Marco Tardelli warns Juventus’ new formation would leave them “unbalanced” in the Champions League.
Coach Max Allegri switched to an uber-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation for Sunday’s Lazio game, with the Bianconeri winning by a 2-0 scoreline and missing a number of chances.
“It seems to me it’s harder to implement in Europe,” Tardelli warned, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Marco Tardelli warns Juventus’ new formation would leave them “unbalanced” in the Champions League.
Coach Max Allegri switched to an uber-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation for Sunday’s Lazio game, with the Bianconeri winning by a 2-0 scoreline and missing a number of chances.
“It seems to me it’s harder to implement in Europe,” Tardelli warned, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It would be a very unbalanced team and that’s not in Allegri’s nature. Also, Juve need coverage in the middle, not long ago the defenders could help the midfield, now it’s them who need a hand.
“It’s unlikely, even impossible [to see this formation in Europe]. The real turning point in Europe seems to be something else, in my opinion: the switch to a back-four.
“It’s unlikely because [Mario] Mandzukic and [Juan] Cuadrado don’t give absolute guarantees in the defensive phase.
“Can they? I’m not sure about Cuadrado, Mandzukic definitely can though. He’s a striker who can defend, he can do it all and he has to.
“He can convince Allegri to play with two-plus-one: him and [Gonzalo] Higuain, with [Paulo] Dybala as trequartista.
“Dybala isn’t a trequartista, but he can play there. If Juve need it, he can.”
But isn’t the ‘five-star’ attack of Higuain, Mandzukic, Dybala, Cuadrado and Miralem Pjanic similar to Tardelli’s era, where he played with Zibi Boniek, Michel Platini, Roberto Bettega and Paolo Rossi?
“It’s reminiscent, but there are differences. It’s not that Allegri’s players lack quality, because they have that too, but perhaps in international experience they don’t stand up to comparison, we were superior in that regard.
“And then, that Juve had Platini.
“Dybala? I’ve likened him to [Lionel] Messi, but I was making a prediction about the future because I’m sure Dybala will become very good.
“Michel was Michel though, he could change the face of the team on his own, because he went where he wanted, we looked for him all the time and wherever he was would be the right place.
“He could do that because he was protected by a great defence, even I was quite defensive, despite the fact I liked to get forward whenever I could.
“Like Pjanic? I was more defensive than him, even though I scored more goals. And that was without taking the free-kicks…
“Furino versus Khedira? Khedira has more quality, but it’s wrong to say that all Beppe knew about was defending: he had incredible tactical intelligence.”