Tonight, VfB play their second away game of the current Champions League season and again, they face one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Before the game, we talked to Juventus-Fan Antonio.
With the Red Stripe: Hello Antonio and thank you for taking your time to talk to us about Juventus ahead of the Champions League match on Tuesday. We last talked when Stuttgart signed Ahamada, which is already a while back. Could your introduce yourself to our readers first?
Antonio: Ciao Lennart, ciao Stuttgart fans. Well, I’m a blogger, I’m a Juventus fan and I run a project called JTalks dedicated to my favourite team.
Unbeaten in the Serie A and the Champions League, only one goal conceded in the league: Is Juventus ready for the first Scudetto after four years without?
Juventus has changed a lot this summer: it has a new management in full effect, a new coach, a dozen new players, a new style of play… The goal for this season is to be competitive and hopefully to win some trophies, as always at Juventus.
What makes the teams defense so strong? Is it the individual quality or tactics?
Tactics. This season, in Serie A our opponents usually prefeer to give up the offensive phase and to focus exclusively on the defensive one against us. Basically, they don’t shoot the ball because they stay back. If you look at the statistics, it’s quite impressive: they park the bus because they’re too scared to attack bianconeri.
Why? Because Juventus in now extremely good in building-up from the back and, if pressed, it almost always manages to transform the opponent’s pressure into an offensive opportunity for them to start the attack and hurt the opponents in transition.
This is the main reason why they concede no goals: the opponents almost never get up and they all stay behind with a low block, scared, waiting for Juventus and forcing them to play against a lot of players “parked” in the defensive end. This tacting is quite good at the moment because it’s so hard to attack against an organized low block defense, in Italy. In Europe, it’s easier to play because PSV and Leipzig tried to high-press Juve and to challenge them and Juve was lethal, even in 10 vs 11 (against Leipzig).
Talking about tactics: Thiago Motta replaced Massimiliano Allegri in the summer. What kind of football did he implement at Juventus and what is your assessment of him so far?
Thiago Motta totally changed Juventus style in just a few months. Juventus used to be a very defensive team with Allegri, but now the team loves to control the game with the ball possession and is very very good at building-up from the back, like i said. If challenged, Juventus loves it and they are lethal in counter-attacks. If not, they wants the ball and they loves to control the tempo of the game.
What are the strenghts and weaknesses of the current Juventus team? Juventus main strength is that they are very confident when an opposing team wants to do high pressing against them and attack them. If you challenge Juventus, you loose. If you don’t, you make it hard for Juventus to score, but you don’t even shoot. The weakness? It’s probably the fact there are a lot of injured players at the moment and it’s a little bit frustrating. Plus it’s everything still a work in progress, it’s a new era, new style of play, so it takes time to reach perfection.
Motta has to replace a number of players: Bremer is out for the season, Milik at least for the rest of the year, Koopmeiners broke his rips. How big is the impact of these injuries on the team?
Well, Bremer is a world class defender! He’s probably the best in Italy, so you can’t replace him easily. Kalulu is playing top level football at the moment and he’s probably the best Juventus player right now, but Bremer was so important too! Koopmeiners is another key player for this team, but he’ll be back in a few games.
Another player who had to battle an injury recently is our former striker Nicolas Gonzalez who is on loan from Fiorentina. Is he expected to be back on Tuesday and how is he fitting in at Juventus so far?
No, he won’t play against Stuttgart. He got injured against Leipzig and he’s still recovering. He just played 307’ in 6 games this season so it’s still too early to judge him.
Dusan Vlahovic has as many goals as all other goal scorers in the team combined. How dependent is Juventus on him and who else should we look out for?
Dusan is a key player for Juventus, yeah. Expecially since Nico is out, Koop is out and Yildiz is still so young.
Stuttgart has never played Juventus, in fact it is only their second trip to Torino after losing to Torino FC in the first round of the UEFA cup 1979. Players that wore the shirts of both clubs include the already mentioned Naouriou Ahamada and Nico Gonzalez as well as Anastasios Donis, Mauro Camoranesi, Cristian Molinaro as well as Sami Khedira. What is the perception of Stuttgart, if there is any after our long absence from Europe, in Torino?
Well, I’ve seen a couple of matches of Stuttgart this season. I’ve seen Real Madrid-Stuttgart and your team played a decent game, all considered. I’ve seen the 5–1 win against BVB and the recent loss against Bayern. Stuttgart is not a top european club yet, but you have to respect any German teams. For many fans, this is the first trip to Torino and the Juventus Stadium.
What is the stadium like and what should we do and see while in the city? Any recommendations?
The Stadium is nice, there’s a good atmosphere and our last two Champions League matches were very enjoyable to see. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the trip. Turin is a nice city too: just enjoy food and have fun, and maybe you can visit the Egyptian Museum too, I love it! If you are close to the Stadium, you can also visit our Juventus Museum: a lot of football history, there and regardless of which team you support, you can see photos, videos and t‑shirts of famous world class players like Zidane, Platini, Del Piero, etc… very cool.
Finally: Your prediction for Juventus starting 11 and the result?
Mmm… it’s not easy because there are a lot of players in doubt like McKennie and Fagioli who’re not 100% fit. So let’s try: Perin; Savona, Gatti, Kalulu, Cambiaso; Locatelli, Thuram, Douglas Luiz; Conceicao, Vlahovic, Yildiz. As for the result, naaah. I’m quite superstitious so let’s say I hope to see another very enjoyable match like the previous ones against PSV and Leipzig.
Picture: © Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images