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You wanted a good first impression, you got a good first impression.
It didn’t matter if it was from the freshman coach, the revamped and much more mobile midfield, or the 20-year-old star who played as a makeshift forward even though he’s a natural right winger, Sunday night he was about to pass the first. test, and Juventus did just that.
With room to spare too.
Juventus may not have completely passed their first test of the 2020-21 season, but Andrea Pirlo’s first official match in charge of the nine-time defending Italian champions gave you reason to expect things to be on an upward trajectory. Pirlo’s Juventus, one we still don’t know much about, were able to take control early thanks to a one-goal pearl from rookie Dejan Kulusevski and roll to a 3-0 win over Sampdoria at Allianz Stadium on Sunday. night.
I dare say it was fun to see Juventus again.
After getting so many results last season, this was a very welcome change for the better. Pirlo had an idea of what he wanted his team to do, they went out and did it, and the end result was a relatively comfortable victory over the Sampdoria team against which Juve secured their most recent Scudetto two months ago.
It really was the kind of positive start you wanted to see from both Pirlo and Juventus as a whole. And we also have a pretty good idea of how Pirlo wants to set things up:
- It’s a 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 in attack then …
- It transforms into a 4-4-2 on defense.
For much of this game, it was a solid plan that worked quite well. Sure, there were some nervous moments, especially in the second half, where Sampdoria came close to testing Wojciech Szczesny in goal or even testing No. 1 Juve, but it wasn’t the utter defensive disorganization that we saw the last season.
But, the most important thing was this: Juventus played fast, they played with a lot more energy compared to a couple of months and, for much of the game, they really had full control of things. Sampdoria may have recorded 15 shots in the game, but it wasn’t until the latter parts of the second half that Szczesny was called into action. (And those two saves, especially the one at the goal line, were pretty big.)
It’s the kind of focus we saw against Novara in the only preseason friendly last weekend. Now it’s the kind of focus we saw in the first game of the 2020-21 season against Sampdoria. The sample size may still be very small, but it seems like a very good base to build from here, as the level of competition will increase quite a bit in the coming weeks.
For now, though, this first impression of Pirlo was quite refreshing after passing through Sarriball for literally an entire year.
In conclusion, I would say that things went quite well, quite well on Sunday. Really pretty good.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Thought number one in the starting lineup: Gianluca Frabotta? GIANLUCA FRABOTTA!
- Thought # 2 in the starting lineup: Weston McKennie? WESTON MCKENNIE!
- Hey, it’s Pirlo’s first official line-up, he keeps us on our toes from the start. It could be worse I guess. (Like, you know, a 4-3-3 with the same players over and over.)
- Pirlo in that suit … chef’s kiss.
- Pirlo’s reaction to Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal that made it 3-0 at the end of the second half? Applause and a drink from his bottle of water. If that’s not Pirlo, then I don’t know what is.
- We knew that Dejan Kulusevski was an electrical talent coming into this game. He was the best young player in all of Serie A last season, and he did so at 19 with very little experience in the top flight. But watching him finish that shot attempt with the relative ease and the kind of total no-nonsense reaction to all of that just shows you the kind of confidence he has in his own abilities. Whether he’s wide-open on the right or as a makeshift forward in the future for the next month or two, it will be a lot of fun to see him establish himself as a Juventus player. Something tells me that this kind of goal is just the beginning for him.
- I know a lot of us around here haven’t exactly seen Weston McKennie long before his arrival at Juventus. That’s part of the reason we cover your arrival like we did here at Black & White & Read All Over. But if this is the kind of game that he’s going to have a good chunk of time in when Pirlo decides to play him, then it’ll seem like an absolute steal even in today’s soccer coronavirus economy. Dude had 94 touches, completed 88 percent of his passes, had four tackles and three interceptions. If that’s not exactly what Weston McKennie does, I don’t know what is. I think he has won another start or two.
- Plus McKennie came THIS NEAR to, like Kulusevski, score on his debut.
- Breaking news: Juventus’ defense looked much better with Giorgio Chiellini leading the group compared to last season, when he was better there. I know it is something that really requires a true understanding to understand, so you will have to believe me when I tell you this.
- Do you know who will benefit the most from Chiellini being healthy? Leonardo Bonucci. Robin has Batman back, and Juve’s defense is so much better for that.
- The Aaron Ramsey we saw against Sampdoria was someone we’ve been waiting a year to appear in Turin. He was a creative force Sunday, and could have easily had at least a couple of assists if the scoring opportunities had ended on the back of one of his passes. He was lively, active, and the kind of player this Juventus midfield can really use to his advantage … as long as he stays healthy. (And that is not the truth more than ever).
- Ramsey had six key passes. SIX!
- When the initial lineup was announced, many of the mentions of BWRAO on Twitter involved expectations that Danilo was terrible. Guess what? It wasn’t terrible! Far from it, actually.
- I, for one, was pleased to see that McKennie’s partner in center midfield, Adrien Rabiot, continued to show that the player we (rarely) saw at the start of last season is now a distant thing in the past. Rabiot has settled in since the restart of Serie A, and it will be a huge advantage for Pirlo if he continues to improve as he has done in recent months.
- That was fun. We should do it again next weekend.
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