked hard as a lone striker. For most of the first half, he was relatively isolated and I was calling for someone to play as a seconda punta to try and support him. Excellent run to go 1v1 beating the offside trap, and cool as ice as he placed it right between Doni’s legs to kill off the game. Including his Italy debut, Matri has 7 goals in 10 games since joining Juve in January. He also scored 11 goals for Cagliari in the first half of the season. In tremendous form.
Pepe: 6- Again asked to play a different role, Simone worked his ass off running up and down the pitch. Had a great turn and shot that Doni saved, but otherwise doesn’t look too clinical up top. Still think he should be experimented with as a fullback, he could be great there.

This is starting to get a bit creepy.

Delneri: 6- Hard to give him a rating here- if it weren’t for Storari’s miracles, we might be back in crisis, with finger-pointing all around. The formation was a decent, but not great one. Not because of the individual errors that led to Storari making those magnificent saves, but because we didn’t look too deadly up top until Rome pushed forward and conceded more and more space. Their desperation led to our win.
Salihamidzic: 10- He lives!
Sorensen: s.v.- Thrown on as a cameo.

Things I Think I Think:
#1- One good game does not a fullback make: Funny as hell that Grosso and Motta have decent games, and neither of them have the opportunity to repeat it next week- Grosso is suspended for yellow card accumulation, and Motta of course was injured. I don’t think either of them would have had a good game against Genoa anyways, so it’s a blessing both happened. I nearly threw my laptop out the window when I saw them lining up against Roma. One good performance doesn’t change the fact that they’re both shit and need to leave this summer.

#2- Marco Storari proves his worth, puts Delneri in a pickle: You may recall I argued a few weeks ago that Marco Storari should be starting ahead of Gianluigi Buffon right now. I was met with ridicule, but Buffon has gone on to make more errors, and Storari pulled off a blinder of a match against Roma. Note I never said that Gigi should be sold, it was only until the team started racking up enough points that we could reintroduce Gigi. Storari’s performance was enough to make Delneri a bit uncomfortable, and then he followed up with this throw down after the match.

“Only a blind person can’t see what I am doing and I hope the Coach is not blind,” he stated at the Olimpico. “Will I move to Roma instead of Buffon? I have never hidden the fact that I am a Roma fan, but the truth is that I am happy at Juventus and I want to earn some space here.”

I think there’s no doubt he’s irritated that Delneri made a lot of fuss about meritocracy before Buffon returned, and then ended up immediately benching him anyways. That’s a serious challenge from Marco though, implying that he wants the #1 gloves. Delneri responded afterwords- “I know what Marco said, we spoke, and he knows I respect him. I understand it’s difficult to sit on the bench, and that he deserves to play, but he has a great champion like Buffon ahead of him, today he demonstrated that he’s a great professional and a great man. I hope he stays for a long time at Juventus even if he’s not playing.”

To me, that’s Delneri saying “Thanks Marco, but Gigi is still our #1.” I don’t think Storari will be too happy to hear that, and considering the great form he’s in, I really don’t know if he’ll stay this summer. At his age, he’s still got 2-3 years at the top level left, and he’s been kind of a late bloomer, he might want his time in the limelight. With Manninger’s contract expiring and leaving in almost all certainty, we might go from having 3 tremendous keepers to one. But there’s no doubt in my mind, if Storari wants to be #1, he will have to leave Juventus. I will wish him well, I have become a big fan of his.

#3- Is the formation change behind the result? No: A lot of people said hallelujah when they saw us line up with a 4-5-1, or a 4-3-3 depending on your view. Like I said on Delneri’s rating, we could be having a very different discussion right now. Offensively, it didn’t work very well, and it took Mexes’ injury and an increasingly desperate Roma before we got in a goal. Is Delneri’s “typical” 4-4-2 a real 4-4-2? No. Did this formation change revolutionize us? Again, no.

#4- I love Mauro Camoranesi. I also love David Trezeguet. Shame they didn’t get what they deserve. Juve has a bad history of booting out our legends.

#5- La Stampa was on one hell of an NBA kick: “Fabio Grosso made dazzling assists, he seemed like a calcio-version of Magic Johnson. Felipe Melo planted himself square in the area like Shaquille O’Neill, marking “return to sender” for all of Totti’s shots.” Wow. Is it the playoffs or something?

