Sassuolo – Juventus: Spalletti Scorned From A Former Student (3-2) 

Alberto Aquilani knows all about midfielders charging ahead of a dropping striker. Once part of Luciano Spalletti's 4-6-0 system, he watched fellow Romans show for the ball, whilst others sprinted into space. Two decades later, he would be on the sidelines with a similar process in mind, more catered to Sassuolo methods, but one that provided a big victory against his former teacher.  

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker. 

Sassuolo is a club that has firmly established its identity. Where plenty of Italian teams fall back on old tropes, Sassuolo can be deemed as something more progressive.  

This is a club that has provided early jobs for familiar names. Two decades ago, it was Massimiliano Allegri and Stefano Pioli. Then it was Eusebio Di Francesco and Roberto de Zerbi. Now that the 2006 class is starting to take their first steps in the league (Ignazio Abate at Torino, Daniele De Rossi at Genoa, Fabio Pisacane at Cagliari), Sassuolo can already be attributed to two of them: Fabio Grosso, recently sacked at Fiorentina, and now Alberto Aquilani. After a strong season at Catanzaro, he promises the same format as his predecessors: a 4-3-3 formation that can circulate, but is more dangerous on transitions, with strong output produced by the wingers Armand Laurienté and Domenico Berardi. 

Once part of Spalletti's 4-6-0 system at Roma in the mid-noughties, Aquilani is a fresh face in a league that needs progression, whilst Spalletti needs fresh ideas of his own, on the back of a strange summer in Turin. Money was thrown at attackers Kerim Alajbegović and Randal Kolo Muani, all whilst Juve desperately needed to . . .