Atalanta BC – Juventus: Allegri Arranges A Sweet Swansong? (0-1)

Deceptive and devious deeds cannot fool audiences forever. Juventus are no longer the force of Italian football, stumbling to see out their season in Serie A. However, there are two ways to depart center stage. Either one can bow out gracefully or flee from the spotlight in shame. Massimiliano Allegri rolled back the years with a classic scoreline and shot at silverware that might mark the best possible way in which he could sign off from his reprised role in Turin.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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Will the apex for Atalanta approach greater heights? At the turn of the decade, the club collected 78 points for two years in a row, finishing third in the Serie A standings both times and advancing to the knockout phase of the Champions League twice. Yet, one yearning would yield a sense of completion for the climb in Italian football: silverware. One of the turning points could have been the 2021 Coppa Italia Final, suffering a 2-1 loss to Juventus. Would the divinities decide that retribution was rightful?

The Old Lady lay frail at the scene. The skirmish for the Scudetto brought the best out of Juventus. At the end of January, a single point separated them from the summit. Derby d’Italia was the death knell. Inter illustrated their right to rule Serie A with a 1-0 victory to pull four points clear at the top of the table. The camp have only recorded two triumphs from their following thirteen matches in the league, sliding behind Bologna and AC Milan. Could another trophy trace better memories of a glorious past?

Massimiliano Allegri altered five players from a 1-1 draw with Salernitana. He laid out a back five. Wojciech Szczęsny started on the bench, so Mattia Perin patroled the goal. Danilo displaced Daniele Rugani on the left of the back three while Filip Kostić came out for Samuel Iling-Junior as the wing-back. Manuel Locatelli left a spot in the middle of the park due to a suspension, so Hans Caviglia took his place. Federico Chiesa came in for Moise Kean as the partner to Dušan Vlahović in the front two.

Gian Piero Gasperini gained ideal prep with a 2-1 beating of Roma. He only rotated two men. Though club captain Rafael Tóloi toiled for fitness, he watched in the dugout. Berat Djimsiti, Isak Hien, and Marten de Roon held down the three berths at the heart of the rearguard. Matteo Ruggeri remained on the left, but Davide Zappacosta had swapped in for Hans Hateboer as the right wing-back. Gianluca Scamacca suffered a suspension, so Ademola Lookman was back in the fold from the beginning.

Building bridges into midfield

History repeated itself within four minutes of kickoff. Weston McKennie manhandled de Roon in his back, laying off the ball to Andrea Cambiaso. He trapped the pass with his chest before searching for the deep running Vlahović. The striker slipped around Hien from his blindside to return to an onside position: Hien raised the line without full unity. Vlahović slotted a strike beyond Marco Carnesecchi.

4^th minute: buildup to Vlahović’s goal. The man to man defending of Atalanta can distort their offside line because the main point of reference for the defenders is their direct opponent as opposed to any collective lines. Hien tried to raise the offside line in order to catch Vlahović behind the last man, but Djimsiti was loitering in a deeper position that negated this movement and allowed a free run at goal.

Juventus could now sit on an advantage. Yet, they still could control the ball in phases. Danilo did not centralize so closely to the base of the midfield. He occupied a narrow position in the first line of the buildup, so Iling-Junior moved closer to the back three, and Federico Gatti pushed wide in the right channel. In previous meetings, their structure has stifled connectivity into the middle third of the field. But better security of the ball in the air and on the floor managed to hold off opposition man marking.

Most of the breakthroughs in the final third were on the left flank. Chiesa carved his way forward with individualism in a wider position, both through flicked passes to link up with Vlahović or bustling runs on the ball to burst forward with dynamism from the outside. Twice Iling-Junior also arrived with the opening to deliver crosses into the area, but he could not pick out a white and black shirt.

Juventus usher U-shaped circulation

The hallmark of Allegri’s approach is a stable wall that could hold onto single goal leads in his first stint in the role. His men were willing to fall back into a low block. The 5-3-2 formation is a firm foundation to compact the center and deny the direct route to the goal. Chiesa could drop further on the outside to double up against overloads Atalanta have habitually used with their flexible rotations.

Here, the absence of Scamacca was glaring. Not only has he found form in front of the goal, bagging four goals and two assists in his last five Serie A matches, but also acted as a fixed point of reference in the attack. His frame was not available to fire passes into the middle of the defense as a platform for wall passes. Atalanta fell into a fatal pattern of sterile circulation around the block. Numbers in the box were missing to connect with crosses, while physical battles favored Bremer and other defenders.

22^nd minute: offensive sequence from Atalanta. The central midfielders dropped deep in the halfspaces to circulate the possession laterally. Chiesa covered on the outside, pushing out to block the passing lane to de Ketelaere, under double coverage from Danilo in the defensive chain. Djimsiti shifted the ball to Zappacosta, who drove down the line and dug out a delivery. No teammates attack the far post.

Before the start of the second half, Gasperini sent on a substitute. De Ketelaere, who could not cope with receptions back to goal, departed the field. El Bilal Touré entered the fray as a central forward.

Substitutes signal frustration

Juventus had less life on the counter, and Touré tried to offer more physical presence against the backline. As Atalanta camped in enemy territory, attention turned to the left. Since Touré tested the heart of the back five, Lookman could drive on the dribble from the outside. He and Koopmeiners flashed efforts wide of the post in the 51st and 57th minutes. Ruggeri remained in support: most of his nine crosses across the game materialized in this phase of the clash. Yet, a shortage of security within close quarters forced phases of possession to fizzle out. Gasperini sought spirit from the bench again.

He brought on three pairs of fresh legs on the verge of the hour mark. Hateboer replaced Zappacosta, Hien came off for Giorgio Scalvini, and Aleksey Miranchuk switched in for Pašalić. Koopmeiners slotted next to Éderson in the double pivot as part of a more offensive configuration. Scalvini stepped into the final third more often on the left of the back three. Nonetheless, the same style of solution was the outlet during this contest: a dribbling duel from Lookman. Allegri’s men ably neutered this threat.

Fabio Miretti and Kenan Yıldız yielded more relief for Juventus. Vlahović vied for a brace, only being inches from a second goal in the 72nd minute. Cambiaso connected with the striker in the air from a cross, but he was offside. Miretti also smacked the underside of the crossbar. Atalanta stayed alive, and Lookman imitated the feat at the other end of the field. In the end, the Old Lady prevailed.

𝐏𝐔𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐌!! 🖼️🏆 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/g3Tjml0jUi

— JuventusFC 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@juventusfcen) May 16, 2024

Takeaways

Gasperini’s grasp is still short of silverware. Atalanta are able to atone for this loss in Dublin, meeting with Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League Final in a week. And two trials in Serie A sandwich that trip as the last hurdle to a place in the top five of the nation that would secure a spot in the Champions League. Indeed, the manager mentioned how there remains a reason not to wallow in self-pity. But sooner rather than later, he will want to show that the skill of closing out success is in his repertoire.

On the other hand, trophies are a part and parcel of the operations at Juventus. Although his methods might not sparkle for spectators, Allegri’s annoyance has rightfully risen at the noise around an exit with a year to go on his contract. If it is the end of his tenure, he can leave on a noble note. While his second stint has not signaled the return to the top of the Italian game that defined most of the last decade, this triumph ends a fallow three year period without any additions to their trophy cabinet.

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