THE JUVENTUS OFFSIDE SHITLIST
- Gigi Delneri- Two wins help. Get a third.
- Jonathan Zebina: (Lifetime Award)
- Marco Motta: (2 weeks) Hasn’t done enough to get him off the list.
- Vincenzo Iaquinta: (Seasonal)
- Giuseppe Marotta: Mauro and David, really? You douchebag.

It’s all about the tan, man.

“Alla Juventus vincere non è importante, è la sola cosa che conta”

Hell of a way to wish someone luck, no?

As I sit and watch the Derby della Madoninna, I find it easy to reflect and think about what it must be like to be a fan of one of the Milan teams.  Despite the players and coaches downplaying this all week, this game will certainly be decisive as to which team team wins the Scudetto.  Any tifoso must be on pins and needles. 

If you’re a fan of Juventus or Roma, however…well, you don’t have that problem.  In fact, if you’re like me, you’ve forgotten what that even feels like.  At this point, both teams are languishing in a sort of purgatory: their squads that are just short of complete, and they’re both stuck in this spot where neither are elite, nor are they mid-table.

Although neither are fighting for the Scudetto, that doesn’t diminish the gravity of the match tomorrow.  With Roma and Juventus 6 and 11 points out of a Champions League spot, respectively, tomorrow will determine whether either squad have a reasonable chance to play with Europe’s elite next year.  Make no mistake – Roma is certainly in a better position.  Saying that Juventus have an uphill battle is an understatement.  I’m not delusional, and not for a second stating that I believe a win tomorrow will put us back within a reasonable chance to make the Champions League.  Come see me in a month from now, and show me what the table looks like then.

If you’re more optimistic than I am, well, first of all, you’re probably not Italian.  However, if you’re Gigi Delneri, you have a reason to at least need to pretend to be, and tomorrow could prove to be a turning point.  While a longshot, a win would at least provide a glimmer of hope for a top four finish.  It would also be a big blow to Roma. 

With that in mind, I’m expecting a pretty wide-open game.  Roma will be coming out with guns blazing, desperate for a win.  I think the same will be true for Juventus.  As the podcasters astutely noted, Roma may have equally bad or worse wingbacks than Juventus.  That says something.  At any rate, Juventus were handed a big blow this week, as Giorgio Chiellini will be sidelined, as will the one bright spot as of late, Alessandro Del Piero.  The injuries to Paolo De Ceglie and Fabio Quagliarella were bad enough, and things couldn’t possibly get worse.  Right? 

Well, it was reported today that Leonardo Bonucci and Claudio Marchisio have had to leave training for different knocks.  Great. 

At least neither injury seems serious, and both players were still included with the squad. 

One question that remains is what lineup and formation Delneri will use.    Tuttomercatoweb is predicting Delneri’s standard-issue 4-4-2 , with a lineup including Grygera and (gulp) Grosso as the wingbacks, with Matri and Toni up top.  However, Tuttosport predicts  a switch to a 4-3-3, ala the game against Cagliari.  Their version includes Sorenson and (Jesus!) Grosso in the back, with a midfield made up of Marchisio, Aquilani, and Melo, and a trident of Pepe, Matri, and Krasic in attack. 

All things considered, I think I’d prefer the 4-3-3.  We shall see. 

In Italian, we say “in bocca al lupo” – literally “in a wolf’s mouth” – in order to say “good luck.”  As it stands, tomorrow our beloved Old Lady will be staring 11 wolves in the face.  She may need a little luck yet.

(Big thanks to Sposato al Nemico for the artwork.  It’s one of my favorite ones yet)

There’s an unwritten rule in international football that managers try not to break the players that are “on loan” to them from the clubs. If it’s a real match, that’s thrown out the window. If it’s a qualifier, the manager still does whatever he pleases. If it’s a friendly match against a pretty crappy side after the qualifier, then the manager should be rotating, and crucially, resting players that he used in the first leg. It’s not a requirement, it’s just generally understood that oh, say, if a striker plays 90 minutes in a qualifier, he’s rested for the next game. (If it’s a friendly)

Prandelli obviously doesn’t believe that, as he decided to continue to play Giorgio Chiellini, despite rotating oh, the entire rest of the team. (Save his boy Montolivo, but he still has much to prove in Azzurro) And what happened? It cursed that spot, man. First, Giorgio picks up an injury 17 minutes into the match, and his substitute, Davide Astori, was sent off! Spooky. The Gods have spoken, Cesare.

