PotD: “This Is The Spirit Of Juventus”

sam - i think they have cage fighting or UFC shit going down at the training ground because everyone seems to get hurt there

cant wait to see the team, hopefully a great performance like the one against samp

Good play. Now Momo is injured again. Hope Poulsen lives up to the billing. Plus, Melo has played so many games and he has been a blessing. My only problem is him trying to be playmaker in front of the back four.

JUVENTUS (4-2-3-1): 1 Buffon; 21 Grygera, 5 F.Cannavaro, 3 Chiellini, 6 Grosso; 4 Felipe Melo, 16 Poulsen; 16 Camoranesi, 28 Diego, 20 Giovinco; 17 Trezeguet. A disposizione: 13 Manninger, 19 Molinaro, 33 Legrottaglie, 29 De Ceglie, 30 Tiago, 40 Immobile, 11 Amauri. All. Ferrara

NAPOLI (3-4-3): 26 De Sanctis; 14 Campagnaro, 28 Cannavaro, 96 Contini; 11 Maggio, 21 Cigarini, 23 Gargano, 6 Aronica; 17 Hamsik, 19 Denis, 7 Lavezzi. A disposizione: 1 Iezzo, 2 Grava, 77 Rinaudo, 5 Pazieza, 15 Datolo, 27 Quagliarella, 12 Pià. All. Mazzarri

thats how tutto napoli has the teams for tommorow...the games really are coming thick and fast these days!

if thats the team you play against us we are quite literaly fucked! p.cannavaro and contini will get destroyed and campagnaro will get sent off against giovinco

that vinovo ground is cursed! wtf is going on there?? at the very least we have tiago back...guessing we're going back to 4-3-1-2? which is okay as long as gio play upfront with amauri

napoli next, forza juve!

It's Poulsen-time, man.

I bet you the squad gets together once a week at practice and plays the "who gets injured first" game. Every fucking week! There should be a clause in everyone's contract that says if you get injured in training you don't get paid while you're injured.

apparently sissoko is out for the 20 days...
we are getting blasted by this damned injuries. This is bullshit.

tuttosport interviews gio, here: http://tinyurl.com/yg7t627

i tried to google-translate it, but most of the part dont seem clear. anyway, it seems that gio is fine with either formations.

Anyone know what Camoranesi's goal celebration meant? I guessed something like "the media talks but this is how we do" or something.

ned lowe I wish I could help you out, but I've got no idea what's going on there.

Pictures can say a thousands words no?

This is what I think. With Marchisio and Del Piero available, a 4-3-1-2 would work great. Marchisio is a much better midfielder than Sissoko, but Momo would be a better fit in a 4-2-3-1. Between injuries, resting of players, and suspensions, we should easily be able to accomodate all our stars by rotation of players and switching between the 4-3-1-2 and 4-2-3-1 (and 4-3-2-1).

What Ciro must consistently decide on is this: only ONE of Trez, Iaquinta and Amauri must make the starting 11 every single time.

@ Pablo, lol i actualy agree with 90% with all the things you say, i only hope if we change the formation back, its because we have no choice, not just to fill in 1 player( del piero)
about the game, i realy like the ferarra trade mark, banish those ridiculous long balls, keep the possesion, and let the oppontent run after it, the moment we recovere the ball, the only direction was forward!

I'm realy wandering what RANIERI would have done with this bunch of supertalents?
my guess... molinaro as the starting leftback,poulsen as a regular starter in a 442 system with diego on the wing throwing long balls forward and barly any play time for marchisio, giovinco and melo. thank god for ferrara. he delivers us a style suited for great teams, COMPLETE DOMINATON. and always on the initiative(exept bayrn ,but hey he's still learning :-))

4-2-3-1 is well and turly the way to go! Only problem is who do we play out of Melo, Sissoko and Marchisio? in the 2? I have noticed Ciro loves rotating his squad so should this really be a problem?

