The early rounds of the Coppa Italia is often the time where coaches give regular starters some time off their feet and let some of the players lower on the depth chart get a chance to show out, and maybe test out a tactical wrinkle or two.
But with Juventus’ injury situation still critical, doing that in Tuesday night’s round of 16 tie against Cagliari was going to take some creativity. With Bremer and Juan Cabal out for the year, the depth in defense is nonexistent. The midfield and attack were less thin, but it was still difficult to significantly rotate their lineup.
So Thiago Motta decided to let his freak flag fly a little bit. He played a pair of midfielders as defenders, and made a major change to the midfield and forward line that could have a lot of bearing on how the team might attack as the season progresses.
After an almighty wobble in the early going, the changes came together. As the night progressed, the Bianconeri finally did something that has eluded them for the last few months: they made Cagliari — who had stolen a point from them in October with a late penalty — look like the relegation struggler they are. They took the lead on the stroke of halftime, then took over in the second half, blitzing the Sardinian outfit with some excellent goals to bring home a 4-0 win to push them into the quarterfinal of the competition for the 20th consecutive season.
Motta was still missing Andrea Cambiaso, Jonas Rouhi, and Arkadiusz Milik, while Douglas Luiz was held out for load management after returning to the fold at the weekend. The usual 4-2-3-1 formation was retained, but with some interesting tweaks. One surprise was in goal. Traditionally the realm of the No. 2 keeper throughout the tournament, it was Michele Di Gregorio who was given the gloves. His back four was shaken up quite a bit. Nicolò Savona and Pierre Kalulu were normal sights, but Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie at center- and left-back, respectively, were quite unusual. The midfield also saw a shakeup, with Teun Koopmeiners being dropped back into the pivot alongside Khephren Thuram. Kenan Yildiz was shifted inside to the trequartista position, flanked by Francisco Conceição and Samuel Mbangula in support of Dusan Vlahovic.
Cagliari coach Davide Nicola had three crunch matchups against others in the relegation fight coming up, and with that in mind he made wholesale changes to his lineup. He settled on a 4-4-1-1 formation. Simone Scuffet started in goal, screened by Gabriele Zappa, Mateusz Weiteska, José Luis Palomino, and Tommaso Augello. Nadir Zortea and Alessandro Deiola played wide in midfield, surrounding the duo of Rǎsvan Marin and Matteo Prati. Gianluca Gaetano played behind Gianluca Lapadula up front.
The experiments had an inauspicious start. Less than 40 seconds into the game, the movement of Gaetano and Lapadula pulled the back line apart, leaving the latter to latch on to a ball by Zortea nine yards out, but he put the ball straight at Di Gregorio, who responded with a kick save. Two more followups were blocked and a final one put way over the bar before things calmed down.
Whatever Motta had wanted to see out of his new-look lineup, giving up four shots in the first 45 seconds of the match certainly wasn’t it. Cagliari used the momentum to dictate the pace of play for the opening stages. But Juve showed their own danger in the 13th minute when a blocked shot fell to Vlahovic, who blazed it over the near corner from deep in the left channel.
As the first half wore on, Juve slowly started to reverse the flow and push into the Cagliari half. Unsurprisingly, Concieção looked to be the most dangerous Juventus player on the field. In the 28th minute he cut inside and put a curling effort millimeters wide of the far post, then eight minutes later he forced Scuffet to throw a fist into the air to parry a strong shot over the bar.
Juve was more and more dominant as the half wore on, and they were finally rewarded a minute before the break. The move started with a long ball to Mbangula. He was confronted with a wall of red-and-blue shirts, but managed to flick it back to Yildiz. The teenage Turk made himself a passing lane with a quick move and sent the ball to the feet of Vlahovic, who had stolen in front of Weiteska. The striker settled the ball, turned 90 degrees, and rolled the ball through Weiteska’s legs, off the inside of the post, and into the goal. It was all the more impressive on subsequent viewings when you realize that Vlahovic never actually looked up at the target.
Juventus FC v Cagliari Calcio - Coppa Italia Photo by Filippo Alfero - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images
Cagliari made another early push for control after the break, but that was snuffed out within eight minutes.
After Yildiz earned a free kick in the middle of the field, Koopmeiners lined the ball up. The ball was close to 30 yards out — not that that mattered to the Dutchman, who absolutely ripped the ball into the top corner to double the lead.
It was almost 3-0 less than two minutes later, but a wonderful chipped finish by Vlahovic was invalidated by the offside flag. A few minutes later he came inches away from another when he stretched to redirect an errant shot by Conceição. Striker and keeper each continued to look for a third, coming oh-so-close to definitively killing the game off on a number of occasions.
