AS Roma – Juventus: Aggressive Yet Offensively Stale Roma Fail To Come Back From Juve’s Quick Punches (1-2)

Roma dominated Juventus for most of the match, in a convincing display that showed their progress in pressing and building up. Once again, however, Juve demonstrated how mistakes cannot be afforded against them, scoring two early goals that a dominant, yet devoid of creativity Roma side were unable to come back from.

Tactical analysis and match report by Kareem Bianchi. 

The new year unfolded for Juventus with a convincing win over Cagliari that set the sights Maurizio Sarri hopes to reach by the crucial stages of the season. Continuity throughout the ninety minutes remains the objective the manager wishes to succeed in, meaning the pressing-and-possession obstacles Roma placed along Juve’s route embodied a strong test to overcome. 

Roma, on the other hand, came on the back of a 2-0 loss at the hands of Torino that exposed numerous issues affecting their possession game. Therefore, their game in Turin also took the form of a test, as they made sure to capitalize on Atalanta’s draw against Inter from the night before.

Sarri, who had anticipated rotations in the press conference given the heavy schedule, lined Juventus up in their usual 4-3-1-2 starting formation instead. With Matthijs de Ligt still benched - club statement: “injured” - and Rodrigo Bentancur serving his three-match ban, the only new names in the eleven were Merih Demiral and Adrien Rabiot, who had already featured in previous matches. In attack, Aaron Ramsey assisted Paulo Dybala and Cristiano Ronaldo from attacking midfield.

Fonseca also stayed true to his standard . . .