[Jack Sparrow]

I heard and read a lot of good things about our performance in this game so I decided to watch it... sh**, we must have been playing pretty bad (well the results I guess reflect that) for what I saw to be considered good in any way! That was just a low quality Italian team defensive play with very bad counter-attacks. I don't see how we even deserved to win this, which I heard a lot in a "well the penalty was non-existent but we deserved this win" way. We did not even get near the Juventus box in the first 20 mins of the second half. We did have quite a few players who did well individually - though you're always going to have that when playing a solely defensive game - but as a unit, our defense was disorganized and very shaky. But the worst thing was the counter-attacks. I mean, you want to play that way at least work on that during the week. Terrible execution when we went on the counter that resulted in badly taken shots or no shots taken at all. I liked De Sciglio defensively - though Asamoah should not really be able to test any decent player. All of the defenders/midfielders did well while in particular De Jong and Montolivo were pretty impressive I think. The front three were reduced to defending and did not do anything worth noting. Juventus were awful. A bad match overall.

As a side note and I know I've said this before but I really hate it that FIFA are keeping football in the Middle Ages. Seriously, how much would 1 min to review if that was penalty or not would slow the game down? The penalty execution and celebration last more than that...

I actually think our defense was organized. You're perhaps looking at the second half?

Roughly around the first 20 minutes is when I noticed Boateng start pressuring Pirlo, with Noce, SES and Robbie rushing the defenders. Buffon simply had no one to play it off to.

Asamoah has actually been the revelation of the season for Juve. He's been simply tremendous to them. In fact their wingbacks and Pirlo have been so tremendous, that I think our boys deserve a lot of credit for shutting them down.

Out attack is still disoriented. I do think we need something to happen there and I'm not sure what.

Juventus were 30% awful of their own making (Marchisio and Isla had off games). The rest was us making them look bad.

But yes, the fact that our previous displays have been so abject might be making us a little over-happy.

[han2503]

I heard and read a lot of good things about our performance in this game so I decided to watch it... sh**, we must have been playing pretty bad (well the results I guess reflect that) for what I saw to be considered good in any way! That was just a low quality Italian team defensive play with very bad counter-attacks. I don't see how we even deserved to win this, which I heard a lot in a "well the penalty was non-existent but we deserved this win" way. We did not even get near the Juventus box in the first 20 mins of the second half. We did have quite a few players who did well individually - though you're always going to have that when playing a solely defensive game - but as a unit, our defense was disorganized and very shaky. But the worst thing was the counter-attacks. I mean, you want to play that way at least work on that during the week. Terrible execution when we went on the counter that resulted in badly taken shots or no shots taken at all. I liked De Sciglio defensively - though Asamoah should not really be able to test any decent player. All of the defenders/midfielders did well while in particular De Jong and Montolivo were pretty impressive I think. The front three were reduced to defending and did not do anything worth noting. Juventus were awful. A bad match overall.

As a side note and I know I've said this before but I really hate it that FIFA are keeping football in the Middle Ages. Seriously, how much would 1 min to review if that was penalty or not would slow the game down? The penalty execution and celebration last more than that...

I think you missed the point of it though dst.

Yes, it wasn't great and yes most of us were so happy because of how terrible we've been this season.

But mostly I think it was a great tactical gameplan which was executed to perfection by the players. For once I saw everyone giving their all and a tactical setup which was smart from Allegri.

Juve have a very distinctive style and in order to beat them you have to play a certain way. It wasn't just as simple as saying we were playing like a mid-table team that parked the bus. It was a smart plan that worked at stopping them from overrunning us and if an opportunity presented itself then we would take it. I think we saw from last season where we had a much better team where they outran us completely and we ended up losing pretty much every time we faced them. It's pointless to try and beat them at their own game, and now that Inter have shown how to achieve it, it will become easier for the following teams.

