Why Midfielders, Not Strikers, Are Key for Juventus Coach Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte has been a devout believer in the 3-5-2 formation since his reign at Juventus began over two years ago.

The Bianconeri have fielded three of the best midfielders in Serie A, even Europe, to claim back-to-back Serie A championships.

Strikers, on the other hand, have been less of a priority to the former Juventino, with the goals being shared among the rest of the side.

In Conte's debut season in charge of the Old Lady, the squad's five strikers—including Alessandro Matri, Fabio Quagliarella, Mirko Vucinic, Alessandro Del Piero and Marco Borriello—contributed 28 goals in the league. Comparatively, Juve's five highest goalscorers from midfield—including Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal, Simone Pepe, Andrea Pirlo and Stephan Lichtsteiner—chipped in with 27 goals.

In the second season in charge, the strikers fared somewhat better, with Quagliarella, Vucinic, Matri and Sebastian Giovinco combining for 45 goals in the league.

The four highest-scoring midfielders—Vidal, Marchisio, Paul Pogba and Pirlo—contributed 27 goals, so despite the front line resembling almost the same personnel as the season before, there was a significant increase in the amount of goals scored.

With 68 goals in the league during the first season and 71 last season, there was an increase in the importance of the front line, although it was still relatively less in comparison to the majority of teams around the league.

The strikers in the first season contributed 41 percent of the side's goals, which then increased to 63 percent in the second season. So there is a gradual trend in the way that Conte's squad is evolving.

Well, so far this season, in 16 games in all competitions—in order to take the biggest sample possible from this current campaign—Juve's five strikers, Carlos Tevez, Fernando Llorente, Quagliarella, Vucinic and Giovinco, have totalled 15 goals from a total of 32.

So far this season, the importance of the strikers in terms of goals is somewhere between the first two seasons under Conte, with 47 percent of the Bianconeri's goals.

It is difficult to put these statistics into perspective due to the uniqueness of Conte's tactics, but there is a reason why Juve have not had a striker inside the top 10 goalscorers in Serie A over the last two seasons. The trio of midfielders are the strongest in the league and can enable Juve to take complete control of games, and with the emergence of Pogba, Conte has been able to play all four centre-midfielders at times.

So Conte has been satisfied with controlling the games, safe in the knowledge that while they are not amongst the highest scorers in European football, their formidable midfield and defence enable them to be extremely tough to break down or catch on the break.

A lot of the time, Juve will not put their opponents out of sight by racking up several goals in the manner of Barcelona or Real Madrid, but although this is partially down to somewhat inferior attackers, Conte's mentality is a more prominent reason for this.

Like many teams who dominate their leagues, Conte's Juve are tasked with breaking down the opposition, who usually turn up to take a point by defending deep and denying the Old Lady space to stretch the game.

Great emphasis is placed on the wide players—usually Stephan Lichtsteiner and Kwadwo Asamoah—as the full-backs are tasked with injecting a change in pace that can open up the game and force the opposition to alter their shape.

But should the opposition intercept Juve with this plan in mind, the side is better equipped to nullify a potential counter-attack than if the attack was based around midfielders bursting forward to link with the two centre-forwards. More space would be sacrificed through the middle and could offer a greater threat in transition, something that Conte is not prepared to risk in pursuit of a greater pool of goals coming from his forwards.

With his midfielders' ability to score from distance, Conte can afford to isolate his two strikers in exchange for a better defensive platform, as these midfielders can create and score from the space between the centre circle and the edge of the penalty area.

With more investment in the transfer market last summer on the attack, there could be an increasing emphasis on providing greater support to his front line through demanding the midfielders to operate in and around the penalty area.

I believe Conte has put less emphasis on providing goalscoring opportunities to his strikers due to possessing a vastly superior midfield than his rivals in Italy, but with the primary objective somewhat switching to Europe, we can expect this to gradually change.

With comparable midfielders at Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid, Conte will need his side to start developing attacks closer to goal, due to a decreased amount of possession that will see his side have less time to develop opportunities.

With the current system, Juve are requiring one of the midfielders to usually execute a defence-splitting pass from around 30 yards from goal, which they are very capable of doing on a regular basis in Serie A. But with the increased quality in Europe, the opposition's discipline will be much greater, meaning that the difficulty in finding channels in the final third increases.

So while the added emphasis on midfielders over strikers is fine in the league, it has seldom proven to be a successful formula in Europe.

So Juve must decide how much they want to alter the tactics that originally proved so successful under Conte, because the core of that side remains, meaning that the side is not certain to be successful with the same group under a different style.