Coach Pirlo said Juventus had “stepped back” after a howling draw with AS Roma. This is not wrong, because he is the new World Cup champion. In the war where Juve had only one point, people began to see the ambitious revolution that Pirlo planned to build in Turin was still unfinished. Although they still have the weapon of Cristiano Ronaldo.
If Roma were more accurate in the decisive shots, Juve could have lost 5 goals at Olimpico. After the jubilant debut against Sampdoria, Juventus returned immediately with the problems that had caused them to repeatedly slip at the end of last season. It is the slowness of the midfielders, the lack of composure of the midfielders and the limited ability of the system to explode.
Mkhitaryan, Dzeko or Pedro have made 3 Juve midfielders with an average age of 32, difficult because of the ball hitting the middle. Juve’s trio of central midfielders Adrien Rabiot, Winston McKennie and Aaron Ramsey were completely isolated by Roma, unable to even keep calm. Rabiot’s red card is a clear testament to this.
Despite not being appreciated more than Juve in terms of systems and people, Roma played a great game against the champions. Mkhitaryan even had a moment to dribble past Bonucci in a split second, but the kick in a face-to-face position was blocked by Szczesny.
Roma’s tactical victory over Juventus came when the capital team prepared a tight siege system in the middle area. And Juve himself weakened himself when he used rookie Alvaro Morata from the start.
The Spaniard has a tendency to move similar to Ronaldo and cause the Juve striker pair to step on the feet instead of supporting each other. Dejan Kulusevski, after shining in the match against Sampdoria as a striker next to Ronaldo, was pushed down to play right midfield.
