A small thread on how Max Allegri changed #Juventus' formation just after 15 minutes into the game vs Chelsea last night to neutralize Thomas Tuchel's width and put his players in better condition to make defensive decisions.
1/n
Juve started with a 4141, the WMs (Cuadrado & Chiesa) were orientated to press Chelsea's SBs from the narrow starting position.
This however led to big gap behind the line, with only Locatelli trying to cover. Hakim Ziyech with his clever positioning often exploited this.
2/n
So they get thru middle 3rd easily.
When the ball came to the final 3rd, Chelsea's usual width created many unsolvable problems, especially when Ziyech made a lot of "Bernardo Silva runs"™ to Danilo's back.
Distance between Danilo and Bonucci were huge due to orientation.
3/n
What orientation? When the ball was on the other side, it was clear that there were dedications to each of Juve's DF: Sandro w/ Azpi, De Ligt w/ Havertz, Bonucci left w/ Lukaku.
Havertz's usual drops took De Ligt out and often created space/isolated situtations for Lukaku.
4/n
Yes, I highlighted Cuadrado there.
Around the 17th minute, coach Allegri started making instructions, the first ones were for Cuadrado.
The winger abandoned his Rudiger-orientation and leave the mid-line to join the back line.
Chiesa were moved up to make a front two.
5/n
The new defensive system in 5-3-2 shape helped Juve to neutralise Chelsea's width positional attacks, as Cuadrado and Danilo were in new roles to take care of Alonso & Ziyech combination.
Bonucci, De Ligt and Sandro also benefited, the new formation eased decision makings.
6/n
This move also helped Bernadeschi as he had a teammate closer in Chiesa. It was this combination that gave Juve's the sole goal of the game.
While Juve weren't exactly dominating or sth, they were in more proactive stand to play. So, an applause to coach Allegri.
7/end.
Small plug on my other thread analysed this type of run that Ziyech was making in the photo, something I branded 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐨 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐚™'s:
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