If we stick with this all we need now is a bloody right back!

georg, obviously we have different opinions and that's fine. In my case I'm not saying 4-2-3-1 it's a bad formation or worse than 4-3-1-2. All I'm saying is (and this will be the last time cuz it would be like the 4th or 5th time, unless we can elaborate on the argument) that we won't be able to keep playing it for the whole season.

The "success" we are obtaining is due to the good form of key players (Gio, Camo, Diego) and their availability. You can't ask other players to adapt and expect the same results. You need skillful/technically gifted players to do what we did yesterday, and De Ceglie and Iaquinta as subs for that formation are everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) except skillful players. This team was not built for 4-2-3-1, which is actually a shame cuz I do think is a really good formation (and if you ask me I'd say lets reinforce key areas for next season to make it our core formation, but not right now).

I was NOT surprised 4-2-3-1 worked fine (I even thought it was the way to play against Bayern). But considering the amount of injuries we are getting used to deal with, we will have to play different systems through the whole season to achieve success. And asking to keep playing the same formation despite injuries or player availability I think it's the wrong approach.

I'd also like to mention that it's not like 4-3-1-2 is not the right formation for us. Probably with the right players up front (ADP or Seba as a second striker and an ON FORM Amauri, Iaq or Trez) and on the midfield (not 3 DM for god's sake) it might work pretty well too.

I don't know the rest of you that much, but one of the reasons I like Italian football is because of its tactical approach. You don't play the same system all the time, you adapt the system to the rival, players availability, the result you want to obtain and even the time of the year (nothing like snow to ruin free-flowing football). And the system it's not only the formation, it's also the players you are using and their duties on the field.

I hope I made myself clear enough. Cheers.

georg, the thing is, we won't always have Sissoko and Melo back there. We should and will alternate the formations accordingly to our injuries, opponent and even weather (o.O)

Here's a little something btw from DIEGO:

http://www.uefa.com/traininggr...

wow the one game they play amazing i have to miss because of a stupid meaningless exam! still bitter about that. but amazing performance from what i can see and what ive heard! HOPEFULLY! we can continue this for the rest of the season!

i'm pretty surprised to see so many people surprised to see the 4-2-3-1 worked so well ( ok i did not expect a 5-1 trashing)
but looking at our players capacities and charasteristics, its logic this system suits them better.

even more surprised to hear voices of going back to 4-3-1-2, why the hell should we??? so we can play once more like we did vs genoa? or chievo? or bologna? or bordeaux? or bayrn? or siena? or palermo? even the best games in this formation(the romas)
are nothing compared to the 4-2-3-1. if we can ply like this after only 2 atempts, imagine what will be possible if we improve. and there is still much room for improvement. del piero marchisio and tiago will simply have to adapt

comon dudes, we just TRASHED the hell out of a team like sampdoria, outclassed them on any front. why oh why should you want to change that?marchisio tiago and delpeiro should simply adapt,...

marchisio would add a whole new dimension to your midfield, when hes fully fit he can do whatever sissoko and melo can do plus more

wow what a game, i didnt watch live but i watched a delay of it and juve were simply amazing, best performance in a while, i miss the 3rd and 4th goal in real time but they were great. amauri's performance certainly vindicate those who stick with him during the previous few months. for the 2nd goal when amauri was on the left, i was thinking " here we go again, he's surely going to do his silly step overs", but surprisely he passed and well the rest was history. the 4th goal, header was a killer, i think we missed such goals from him for some time and trez goal was also great, though i still reserve my judgement on him. i really hope he can get back his form and finish those chances for us, i'm keeping my fingers crossed there!

now not to dampen the spirits here, i think we still have much to prove, the first and second goal could easily be wasted on another day, and i'm not sure about the other goals, whether it is sampdoria giving up or that we just play too well against them, but i did see the team dominate the first half.

last, about the strikers, iaq waste a lot of chances but some of his finish are fantastic like the one against chelsea (trez flick) and if i m not wrong the one against bordeux, fool the keeper. i think for now we should play 4-2-3-1. giovinco's not really playing as the second striker right, he seems pretty much a attacking midfielder for me, ADP/giovinco and the three strikers would be the best, and diego CAN play with giovinco. now we just need a attacking right-back.

as you can see i'm really really happy about the performance, and i'm sure the rest of you are too, forza la vecchia signora! =)

I actually think Ciro will be changingthe formation through-out the season, depending on who is injured and all that. When ADP and Marchisio are back, he will surely play them on a 4-3-1-2. I think he realized that one formation is not enough for the whole season, and you have to play with what you have.