So Keyser Giorgio is injured. One of the most injury-immune players on the team, and he’ll be out for approximately a month- in all seriousness, that might end up tying his personal record for longest time injured. What does that mean? It means against a rejuvenated Roma, with creative geniuses lining up against us, like Totti, Vucinic, and…uh, Taddei and Perrotta (okay, omit the last 2) we get to see the dreaded Barzagli-Bonucci pairing make its return. And that’s not even talking about the possibility of seeing Traore, Grosso, Grygera, or Motta lining up the flanks. God help us all.

But I’m not a particularly religious person, so uh……….hey, Trapattoni, please say a prayer for us!

That’ll do.

With no game to review this past weekend the guys still got together and chewed the fat of a number of topics that normally there would not be time to delve into. First up was the Azzurri’s qualifier against Slovenia which was very difficult for three Juventini to assess for a number of reasons, chief among them being impressive displays from fullbacks. (you may need to google what that actually means, we know it’s been a while!) Of course the majority of the focus was the Bianconeri on display and what their performances may mean upon returning to club duties.

From there a close up of the players away from the club on loan began, with Ekdal, Marrone, Amauri, Pasquato and Giovinco featuring prominently. Lastly there is a preview of the Roma game, which seemed an ideal opportunity to invite the Giallorossi-supporting Julian De Martinis on the show. Initially he was allowed to discuss his team then Adam blames him for Marco Motta & it descends into who’s Captain is better…..

Hope you all enjoy the show (even you Julian!) Thanks for listening as always

Aaron, Marco, Lars and Adam

Simply getting better and better and better as time passes by. No not this podcast, Alessandro Del Piero who led his team to victory yet again this past weekend as Brescia visited Turin. Finally securing three points Delneri’s men looked good going forward but the defensive fragility remained and this is discussed at great length by the boys in this episode. Also up for debate is the mental state of Gigi Buffon who gave up another soft goal, the complete lack of cohesion and leadership in defence as well as the improvement seen in attack since the arrival of Ale Matri.

One small step as they say! Thanks again for listening and don’t forget you can download the podcast from itunes too here

It wasn’t all horrible. I’m not sure why, but in the last month or so, this team has improved in certain ways…and at the same time, others compensate by shitting it up. Cesena was no different- after 4 goalless games, our midfield and strikeforce finally looked competent, although it wasn’t by fluke, with Matri finally fielded as a proper central striker with a seconda punta. While the offense and midfield looked far brighter than their dismal display against Milan, the defense suddenly collapsed. The technical quality of Cesena (what?) unlocked the defense, and I’m not sure if it was nerves or a more basic difficulty against their skill, but the defense looked nervous from minute one. And it wasn’t just Traore and Motta, who we all expected little of, it was Chiellini who is supposed to be our rock. When it isn’t your season, I guess it just isn’t your season…

LE PAGELLE:

Buffon: 6.5- I’m tempted to give him a 5, or a 7.5. More on that later.

Motta: 4- Did it surprise anyone that Motta doomed us? Not me. I haven’t been a fan since minute one, and he’s just getting worse and worse. Today was his first start since January, and if it was Delneri’s idea of “okay, you have one last chance to prove anything” then there’s no doubt Motta is heading back to Udinese. (not that there ever was) He’s not even worth the 1.25mil paid for the next 3 seasons, a damning indictment. Sorry Marco, but you’re just dreadful. No other way to say it.
Bonucci: 5.5- Seems to have problems with tricky fast players. Parolo and Giaccherini gave him endless problems, he was saved several times by San Gigi.
Chiellini: 5- Did I see a different game from everyone else? Browsing through some other sites pagelle, they are generally positive reviews of his performance. I thought it was awful. Completely schooled by Parolo for the penalty, had he hauled him down it would have been a yellow. Everytime he was in possession, he was making nervous clearances, poor passes, backpasses that threatened the goal…I was very disappointed in Giorgio last night.
Traore: 6- A satisfactory game, all things considered, but like Motta, there’s pretty much no chance of seeing him in Bianconero next season. Offered a bit of forward movement and looked composed enough in defense.

Pepe: 6- A typical hardworking performance that saw him deliver a few good crosses, get into good position, and horrible scuff his chances. Kidding. Pepe won’t offer flash, but it was nice to have a genuine wideman on the left for once.
Aquilani: 6- Quality play in the first half, but simply outnumbered after Motta was sent off.
Marchisio: 6- Ditto for Aquilani. Covered a lot of ground.
Krasic: 5.5- Another subdued performance from Milos. A few flashy moments here and there where he accelerated away from his marker, but pretty much the same performance we’ve seen from him of late.

