Sassuolo vs. Juventus: Winners and Losers from Serie A
Juventus are officially in trouble.
It was easy to delay judgement early on in the season as Massimiliano Allegri's side battled to overcome injuries and a staggering player turnover, but nine games into the season, the Old Lady of Italian football is well and truly in the weeds.
They arrived at the Mapei Stadium in Emilia Romagna for their match against Sassuolo on Wednesday looking to build on their best performance of the season—Sunday's 2-0 victory over Atalanta.
To say they fell on their face in the ensuing 1-0 defeat is flattering them. They fell in the other direction.
The Bianconeri showed absolutely no creativity whatsoever. Even with 10 men, they dominated much of possession in the second half but couldn't fashion any situation to put Sassuolo's stand-in starting goalkeeper, Gianluca Pegolo, in any kind of real danger.
The conditions on the field were awful, and being down a man certainly didn't help. But Sassuolo outclassed Juventus both on the field and on the touchline today, and Juve deserved the result they got.
Who were the winners and losers from this drab contest? Let's look into the game to find out.
Winner: Nicola Sansone
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It's hard to find a winner on either side of the field, really. Sassuolo didn't dazzle; they just outlasted Juve and got one moment of pure brilliance.
And what a moment it was.
Nicola Sansone's 20th-minute free-kick was a screamer into the top corner. Pure upper 90 stuff. He got a tiny assist from Domenico Berardi, who feinted in before peeling off and allowing his teammate to take the play. That move held Gianluigi Buffon in his spot for a split second—although even Buffon in his prime World Cup 2006-type form wouldn't have stopped that rocket.
Sansone broke out last season and is continuing that excellent form this year. He got his first Italy cap in the June friendly against Portugal, and this goal may just put him back on the map for Antonio Conte, who is in desperate need of good forwards for Euro 2016.
If anyone left this slog of a game with real credit, it's Sansone.
Loser: The Dybala/Mandzukic Partnership
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Fresh off a man-of-the-match performance against Atalanta, Paulo Dybala turned in an absolute stinker on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Argentine could not overcome the atrocious field conditions, failing to bring the ball under his spell on the waterlogged pitch and to link up with his team-mates.
It didn't help that he got physically destroyed by Sassuolo's defense with little to no protection from referee Andrea Gervasoni, who gave both sides reason to be upset with him over the course of a poor performance in the middle. But he was unable to rise above the abuse, and he simply didn't get any touches of any quality.
But as bad as Dybala was, Mario Mandzukic was worse.
The Croatian hit man has scored everywhere he's gone, but his time at Juve has gotten off to a shaky start. With the forward pairing in constant flux—more on that a bit later—he hasn't been able to develop chemistry with anyone, and it's shown.
Mandzukic barely had a touch for the first half-hour of the match. The one positive contribution he made was a smart layoff to Paul Pogba in the early minutes of the second period—a ball that Pogba pulled just wide of the target. Even that move came after Mandzukic overran the initial ball into the box from Dybala.
Mandzukic eventually finds ways to score wherever he goes, but right now, he is in a bad run of form and shouldn't be starting in front of Alvaro Morata. Wednesday he got the call in the name of squad rotation, but he's not performing when called upon and needs time away from the field to get himself right.
Dybala, on the other hand, shouldn't be kept off the field because of this performance. He and Morata have shown good flashes this season. They're the future of this team and need to develop together to show it. Today's performance up front shows just how risky changing the strike pair so frequently can be.
Winner: Gianluca Pegolo
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It's usually considered a handicap when a team is forced to play its No. 2 goalkeeper, especially when it means you'll be missing a guy like Andrea Consigli, who has quietly been one of Serie A's best stoppers since his days at Atalanta.
But with Consigli suspended after a red card against AC Milan over the weekend, Pegolo went out and performed brilliantly on Wednesday in conditions that are best described as a goalkeeper's worst nightmare.
He confidently claimed most every cross that came within arm's reach, even in the driving rainstorm that turned the field into something more like a scene from a Russell Crowe movie. He directed his defense well, allowing none of Juve's 11 corner kicks to turn into a serious chance and withstanding waves of pressure in the second half.
But nothing had as much impact on the game as his 26th-minute denial of Pogba.
Equalizing so soon after Sansone's opener would have energized the Bianconeri. And Pogba, for what seemed like the first time all season, hit the ball square and produced a vicious shot that would have been worthy of the PogBoom moniker that his drives from range have earned over the years.
Nine times out of 10, when he connects the way he did on that shot, the ball ends up in the net. Pegolo's leaping save made sure that this time was the one time. In doing so, he probably saved his team's win.
