Juventus' Serie A Draw with Inter Showed Overreliance on Juan Cuadrado

Juventus travelled east to Milan on Sunday evening to take on an Internazionale side that had enjoyed a surprisingly good start to 2015/16. Opening the campaign with five straight wins, Roberto Mancini’s men followed that run with a loss to Fiorentina and a draw with Sampdoria just before the recent international break.

In contrast, the visitors struggled in the early part of the season but impressed in their last two outings to emerge with victories over Sevilla and Bologna. Unfortunately for the Bianconeri, they could not add to that streak, held to a 0-0 draw that saw them end the game in 14th place and nine points away from top spot.

It was not for a lack of effort, however, with statistics, courtesy of WhoScored.com, reinforcing the idea that Juve dominated proceedings at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Figures showed the reigning champions enjoyed 52.3 per cent of possession and outshot their opponents by 15 attempts to eight.

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The same source provided further evidence of their superiority, La Madama winning more corners (9-4) and headers (14-9) while making a higher number of passes (482-418) and dribbles (13-8) over the course of the game.

Yet for large portions of the match, Massimiliano Allegri’s side struggled to find a way through the Inter defence, repeatedly sending the ball out to the right flank in the hope that Juan Cuadrado could create something.

WhoScored.com shows that—aside from Andrea Barzagli (84)—the live-wire Colombian enjoyed more touches (78) than any player from either side. The same source shows he also led both teams by creating five goalscoring opportunities, which were then sadly squandered by his misfiring colleagues.

That overreliance stemmed from an overall lack of dynamism in midfield despite the Bianconeri finally being able to field what looked like their first-choice trio. Claudio Marchisio made only his second Serie A appearance of the campaign, taking his place alongside Paul Pogba and Sami Khedira .

The three men meshed well yet appeared to lack some sharpness, with Pogba notably struggling in the opening 45 minutes. While he improved dramatically after the break, Allegri noted to Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) that the French youngster “needs to maintain intensity throughout the full 90 minutes."

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In that same interview, the Juve boss discussed how the international break affected his preparations for the game and lamented his team’s lack of incision in attack:

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We needed the same determination in attack that Andrea Barzagli had when defending. We lack goals; a team like ours cannot score so few goals after eight rounds. We have to improve on the timing of runs and passes, but let’s also not forget that I’ve only had the full squad for two days.

It was a decent performance in the circumstances.

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That is undoubtedly true, with the Turin giants having scored just nine times this term, a tally lower than all but eight other teams' in Serie A. Fortunately for them, Inter are among that group with just eight goals to their name. It is no surprise the pair boast the best defences in the division, each conceding on just six occasions.

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They will need to improve quickly in attack while retaining that defensive resolve, particularly as there are some important fixtures looming, starting with Wednesday’s clash with Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League.

“We just need to get everyone in decent shape again,” Allegri said at Saturday’s pre-match press conference. “We have a big month ahead with Champions League and Serie A fixtures on the horizon.”

Reducing their dependence on Cuadrado will be key to that. As will improving the cohesion behind him in midfield. With lots of ground to make up in the league and their hopes of an extended run in Europe, their season depends upon it.