Del Piero: 7- Magical. Seems to have lost his shooting boots, but there is no doubting his quality. It makes the decision to bench him for Toni in the last few weeks look all the more baffling.
Matri: 7.5- Pacey, direct, strong, and clinical in front of net, what’s not to like? 5 goals in 6 games for Juventus, and as Adam notes on “It Ain’t Over Till the Old Lady Sings” he has scored as many goals this season as Bari’s entire team, yet no one seems to talk about him.

Delneri: 5- The starting XI was the right one, Motta aside. After the game, he said “Today we chose quality, and I liked the midfield performance.” Very true. The midfield was a quality group, as well as up top, as opposed to Marchisio playing on the left-wing, and Matri-Toni up top. Italian coaches are notorious for preferring hardworking tall players (Iaquinta) over quality ones, and Delneri has been guilty of this very often as well. It’s about damn time he chose quality, even if Toni was injured and Melo/Sissoko out, and up until Motta screwed the pooch, we looked good. Let’s hope Delneri chooses quality more often.
Grygera: 5.5- A correct substitution, and probably the only one.
Martinez: 5- Useless. But at that point, as much as Martinez has been useless this season, we had surrendered the midfield. He was never going to get into the game.
Iaquinta: 4- It is really depressing watching Vincenzo play.

Check out the shoulder charge Aquilani delivers for Matri’s 1st goal to free up Alex…

Things I Think I Think:

#1- Marco Motta needs to walk back to Udinese: Trezeguet was flown in First Class to Alicante. Diego flew coach to Germany. Knezevic was afforded a 1-way Greyhound bus ticket back to Tuscany. Marco? Time to start hiking. Maybe you can hitch-hike with Iaquinta.

#2- Gianluigi Buffon’s performance was again frustrating: I called for Marco Storari to be drafted in goal, and took a fair amount of criticism then. I took even more when San Gigi popped up with three tremendous saves, and people asked if I would recant my heresy against Gigi. No. If you misread my earlier post as suggesting Gigi is the root of Juve’s issues, or even a significant problem, then I apologize for not clearing it up. He’s not the problem. But he hasn’t been up to par of late, and if you can say that about any player, if they have a valid alternative, you should consider a switch. Here’s the point about yesterday- yes, Gigi kept us in the game late. But he should have sent off for the 2nd time in a month, and that would have screwed us over. Would we have been hammered in the 2nd half if we were 2-0 up still? Doubt it.

It was still a Juve-dominated game until the penalty, then Motta was shortly sent off afterwords. And speaking of that sending off, there’s no doubt in my mind that Bergonzi sent him off poor ‘ole Marco to compensate for not sending off Gigi, either consciously or subconsciously. Is a high foot a yellow? Yes. Is it a second yellow before the half in a relatively level-headed game? No. The defense deserves a hefty amount of blame (particularly Chiellini for letting Parolo through) but so does San Gigi. He made great saves and it’s lovely to see him do that, but he’s still making critical judgement errors that are jeopardizing the team. If we go into that half 2-0 up with 11 men, it’s a different game.

The Focal Point

#3- It’s about time Matri returns to a prima punta role: I had been whining about this for the last few weeks. Matri is a good player- he can play wide, he can play deeper, but it’s wasted there. I still think signing Luca Toni is a relatively smart decision, if he plays as a reserve. If he’s starting over Alex, it’s a mistake. If he’s starting over Alex and forcing Matri to play wider or deeper, then it’s a crime. Sure enough, we saw Ale-Ale up top, and it was a classic prima punta-seconda punta partnership. Del Piero provided fantasy, and Matri bulldozed through the Cesena defense with acceleration and strength. Imagine seeing Matri-Quagliarella up top next season…

#4- Should Delneri stay until the summer? No doubt in my mind- when you sign a coach and are battling for the Scudetto up until December, you should give him the full year. Sacking GDN makes no sense at this point- it’s like canning Ciro Ferrara or Giampaolo Ventura for Bari. If we admit that Champion’s League qualification is beyond our grasp (as it appears to be) what is the point in canning him? Last year, we were in free fall when we sacked Ciro, and I said there was little point because this squad wasn’t salvageable, so give Ciro some time to work. Sure enough, Zaccheroni, try as he might, could not turn around our fortunes. Same with Delneri- if we missed out on our goal, CL qualification, why sack him? Why not give him until the rest of the season so we can make a qualified and fair judgement on him this summer?