In fact, we played it like we should have last season, let them come at you and then stifle them, it will make Pirlo's job a million times harder as players don't have spaces to run into, thus 90% of his effectiveness is lost. We should know this better then anyone as it's what most mid-table sides used to do to us. And Pirlo without any movement ahead of him is pretty much useless

And about the penalty, I don't care that it was a wrong call, in fact I'm happy about it. After all the terrible calls Juve have received in their favour this season it was time for something like this to happen, and I'm especially happy that we were the team to benefit from it after the Muntari goal from last season

[Fillipo Simone]

I think you missed the point of it though dst.

Yes, it wasn't great and yes most of us were so happy because of how terrible we've been this season.

But mostly I think it was a great tactical gameplan which was executed to perfection by the players. For once I saw everyone giving their all and a tactical setup which was smart from Allegri.

Juve have a very distinctive style and in order to beat them you have to play a certain way. It wasn't just as simple as saying we were playing like a mid-table team that parked the bus. It was a smart plan that worked at stopping them from overrunning us and if an opportunity presented itself then we would take it. I think we saw from last season where we had a much better team where they outran us completely and we ended up losing pretty much every time we faced them. It's pointless to try and beat them at their own game, and now that Inter have shown how to achieve it, it will become easier for the following teams.

In fact, we played it like we should have last season, let them come at you and then stifle them, it will make Pirlo's job a million times harder as players don't have spaces to run into, thus 90% of his effectiveness is lost. We should know this better then anyone as it's what most mid-table sides used to do to us. And Pirlo without any movement ahead of him is pretty much useless

And about the penalty, I don't care that it was a wrong call, in fact I'm happy about it. After all the terrible calls Juve have received in their favour this season it was time for something like this to happen, and I'm especially happy that we were the team to benefit from it after the Muntari goal from last season

+1

[dst]

You said it, compared to most of the games we've played this season, this was a good game.

That I can understand.

I actually think our defense was organized. You're perhaps looking at the second half?

Roughly around the first 20 minutes is when I noticed Boateng start pressuring Pirlo, with Noce, SES and Robbie rushing the defenders. Buffon simply had no one to play it off to.

The only organized thing about it was that everyone defended which is what you describe above but not how. Whenever they made a couple of fast passes we looked like PES defenders.

Asamoah has actually been the revelation of the season for Juve. He's been simply tremendous to them. In fact their wingbacks and Pirlo have been so tremendous, that I think our boys deserve a lot of credit for shutting them down.

To be fair, I have not seen him with Juve but he did not look that good with Udinese.

Out attack is still disoriented. I do think we need something to happen there and I'm not sure what.

Well for starters we'd need to actually attack... just saying.

But mostly I think it was a great tactical gameplan which was executed to perfection by the players. For once I saw everyone giving their all and a tactical setup which was smart from Allegri.

Juve have a very distinctive style and in order to beat them you have to play a certain way. It wasn't just as simple as saying we were playing like a mid-table team that parked the bus. It was a smart plan that worked at stopping them from overrunning us and if an opportunity presented itself then we would take it. I think we saw from last season where we had a much better team where they outran us completely and we ended up losing pretty much every time we faced them. It's pointless to try and beat them at their own game, and now that Inter have shown how to achieve it, it will become easier for the following teams.

And about the penalty, I don't care that it was a wrong call, in fact I'm happy about it. After all the terrible calls Juve have received in their favour this season it was time for something like this to happen, and I'm especially happy that we were the team to benefit from it after the Muntari goal from last season

I don't get what the plan was... I did not see any plan other than sit back and don't leave any spaces. You can say it was a plan because they're fast and they can beat you that way but it really was a bad team playing against a good team and the only way to beat them is to sit back, defend and don't give them any space. At least that's how I see it. The only difference is, other bad teams can actually counter-attack effectively as we've found out quite a few times in recent years.

[kurtsimonw]

Yeah, but we won!

[dst]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Which is way I'm only whining and not bashing...