Both teams are in dire need of a ‘get-right’ game after a challenging stretch. Lazio will be hoping to benefit from the new coach’s bump, while Juventus have to get out of their slump.
Serie A Week 30 – Saturday 30 March 2024 – Stadio Olimpico | Preview by Enrico Passarella
Lazio
Maurizio Sarri’s resignation gave them a two-month advantage on the busy coaching carousel. Rather than waiting and going with a caretaker manager, they hand-picked Igor Tudor, which is interesting to begin with. It’s a less ambitious hiring compared to the Tuscan gaffer a few years ago, but it might turn out to be a good fit. Perhaps they made some informal calls and realized they wouldn’t have been able to do better down the line and didn’t want to risk losing him to other sides.
The Croat has had some solid seasons in Serie A, especially with Verona, but not in teams of this caliber, albeit he assisted Andrea Pirlo at Juventus for one campaign. His lone season at Marseille, and their third-place finish, and Napoli’s previous courtship boosted his reputation.
It will be an abrupt stylistic transition, even though they never reached the Napoli heights and Sarri-ball only made some sporadic appearances. Things were probably headed this regardless, and perhaps the Champions League was the only glue that held things together. Their recent skid was discouraging but not enough to justify the decision on its own. They have been languishing in those areas of the standing for a few months at this point. The Italian boss had been feuding with the management over the transfer market for at least a couple of windows and, if nothing else happened behind the scenes, he stepped down once he noticed the players were no longer fighting tooth and nail for him. It ended on a sour note, but, all things considered, his tenure was positive overall.
Sarri is far from a weakling, but Tudor is touted to be even more hardnose. We’ll see whether the player will get the message. They surely need a spark and to go on the pitch with more intensity and a sense of urgency. Instead, if they rejected his methods, it might have more consequences for them than for the freshly-appointed gaffer. The management might have taken this route to accompany some staples to the exit door without looking like the bad guys.
Tudor has primarily used 3-4-2-1 in his recent stints, inheriting it from Ivan Juric at Verona and adding a touch of offensive flair. He has rehearsed it during the break, and it appears it will be drastic right away even though he kept the decision close to the vest in the pre-game presser. They aren’t very deep but can pull it off since they’ll play once a week for the most part. Niccolò Casale, who already worked with the coach, has worryingly regressed, and the tweak would help them out. Mario Gila and Patric are explosive and can easily play a little wider. Alessio Romagnoli, their best man, is the main doubt but should be experienced enough to be able to handle the slightly different role.
Manuel Lazzari and Luca Pellegrini are better as wing-backs than as fullbacks, and Adam Marusic is a jack-of-all-trades. The biggest question marks would be in the midfield. Matteo Guendouzi has risen to a level where he’s untouchable. He might not be a difference-maker, but he is their most consistent performer and always brings the hustle. Nicolò Rovella had only a so-so season and was probably bothered by a sports hernia before he was shut down. He did well in this scheme at Monza and has yet to fully develop into a regista. It wouldn’t be a problem for Danilo Cataldi and especially Matias Vecino, who has been sneakily important.
It’s tough to imagine Luis Alberto would hold up as a pivot, and moving him to no.10 would affect the playing time of more dynamic players. Perhaps they don’t mind it at this stage, as Felipe Anderson might be on his way out, Pedro most likely is, and Gustav Tang Isaksen could still find room as a super-sub. They’ll also have to handle Mattia Zaccagni’s contractual situation sooner rather than later. They better hold onto him, or replacing everybody will be a financial bloodbath. The Brazilian is reportedly also an option to cover the whole flank, which would be bold.
Since it’s been a couple of years since Alberto has been devastating in the final third, and his athleticism isn’t going to improve, he should start considering the same transition Hakan Calhanoglu had, who went from an okay no.10 to an elite deep-lying playmaker. He’s more inconsistent and mercurial, but he’s not far away in terms of technique, vision, and passing prowess. It would require using him with two box-to-box midfielders, though.
Another elephant in the room is whether they should still rely on Ciro Immobile as their main no.9, or if they should give Taty Castellanos more chances to see whether he could be the guy to take over. Or perhaps starts deploying them together, which Sarri barely even considered. The Argentine’s last showing was stellar, but his seasonal numbers are paltry despite the justifications of irregular game time. Like Guendouzi, he’s not an ace but provides much-needed energy to a side that starves for it.
