A few weeks ago Juventus drew Trabzonspor 1-1 in the Europa League. I freaked out. Regular readers will remember I wrote a column posing a series of questions to Antonio Conte, as to why his team seemed to struggled in European competition. Today seems like a vindication of that column, right? Not really.
Here’s what happened today: a Fiorentina team which had lost 1-0 on Sunday without Borja Valero came out – with Valero this time – and drew 1-1. The goal scorer for the Viola was Mario Gomez, or as I like to call him “The Guy with 38 European goals in 67 appearances.” He’s also a player who has only recently begun returning to form after a very long injury.
Some folks have ignored that, and ignored the fact that he was about two feet away from heading in a goal on Sunday to give us another 1-1 result. These folks make the draw out to be a huge failing for Juventus and for Antonio Conte. Particularly since Juventus went up 1-0 – thanks to Arturo Vidal – within three minutes and later on Conte began to play more defensively.
I can understand the concerns with the defensive play, especially given that we saw a shift to a more defensive formation – resembling a 4-4-1-1 at times – and the likes of Simone Padoin were brought on as substitutes.
That said, I also fully understand Conte’s reasoning for playing more defensively. I can’t vouch for the Padoin substitution, but after having a 1-0 lead for some time – and for what it is worth, only the post denied Arturo Vidal from a second goal – I see why Conte would want to play it safe and not let up an away goal.
That an away goal was let up is a cruel fact of the game, but I cannot fault Conte’s tactics, nor can I make vague references to the mentality of Conte or the players, as I am not a psychic. Additionally, Conte did not rotate the lineup as much for this match as he had for the Trabzonspor matches. While initially I was irritated with the rotation policy, I now see how useful and in fact wise it is.
And to be fair to Conte, we saw less rotation against Fiorentina than we saw against Trabzonspor. Although the injury of Carlos Tevez prompted one more switch, we saw the likes of Kwadwo Asamoah and Giorgio Chiellini starting, not exactly the guys we saw starting against Trabzonspor in either leg. Indeed, the fact that Peluso started in lieu of Asamoah was a specific grievance of mine.
Fiorentina do have the literal advantage now, if the next game were to end 0-0, Fiorentina advances. However if Juventus score one goal in the next game everything changes. Of course Fiorentina can sit back and let Juventus try to score while looking to hit on the counter, and Mario Gomez is the perfect striker for that, but Fiorentina were in a similar position against Esbjerg fB, and if the second leg for this tie is the same – 1-1 – we got to penalties.
It’s important not to be discouraged by this result. Fiorentina are a very good side, recent form aside. This is the same team that beat Juventus (their only loss in Serie A) 4-2 with Giuseppe Rossi. If you ask me, a fit and in form Mario Gomez is a better striker than even Beppe (though before his unfortunate knee injury Beppe was on pace to easily win Capocannoniere) and so for him to capitalize on one defensive error is no surprise.
But there’s another injured striker who could play a role: Carlos Tevez. He will presumably return by this weekend, and if not for that Genoa match, then surely for next week’s return leg. Perhaps a full 90 minutes of Tevez and Llorente can change Juve’s fortunes. We’ll see in six days.