Loser: Juan Cuadrado
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Juve fans have been looking at Juan Cuadrado through rose-colored glasses. On a team sorely lacking in creativity, his pace and dribbling are a sight for sore eyes.
The problem is that pace and dribbling are as deep as Cuadrado's quality has gone this season. Too often, the Colombian gets the ball to the wing and then stops, executes needless step-overs and in the end is either dispossessed outright or run down a blind alley. Often it looks as though he is more concerned with drawing a whistle from the referee than actually playing the ball.
He's only made one assist this year—a simple pass that Simone Zaza converted from long range against Frosinone.
On Wednesday, he was almost a non-factor. Nothing he did put himself or a team-mate in any position to threaten Pegolo's goal. With 15 minutes left, he simply dropped to the ground inside the box instead of trying to ride his way through a weak challenge to create a chance.
His most positive play came when he nearly sneaked in the back door to head a ball in from close range, but Francesco Acerbi played the ball well to head behind for a corner.
If Cuadrado is the type of player Juventus is going to rely on for their offense, they really are in trouble. Unless he gets wise and starts trying to play more direct football instead of dancing a foxtrot with the ball every time he gets into the attacking third, he's simply a drag on the attack.
Winner: Juve's Defense
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Giorgio Chiellini's brainless challenge on Domenico Berardi aside, Juve's defense actually did an excellent job on Wednesday.
Forced to play with 10 men for 50-plus minutes, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci did well to keep everything in front of them in the second half. So well, in fact, that Allegri didn't so much as lift a finger to reinforce the defense after Chiellini's dismissal—he simply moved Stefano Sturaro to cover right-back and played a four-man line.
Sansone's goal was unstoppable—and it wasn't even a defender who conceded that free-kick; it was midfielder Mario Lemina. After it, they hardly let the Neroverdi get a meaningful touch in the attacking third—and allowed Juve to dominate possession for much of the second half even when playing at a disadvantage.
This defense is still an elite unit. Bonucci may have actually outstripped his partners as the best of the trio of center backs, and Daniele Rugani—one of the best young Italian talents at any position—is still waiting in the wings to be given a chance at serious minutes.
That chance may come with Chiellini suspended—indeed, it probably should. But by holding today, they proved that things could still right themselves if the Bianconeri ever find a way to finish at the other end of the field.
Loser: Max Allegri
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Blame Chiellini for being sent off. Blame the forwards for fluffing their lines and the midfielders for failing to link together at all. But the fact of the matter is the responsibility for this game rests directly on the shoulders of Max Allegri.
Allegri is being faced with a tough stretch right now. On Saturday, Juve must gear off for the Derby della Mole against a surging Torino team, then travel to Germany to play a crunch Champions League game against Borussia Monchengladbach. After that comes a trip to tough outs Empoli before players scatter to their national teams for the November friendlies.
It's understandable that Allegri would want to rotate the team during a congested stretch of games. It's also understood that the lack of a healthy right-back is forcing him into playing a 3-5-2 formation that the past has shown is not one he can get the most out of.
But to make the decisions he made Wednesday were mind-boggling. To rotate so heavily, especially in midfield, was a big risk, especially considering the fact that Sturaro and Mario Lemina have barely played since the end of September.
Getting players like Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira—both recently returned from injuries—rest is important, but at least one of them should have been on the field today to anchor the midfield three along with Pogba. Sassuolo isn't the kind of team that you can rotate like that against—not anymore.
The revolving door at the striker position doesn't help either. Allegri hasn't let the same pairing play with each other for any extended period of time this season. It's no wonder that the men up don't look like they know what the other is doing—they haven't had any time to figure each other out. That instability is a key factor in Juve's offensive woes this season.
Allegri has asserted several times recently that Italian football is being held back by an overreliance on tactics over the quality of individual players. But most every time Allegri has failed this season, he has been beaten soundly on tactics. For his predecessor, Conte, tactics provided the impetus for attack and individual quality the finishing touch. For Allegri, it's both, and that clearly isn't working for him.
Most worrying of all, Juve have totally lost the "grinta" that Conte instilled in them over his three years. Under Conte, one would have expected an equalizer after Sansone's goal. It wouldn't be a matter of if, but of when. On Wednesday, there was a point at which the team didn't look like they believed they would actually score.
A good visual for the whole team was the face of Lemina, who looked bewildered every time the camera zoomed in on him. The belief in themselves—and the fear factor that went along with it—is simply gone.
Last year, Allegri had top, quality players who still held Conte's spirit dear. Now, he's been asked to rebuild the team, and despite being given talented pieces to do so, he is failing.
If things don't improve before Christmas, serious consideration has to be given to replacing him for next season.
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