Team Focus: Allegri Making His Mark on Conte's Juventus

If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it. 

Massimiliano Allegri has been quite sensible since he replaced Antonio Conte as coach of Juventus this summer. On the surface, it would appear he hasn’t changed much and why would he? The Old Lady has won the Scudetto three years in a row, each one better than the last, breaking several all-time records last season, going beyond the 100-point barrier and winning every game at home.

Still the temptation to put your own stamp on things can be hard to resist. Just compare the subtle succession in Turin to the radical reformation at Napoli a year ago when Rafael Benitez did away with Walter Mazzarri’s tried and trusted 3-5-1-1 system and the cautious style with which it was practiced to impose his own more propositive 4-2-3-1 on the team. The circumstances were different, granted. Napoli were then looking to go to the next level - they still are - whereas Juventus at least in Italy wish to stay where they are, which is at the top. 

At the end of last season, a transition to 4-3-3 or a variation of it was on the cards even before Conte’s resignation, the thinking being it would be more suited to Europe and facilitate a breakthrough in the Champions League. The club sought to equip the team with the players required to make the shift but, despite experiments with it in pre-season, Allegri has persisted with the 3-5-2. That’s in part because the players able to play a back four haven’t been available to him. Andrea Barzagli had surgery after the World Cup and is only now returning while Giorgio Chiellini has been suspended and also tweaked a muscle during the international break. 

Still, Juventus have picked up where they left off last season. The Scudetto shows no signs of coming unstitched from their shirts just yet. They have been frighteningly dominant even though with the exception of 86 minutes against Chievo, they have been without Arturo Vidal, not to mention Andrea Pirlo. Juventus’ added depth has been evident. Carried over from the last campaign their defence - even in makeshift form with Martin Cáceres, Leonardo Bonucci and Angelo Ogbonna combining - has protected Gigi Buffon’s goal to the effect that Juve now haven’t conceded in 7 games.

Certain novelties that have been feathers in Allegri’s cap weren’t available to Conte but he has already made a number of praiseworthy calls in his time in the dug-out. Suffering from the flu before their season opener in Verona, Fernando Llorente was replaced by summer recruit - another free transfer steal - Kingsley Coman. Thrown in early by Allegri as was the case with Pogba under Conte, he impressed in his role as the player operating furthest forward.

Patrice Evra and Roberto Pereyra were then integrated well against Udinese. And the use of Kwadwo Asamoah in the team’s central midfield three rather than out-wide also gave encouraging results against Malmö when he stood out for his back-heeled assist for Tévez and (wayward shooting aside - 6 shots, only 1 of which hit the target) his overall play which saw him register a 7.6 WhoScored rating. Of course, his deployment in that position was forced by the absences of Pirlo and Vidal, and the option presented itself because Juventus now have cover, if not an upgrade in Evra at left wing-back [something Conte wasn’t blessed with]. Credit where it’s due though, Allegri again found the right solution to what threatened to be a problem.  

It’s early days but he has already silenced some of the sceptics. Renowned for making slow (and sometimes false) starts, Allegri has led Juventus to three wins from three in all competitions. Apart from a Maxi López chance, which Buffon did ever so well to snuff out with the score still at 1-0 against Chievo, they have given the impression of being in near total control. 

Admittedly in the first half of the Malmö game it seemed as though we were watching a re-run of the huffing and puffing Juventus that dropped points against Nordsjaelland and FC Copenhagen in recent years. However, after the interval they were much better and won comfortably. Tévez scored his first goal in the Champions League in five and a half years and got a brace. “For strikers, goals are like ketchup bottles,” Gianluca Vialli said on Sky Italia, “you tap, tap, tap and nothing comes out then they splurge.” 

If Conte’s results are, by his own reckoning, almost impossible to improve upon in Italy, in Europe margins for Allegri to do better do exist. True there’s pressure on him to reach the quarter-finals but it’s fair to say when Juventus play on the continent the shadow of Conte looms less large than it does in Italy. As such, a debate has already begun as to whether Allegri’s style of play is more adapted to Europe than his predecessor’s.

It’s a question for which there is no answer. There are lots of different ways to win and the bottom line is Conte’s Juventus underachieved in the Champions League. Last season’s group stage exit didn’t reflect the team’s true value. But if there is a conversation about this it’s because, even though they play the same system, a difference has been discerned in the way Juventus play under Allegri. They are nuanced slightly differently. 

Claudio Marchisio touched upon this after the victory over Udinese. “Before we had a very clearly defined game plan,” he said. “Practically every movement was planned and we persisted with it even in periods when we were perhaps experiencing great physical difficulty. With Allegri we keep the ball more and instead seek to identify, in particular against tight defences, the moment in which it’s preferable to manage our energy through keeping the ball [resting on it]. You can’t always go at a thousand miles per hour also because [tired out] you then find it hard to get the ball back quickly. It’s better to pass it between ourselves in some circumstances.” 

When asked if that meant playing a little Tiki-Taka, he replied: “Yes.” 

Is the Old Lady becoming a Spanish señorita? Marchisio’s remarks are borne out in the statistics. It’s a small sample size of three games to compare with three years of Conte, but under Allegri Juventus have more of the ball. Possession is up from 56 to 66% on last season. They’re also playing more passes: 611.7 per game as opposed to 513.7 in Europe and Serie A during Conte's reign, and more accurate ones too - 538.7 compared with 438.3. They’re trying to force it less and because they have the ball at their feet for longer, they’re not chasing and attempting to take it off their opponent as much.

These are small details but they give credence to Allegri’s claim that while the formation is a copy of Conte’s, its interpretation is not. It’s one of several reasons to tune in and watch his return to San Siro on Saturday when will Juventus face his old team AC Milan. Outed as a fan of the Bianconeri by the club’s former president and board member John Elkann - “he told me he had Michel Platini’s poster on his bedroom wall” - another victory will represent another step towards winning over the supporters in Turin.

How do you think Allegri has changed Juventus? Let us know in the comments below