All Cesena’s base are not belong to us

#5- It’s irrelevant, as he has the clubs backing: Earlier this week, Andrea Agnelli and his cousin John Elkann visited Vinovo and chatted with Delneri and the players for a while. We discuss this on the podcast, but Agnelli/Elkann are not going to make that trip if they intend to sack him soon, particularly John Elkann who is removed from the day-to-day running of the club. Today the club attacked Tuttosport publicly (as I’ll discuss further below) which is further proof that they are backing Delneri. It’s the right move, until the summer at least.

#6- Giaccherini: Worst miss ever? Rivals Marchionni’s miss v Sampdoria.

#7- Aquilani and Marchisio midfield: I like it. It has a lot of potential, though it’s clear they aren’t fully accustomed to play with each other. Some say it’s too weak, but I think that’s the attitude that sees Toni starting up top over Alex Del Piero. It worked well in the first half of the game, and some might say they failed to control the midfield in the second, and that’s true. But the midfield was down a man when Motta was sent off, and it’s not realistic to expect Juve to dominate possession at that point.

Official Note from Juventus:

Juventus Football Club has maintained an open dialogue with all of the media during this season. The club intends to continue on this line, despite the sporting results that are unsatisfactory as judged by the fans, the technical staff, the management, and the players. Every component is absolutely committed to the improvement of the team towards that deserving of the clubs tradition, however, we maintain that the newspaper Tuttosport has been completely irresponsible, which pretends to be a newspaper “of reference.” The newspaper has spread unreliable news, with the only objective to call into question the professionalism of the coach, of some players, and the management. To create a list of 7 names of possible new coaches in 8 days is to simply provoke the emotions, without facts based in credible reports or having credible sources.

Juventus does not have newspapers “of reference” nor “preferred”, and the large portion of the Juventus fanbase is the same.

The players, the coaches, the employees, and the management continue to work, knowing that this season will create the base for a work that needs to completed quickly, to bring the Bianconeri colors where the history, tradition, and millions of fans have put it. With passion, with courage, with determination.

An interesting press release from the club, slamming Tuttosport for being full of nonsense. There’s a lot of subtext in this, particularly the 2nd paragraph. (I’ve preserved the original formatting) In some ways, I regard this note as inexperience from Andrea Agnelli, lashing out at the newspapers in frustration. It certainly reinforces the point I made earlier that the management is still backing Gigi Delneri. Others have suggested this is John Elkann who is well versed in the media, turning the tables on Tuttosport. The newspaper does have a lot of access to Juve, and pretty much have been actively working to bring it down over the last two years. It certainly throws some pressure on Tuttosport, and I wonder what the Cazzetta and Corriere will have to say about it.

I’m going to miss this…

THE JUVENTUS OFFSIDE SHITLIST
- Gigi Delneri: (1 week) Can he get us out of this psychological funk? He’s got the experience…but I haven’t been too impressed thus far. Slow improvements, but we need drastic ones.
- Jonathan Zebina: (Lifetime Award) You douchebag. I’ve waited about 7-8 years to see JZ come to Torino as an opponent, and he gets suspended for the match? He’s trolling us, man.
- Marco Motta: (1 week) Too deserving. He’ll finish the season on the list and probably end up in the Juventus Offside Shitlist Hall of Fame. He’s like the Italian Z3BINA, without the douchiness. Occasional ability in attack, poor defending, utterly average. Today’s red card, deserved or not, complicated things immensely. Somewhere someone in Montreal is grinning when I say this- I miss Cristian Molinaro.
- Vincenzo Iaquinta: (1 week) It’s sad to put him on this list, because I’ve been a big fan. In the few spurts he’s remained uninjured, he looked like a great striker, and very capable coming off the bench. He has not been the same player since his 100-day injury last season, and he looks completely spent as a player. It’s sad, but Vincenzo has to go- even if he gets into some kind of form, he’ll likely get injured the next weekend. We spoke about Iaquinta on the podcast a while ago, about how unlike Toni/Del Piero he doesn’t “ride the fouls” (to put it nicely) and takes the full brunt of every foul, and that’s probably why he’s so injured. Against Cesena, he flopped like Toni and angrily rose his arms like Amauri when he didn’t get the foul. Awful.

“Alla Juventus vincere non è importante, è la sola cosa che conta”