Federico Chiesa and Matthijs de Ligt return to Juventus‘ starting XI against Spezia as the Bianconeri seek their first win in Serie A this season.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side have only collected two points from their opening four Serie A games.
Today, they face Spezia at the Stadio Alberto Picco.
It kicks off at 17.30 UK time.
Giorgio Chiellini has remained in Turin with fever, so De Ligt will start alongside Leonardo Bonucci. Mattia De Sciglio is expected to start at full-back, with Danilo on the other side.
Weston McKennie will get the nod in the middle of the park, while Alvaro Morata will be rested after scoring the opener against Milan on Sunday.
Therefore, Moise Kean will start the first game in his second spell with the Bianconeri, partnering Paulo Dybala up front.
Probable line-ups: Spezia vs. Juventus
Spezia: Zoet; Amian, Hristov, Nikolaou, Ferrer; Maggiore, Bastoni, Sala; Verde, Antiste, Gyasi.
Juventus: Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, De Ligt, De Sciglio; Chiesa, Bentancur, McKennie, Bernardeschi; Kean, Dybala.
Again. So many changes from Allegri. How is this side ever going to find continuity?
There’s so much I don’t like about that line up and formation. MDS at full back, the midfield pairing is not good enough, no Locatelli, Chiesa on wing – Allegri will probably have him dropping too deep to cover the full back….
433 is a better fit for Juve. It allows Chiesa to be higher up the pitch. Keane arguably does a better job on the left of a trident, having 3 in central midfield can mitigate the overall lack of quality they have in this department and provide more cover for the defence.
Juve will probably get away with it because of tonights opposition, however going forward, I don’t have any confidence in Allegri. He moans about his players, yet he is the main problem right now.
LOL @Bruno, can i ask you a question? What’s your main reason to write this boring repetitive sentences about Allegri? Is it to make you look smart or you seek for attention among the moaners?
As enough people don’t realise these days, this isn’t a video game like Fifa where you can put your best starting lineup every match. Players need rest playing every 3 days and Allegri has every right to moan about his players when they don’t follow simple instruction like Rabiot on Milan‘s goal a few days ago. Gasperini had the same problem with Papu Gomez and Atalanta shipped him out as soon as they could.
Juve management knew what they were getting with Allegri and they haven’t even backed him in the transfer market, even with COVID. And they haven’t offloaded all the deadwood like Ramsey and Rabiot, which is of course partly because of the incompetence of Paratici before.
If Woj hadn’t made the mistakes against Udinese and Napoli, Juve might be mid table and not too far off the top, and there would be barely any talks of a crisis. People also have to remember that they’ve lost one of the best goalscorers in the history of football and adapting to life without Ronaldo will take time. However, if you look at the intensity of the first half against Milan, there are very promising signs for the future.
Another thing to add, there seems to be a lot of arrogance and not a lot of leadership in this Juve team. After losing Buffon and only having Chiellini as a leader, players like Rabiot, Bernardeschi, Alex Sandro and Bonnuci who just stop playing after scoring a goal. Even against Malmo when they went 1-0 up they stopped playing. I don’t think that is Allegri’s fault but the players.
We’ll see how this all pans out in the end, it will probably end with Allegri losing his job as these deadwood players drop their tools and force him out, similar to what Chelsea players when they are bored of their latest manager.
@LDN
Would sign that write up! Good thoughts!
This formatiion is abaolutely wring Juve accustomed to play 4.3.3 or 3.5.2 or 3.4.3
@EL CID They are my observations, nothing more. If you find them irritable then that is your problem. Instead of coming up with foolish assumptions and ad hominems, give us your perspective on the team.
@LDN You raise a lot of interesting points, many of which I agree with, especially when it comes to all the dead wood and the upper management.
Just in case your “Fifa” comment was aimed at me: 1. My point is a about continuity. I know that players are not machines; that they get injured and need resting. But what is Allegri’s gameplan? From what I see, he doesn’t know his best system, his best line-up, and his players best positions. Chiesa doesn’t know what position he’s going to play one week to the next. Already we’ve seen him as a striker, a wide forward and a wide midfielder, who was almost playing as a full back at times. Are all these constant changes really being made due to fatigue? Fair enough if it is, but I get the impression that they coming about due to indecision. And it’s this indecision from the coach which is creating confusion among the players.
You speak of the players arrogance and suggest that they’re engaging in maverick behaviour: I’m not so sure about that. Rabiot, Bernardeschi, Alex Sandro and Bonnuci don’t strike me as being cautious players, particularly Bonucci. Allegri is a defensive minded coach. You only have to refer to his own words after the Milan game, something along the lines of ‘I should have brought on more defensive players to lock down the result’; this after his team had already dropped off and surrendered the initiative to Milan.
@Bruno I apologize if my Fifa comment offended you in any way, I am just frustrated at seeing many people thinking these players are machines and your point about continuity is very valid. Pep, Klopp, Conte, Gasperini and Simeone all are top managers because of continuity as they know how they want to set up their teams. I also agree with your previous comment about having more midfielders in the middle as with this lineup, you can guarantee that Bentancur and McKennie will leave their defensive positions in the middle of the pitch to leave a wide gap for attackers to attack straight at our defence.
On Chiesa, I think we all know he is most effective on the right, and in preseason we saw Allegri try out a 343 similar to what Gasperini used to play with Morata and having Dybala and Kulusevski behind with Chiesa and Alex Sandro on both flanks, which to me sounds very exciting.
On the player’s arrogance, I only say this because they haven’t kept a clean sheet in around 18 matches in the league? When you talk about Juve, that is completely unacceptable, not even a midtable side is that bad at keeping clean sheets.
Once again I do apologize if my comments earlier offended you, we are probably supporters of the same team and are frustrated at seeing what has happened and might happen to this team.