A comeback to the top four or five is improbable, but the other European competitions matter, too, and so does the Coppa Italia. The coaching change should revive their pride a little. Ultimately, their top players need to perform much better for them to have a decent end to the season. Or the summer overhaul will be very substantial.
Expected XI (3-4-2-1): Mandas; Gila, Romagnoli, Casale; Felipe Anderson, Vecino, Guendouzi, Marusic; Alberto, Zaccagni; Immobile.
Doubts: Vecino/Cataldi, Alberto/Kamada, Immobile/Castellanos.
Injury Report: Patric (thigh injury) – Probable;
Alberto (muscle fatigue), Lazzari (calf injury) – Questionable;
Rovella (sports hernia), Provedel (ankle sprain) – Out.
Suspensions: Pellegrini.
Juventus
What started as a natural and understandable downturn in form after losing ground to Inter and missing out on the objective they had been chasing has turned into a crisis. The most worrying part for them is that not all slip-ups have been equal and come to be in the same fashion, making it harder to identify the fixes.
Despite the usual narrative around Massimiliano Allegri, they have stumbled a couple of times, versus Napoli and Atalanta, while playing head-on, pulling the strings and creating a bunch of chances, though exposing their defense in the process. Instead, on other occasions, especially the recent Genoa tilt, where there was an overcorrection after a series of games where they had given up two goals, they were too cagey and didn’t produce enough. The short blanket syndrome has been manifest.
The coach should have the pulse of the situation so late into the season, with only injuries and happenstances disturbing the status quo. Instead, he’s still searching for the optimal way for things to function well on both ends, which is a big indictment against him. Perhaps he went YOLO after losing both Adrien Rabiot and Weston McKennie to injuries simultaneously, embracing the more offensive-minded skillsets of their replacements, but they weren’t out for so long to justify a protracted nose dive.
Their lead over the fifth/sixth place is still comfortable, plus some competitors will take each other out and have to deal with the cups. Still, their schedule is getting tougher, so they’ll have to return to their early-season form to land the plane and avoid an outcome that would be borderline comical.
It shouldn’t, as a team of this stature should be fine in either phase regardless, but the question is whether the boss will double down on his beliefs and prioritize protecting the rearguard better to regain pace, hoping the strikers come through despite a slower pace and a limited amount of chances, or if he’ll instead turn it up offensively.
The first proposition is more difficult without Dusan Vlahovic, whose form had started to dip before the incredibly silly red card. Since when it rains, it pours, Arkadiusz Milik got hurt, so they’ll have to hope Moise Kean shows up, which he occasionally does even though he has yet to score this season, and that Federico Chiesa has one of those performances where he glides past his opponents with ease, commands a lot of attention, and properly leads the charge, and instead doesn’t get too stubborn or sloppy. Given the previous so-so showings, the hopes of seeing a trident with Kenan Yildiz even for just a portion of the game are slim.
While it’s a negative development, at least their blah results have overshadowed a little the discourse about the future of Allegri, which has gotten tacky. The club should have already made the decision, at least internally, and he shouldn’t be out there openly campaigning to keep his job. Chances are they’ll qualify for the Champions League and perhaps even win the Coppa Italia, but, unless they plan to sign multiple top players in the summer, which is unlikely since their finances aren’t in great shape, it’ll almost be a disservice to their offensive talent to keep him on the bench and not go with somebody with more modern tactics that augment the qualities of the roster.
UPDATE: It looks like Allegri is going with a very defensive posture and leaning on his lieutenants Daniele Rugania and Mattia De Sciglio in what could be a lopsided 4-3-3 with Andrea Cambiaso as a winger.
Expected XI (3-5-2): Szczesny; Rugani, Bremer, Danilo; Cambiaso, Miretti, Locatelli, Rabiot, De Sciglio; Chiesa, Kean.
Doubts: Rugani/Gatti, De Sciglio, Miretti/McKennie.
Injury Report: Alcaraz, Milik (thigh strains), Sandro (thigh muscle fatigue), Kostic (flu) – Out.
Suspensions: Vlahovic, Pogba, Fagioli.
Prediction
Draw – Under 2.5 Goals