Nico Gonzalez joined in the effort for that game-killing strike after he came on the field in the 66th minute, quickly seeing a header off a corner deflected just wide. Vlahovic saw another offside flag go a few minutes later when he redirected an errant Concieção with his head. With 12 minutes left he made an out-and-out mistake when he stole the ball and streaked downfield, but as he rounded Scuffet he took a touch that was far too heavy and killed his angle to the point where he ended up pushing the ball into the side netting.
The third goal finally came with 10 minutes left, and finally saw Conceição claim the goal he richly deserved. Set up by a short field following a turnover, Conceicao was fed into the box by Gonzalez and then slammed the ball pasrt Scuffet to finish things off. Then the returning Gonzalez got in on the act, stealing the ball in his own half and showing Vlahovic how to finish a one-on-one, floating an absolutely gorgeous shot over Scuffet from just outside the box while running at full speed to put an exclamation point on things.
Juventus FC v Cagliari Calcio - Coppa Italia Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images
LE PAGELLE
MICHELE DI GREGORIO - 7. Made a couple of impressive 1-on-1 saves, and made a couple of nice long kicks that were right on the money.
NICOLÒ SAVONA - 6. An awful start after his role on that early chance, but things settled down and was solid from then on.
PIERRE KALULU - 7. Blocked a pair of shots and completed 96 percent of his passes. Formed some pretty good chemistry with Locatelli in real time in the back.
MANUEL LOCATELLI - 7. An impressive game for a guy playing a position he’d never played before in a competitive match. Not only was he excellent defending (after that opening scare), he made four key passes from that center-back position. Very impressive.
Juventus FC v Cagliari Calcio - Coppa Italia Photo by Image Photo Agency/Getty Images
WESTON McKENNIE - 7. Got a few bumps early going, but also registered four key passes, Although he wasn’t as successful as Locatelli, he proved serviceable there in a pinch.
KHEPHREN THURAM - 7. Easily guided Juve’s makeshift defense and was a powerhouse. Won all but one of his duels and made a pair of key passes.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS - 6. Completed all 46 of his passes, and that goal was an absolute cracker.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO - 7.5. Had three shots on target and all of them were deeply concerning for Scuffet in goal. A danger every time he touched the ball.
KENAN YILDIZ - 6. Had the assist to Vlahovic on the opener. Playing centrally, he may be better than Koopmeiners until he manages to intervene.
SAMUEL MBANGULA - 7. Had three key passes and also made three tackles on the other end. Made an effective case that he should be playing more.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC - 7. An accelerant is a paint thinner. He had a very well-taken first goal, and he could’ve had two more if he’d had a little bit better.
SUBS
FEDERICO GATTI - 7. Solidified the back after Juve were up by multiple scores. Was rarely seriously challenged.
NICO GONZALEZ - 8. Provided the assist for Conceição and scored one of the most beautiful goals of the year to put an exclamation point on things. He brings an aerial presence that none of our forwards other than Vlahovic has, which can be a huge boost to the attack.
TIMOTHY WEAH - NR. Officially credited with the assist on Gonzalez’s goal, making it an assist once in nine touches. A good move that no one I know is going to be making the phone while I came out of the Berlin.
VASILIJE ADZIC - NR. Struck the wall with a free kick and was slow to show him the ropes in the middle. We’ll see how he develops.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Thiago Motta ran a few experiments Tuesday night. Let’s look at them one by one:
Locatelli at center back
This has been floated once or twice since the depth was shot to hell in the back, and Motta finally decided to experiment with him in the position. That first moment right out of the blocks was harrowing, for sure, but he settled down and ended up turning in an excellent game. He could be used as a deputy back there until we land a new defender in the January transfer window.
McKennie at left back
Not quite a seamless as Locatelli, but added a dimension to the team in possession that Cambiaso often does by moving forward into the center of midfield. Another experiment that could be expanded on until reinforcements arrive in January.
Juventus FC v Cagliari Calcio - Coppa Italia Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images
Koopmeiners in the pivot, Yildiz as trequartista
Koopmeiners was a little slow to get into this, but you could see that him pushing up from deep and making runs is, in fact, the way he likes to play best. Conversely, Yildiz was placed in the center of the field and I thought he immediately brought a level of flow to the attack that had been missing with Koopmeiners on the field.
All of the biggest tactical and selection choices that Motta made today came up sevens. It’s not going to be that good all the time, but Motta can rest easier after Tuesday night, knowing that he has a couple of options for changing things or giving people a day off until he finally gets more bodies in like a Camry.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juve have a Sunday date at Monza, then a massively important match a week later against Fiorentina that will have huge top four implications. After that the team decamps to Saudi Arabia for the four-team Supercoppa mini tournament, with AC Milan the first test there.