Juventus’ game against Napoli on Sunday was a case study in how coaches can lose games. Luciano Spalletti went into the game with an idea of how to approach Partenopei, but it was completely the wrong idea. We’ll get into more details later.
But Juventus’ players also played their part. With few exceptions, everyone on the field is poor. Kenan Yildiz stands out, but few can perform well against the defending champion (vomit).
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How are things going? Let’s take a closer look.
Michele DiGregorio – 6. Made a couple of great saves to keep Juventus in the game long enough to equalize. I’ve seen people criticize him for not being proactive enough in front of goal, but it’s hard to attack him when your defenders can’t mark him at all.
Pierre Kalulu – 6. The only defender from Juventus who performed relatively well. Completed 3 tackles and 2 interceptions, with a pass success rate of 96.1%. It’s not a problem on his side.
Lloyd Kelly – 4.5. Rasmus Højlund missed both goals. When he first really paid attention to where he was, he was simply not prepared for the acceleration at the end of the Dane’s run. On the game-winning play, he was totally watching the ball, although it’s fair to say he didn’t expect Weston McKennie to pass the ball directly to the man he was marking.
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TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5. He was jeered a few times by David Neres early in the game, before appearing to be told to leave the Brazilian to his full-backs. It’s not an ideal defensive opponent for him, but injuries have left him with few options.
Andrea Cambiaso – 4. The statistics show he had one key pass, but I don’t remember that pass saving my life. He completed just 84.9% of his passes overall and made a number of shocking mistakes in his own half. Even in Juve’s goal, his inaccurate pass almost caused the action to fail, but he was cleared by Conceicao.
Manuel Locatelli – 6. Spalletti has been criticized for playing too low, but he defended very well in midfield, leading the team with five tackles and four interceptions. One of those five tackles was a brilliant slide that eliminated Hojlund and set off a run that ultimately led to Yildiz’s goal. His total number of passes has also reached 92.5, and he is one of the few players to complete key passes.
Khloe Thuram – 5. The pass rate is high, but it’s not really Do Lots of stuff. Those runs through midfield were the defining feature of his game last year but have dried up a bit.
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Juan Cabal – 4. He also couldn’t cope with Neres’ pace and it wasn’t until half-time that he was thoroughly irritated. This isn’t the first time he’s been fired up on this line.
Francisco Concejo – 5.5. Didn’t make much of an impact, but for a guy who needs the ball at his feet, he didn’t get many chances. He touched the ball just 34 times in 75 minutes.
Weston McEnany – 5. What a strange day. Yildiz’s goal ended a great counterattack before Neres’ cross headed directly over the head of Hoylund for Napoli’s winner. He made a couple of interceptions and did a good job of neutralizing Long as he moved to right back at halftime, but other than assists, he didn’t have much of a (positive) impact on the game.
Kenan Yildiz – 7. He looked frustrated in the first half, but returned to his natural position in the second half, visibly inspired. His goal was absolutely brilliant. This team needs to get better for him.
Subsystem
Jonathan David – 5.5. He made little valuable contribution – he had just two touches in his first 17 minutes – but he deserves credit for simply changing the balance of the team and helping them play better in the second half. His chemistry with Eden Zeglova is enticing.
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Philip Kostick – 4. Yes, that’s a no. His passing success rate was only 44.4%, and his best impression of Gu Yonghui was his pass. (If you don’t know American football, I encourage you to Google this guy. You don’t need to know anything about the sport to get a kick out of what happened to him a few weeks ago.)
Fabio Miretti – 6. Didn’t misplace the pass and really should have started earlier.
Louis Openda – NR. I usually give a numerical grade to substitutes who play more than 15 minutes, but Openda only touched the ball twice in 15 minutes, so the grade here doesn’t seem fair.
EDON ZHEGROVA – NR. Since I’m not going to put a number on anyone who plays less than 15 minutes, Žeglova will once again be numbered despite having an immediate impact on the game in the 8 minutes he was on the floor. He should have done better with the final opportunity of the game when he faced VMS.
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manager analysis
Oh, where to start?
I think – I think– I understand what Spalletti is trying to do with the false nine. He wanted to take advantage of the lack of reference points to stretch the back three and open up gaps that the midfielders could exploit against an injury-plagued Napoli midfield.
This is not a radical idea. But given Spalletti’s age and experience, I find it shocking that he was so naive to think it would work in this game.
Expecting to be able to push and pull an Antonio Conte-coached defense like this is crazy. Conte simply did not tolerate such undisciplined behavior from his defenders – something Napoli’s back three displayed throughout the first half. Coupled with the fact that players like Yildiz and Conceicao have absolutely no way of winning the ball in the air against the league’s tallest centre-backs, it makes Napoli’s press even more effective.
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There was always the question of whether it was possible to create the kind of movement that Spalletti clearly wanted without a reference point or forward as a center of gravity. This answer is not universal and really depends on which players the team has. In the case of Juventus, the latter is clearly Answer. To Spalletti’s credit he recognized this and made the change immediately at half-time, although frankly I wouldn’t have criticized him if he had made the change forward Rest time. But his first-half performance effectively put Napoli in control of the game throughout the first half, and they barely let go.
This led to another huge mistake by Spalletti: not taking advantage of substitutions to build momentum after Yildiz equalized. In that moment, he was able to make some offensive changes that kept Napoli on their heels as they dealt with the smash and grab they had just given up. Miretti should come on early and it would be the perfect opportunity to bring Joao Mario out of purgatory and use his attacking prowess out wide to take the game to the home side.
Instead, he stood still and waited 12 minutes before substituting, eventually allowing Napoli to equalize the score. In the minutes leading up to their winning goal, it was notable that Partenopei had regrouped and started to pile on the attacking pressure.
Spalletti’s mistake in this game only gave up three points to Naples. He didn’t put his players in a position to succeed, and, predictably, they didn’t succeed. Spalletti needs to reflect on this game and make changes, otherwise the season could get out of hand very quickly.
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Looking to the future
Juve host Cypriot side Paphos in another must-win Champions League game on Wednesday before hitting the road again for another big league match, this time against Bologna, followed by a home game against Roma.