Melo and Sissoko can really hold anyone back there, Gio and Diego aren't friends yet (sure, they passed to one another, but very few times). If Gio figure out a way to get the ball to Camoranesi (all around the field), we would kick everyone's ass.

This result doesn't mean we are going to have lots of goals every game, it means our team is getting to really know each other. Melo has come nice invertions at the field, Grosso is crossing, Chiellini is our newest striker, Amauri is back (like I kept saying he would) and Trezeguet needs a offside training, he is getting more and more like Inzaghi FFS!

I really wish this result was against Bayern Munchen, to show the whole world we are back on track, but Samp will make the newspapers as well. If we pull matches like this the whole season, expect at least one trophy, or shield...

The Napoli game is going to be tight, they tied with Milan on the final minutes. Their defense and their goalie are worse than Samp's (if it wasn't for Castelazzi, it would be 7-1, easy). If we play well, we can kick their asses.

hey roberto

i usually save the match highlights with my real media player n watch them later when i get home, but that's not working with this particular vid...

what might b d reason y?

So whats gonna happen when Marchisio and Del Piero come back?

Cause right now Melo-Sissoko are on fire (actually Marchisio should take Sissoko's spot), and I would rather have Giovinco learning the game and being inconsistent then Del Piero playing ahead of him. It will do us more good in 1-2 seasons when Del Piero retires.

Ok, so can someone tell me where you can get the suit that Ciro Ferrara was wearing? It has the Juventus logo on it.

Marco, couldn't agree more. The question was facetiously aimed towards sir Ale and sir HolyMann who picked Iaquinta when he was in form. My thing is that I would pick cold Ama over hot Iaquinta, just because he is a better player overall.

What a match! I am bleary eyed at ofc now (the match started at 1 in the night in India), but feeling so so happy. A beautiful game played, just like the tifosi dreamed of at the start of the season.

Tough question, Ivo. Right now I would pick Amauri. Earlier this season I would have picked Iaquinta. Both are very good strikers. It just depends on who is in better form.

Ivo

1000000000000000000 percent Amauri !!!!!1

He better in the air, his better at holding the ball, his better taking defenders on,and more creative. His a better all around player in my opinion.

Soooo gorgeous. Just loved our performance.

We fought for every ball, we won the 50-50 balls, we were up in the air for every duel, we tracked back and closed down, we pressed and tackled well, and we passed like we have never passed before. And we finished our chances.

We all hoped Juve can play like this since the start of the season, now we now they can. Of course, as huge Juve fans we will ask of them to do this in every game for the rest of the season.

There was a lot of talk about how well the 4-2-3-1 worked. I love the formation, although it mostly works because of the Melo-Sissoko partnership. Imagine one of those guys out for Poulsen or Tiago for 90 minutes, and we are fucked.

I will admit that Giovinco proved me wrong today on one account - that he can play on the big stage. I doubted him and I was wrong. Can he do it consistently? That is a test that may not be fair of us to ask of him. Yet.

So for one last time, if you could pick one of Iaquinta or Amauri on your team, who would you really pick? :)

Grosso and Canna fucked up on that goal, Grosso pulled a Melo and Canna was caught wrongside of Pazzini. But I guess given the end result, can't complain too much. :)

I just watched this on espn360 replay. Talk about nice possession, great crisp SHORT passing and just a real hungry look from all of Juve. What a result, a great feeling that was. We messed up one time really and Pazzini made us pay, glad we played solid most of the match.

MOST IMPORTANT THING:none of our players looked tired because we KEPT the ball