The former remains unbeaten in the Premier League and have yet to concede a goal, whereas the Bianconeri are winless in their opening three league games, as they pursue a fifth consecutive Scudetto.
With Massimiliano Allegri encountering significant turnover throughout the squad this summer, Juventus’ reactive approach was expected. Apart from the back four and goalkeeper, only Paul Pogba, Alvaro Morata, and Stefano Sturaro featured in Juve’s Champions League run last season, and a match against City appeared to come too soon.
Essentially, Allegri needs time to settle several new acquisitions to his philosophy, which fully vindicated the Italian side’s pragmatism. Juve dropped into a 4-5-1 with Morata pushed to the left flank, while Mario Mandzukic and Sturaro applied pressure on Yaya Toure and Fernandinho.
Juve’s approach was simple: Allegri instructed his men to limit space between the lines that David Silva – arguably the Premier Leagues best performer thus far – aims to exploit. With that being said, Morata and Cuadrado pressed City’s fullback’s, which allowed Pogba to maintain a narrow shape alongside Sturaro and Hernanes.
Sergio Aguero’s absence shouldn’t go unnoticed, here, but it’s Silva that’s been City’s most influential player this season, thriving in a 4-2-3-1 with two direct wide players. Samir Nasri retained his role in the XI following a positive performance at Selhurst Park over the weekend, but with Juve defending narrow, along with the Frenchman and Raheem Sterling eager to drift infield, Silva found it difficult to receive the ball freely in a congested midfield zone.
With Hernanes tracking Silva’s movement, and Giorgio Chiellini stepping forward when he moved closer to Wilfried Bony, the Spaniard was often reduced to receiving the ball in deeper positions – depriving City of natural creativity in the final third. Despite retaining majority of possession – though it was fairly laboured and languid – two off-target Fernandinho shots from distance, and a swift Sterling break led by the aforementioned Brazilian, served as City’s first half attacking productivity.
Shockingly, despite a shortage of pace in midfield, Juve overcame several sloppy giveaways through Juan Cuadrado’s direct play in narrow positions. The Colombian moved into pockets of space in the right channel to deliver crosses into the six-yard box – Pogba nodded one past Joe Hart that was rightly awarded offside – whilst creating a chance for Morata, and firing a decent shot inches wide of the far post.
“The lads put in a great performance and it wasn’t easy. We should’ve done better in attack during the first half and missed chances, while we did have a goal disallowed,” Allegri told Mediaset Premium.
“We allowed City very little and the goal came from an incident where we shouldn’t have given the ball away.
The away side preferred a slower tempo to the match, and though they lacked a creative outlet in the final third, City’s preference to maintain a high defensive line when balls were moved into wide areas, along with their reluctance to press the ball-carrier, proved costly. In short, all it took was a well-timed run and a quality cross to void City’s approach, which illustrates Cuadrado’s first half threat, and the build up to Juve’s equalizer.
City, however, were warned minutes into the second half when Leonardo Bonucci’s long diagonal connected with Mandzukic, but the Croatian was ruled offside. Subsequently, Mandzukic back-heeled Cuadrado’s far post cross to Morata, who laid the ball off to Sturaro, but Hart made a heroic save to preserve City’s lead.
Ten minutes later, Pogba was free to deliver a sensational diagonal behind the City defence, and Mandzukic snuck behind Eliaquim Mangala to direct the ball past Hart. Morata’s superb finish from a simple Bonucci punt – which Kolarov, substitute Nicolas Otamendi and Mangala failed to cope with – won the match for Juve, as a simplistic method of attack flustered Pellegrini’s back-line throughout.
Kevin De Bruyne was anaemic off the bench, while a last-minute decision to call upon Aguero was also ineffective. Bony’s linkup play improved in the second half, creating a chance for Sterling with his movement, and a late Yaya Toure effort, but while Buffon made vital saves to keep City at bay, the hosts didn’t create enough chances from open-play.
“It was a strange game,” said City manager Pellegrini. “I don’t think we deserved to lose, we played better than Juventus.
“We played against a strong team but we controlled the game. I don’t really remember Juventus creating many important chances in our box.
Although City weren’t overrun in midfield, Juve’s shape and organization negated City’s threat in wide and central areas. Allegri’s tactical prowess is often underrated, but in the club’s darkest moment in recent memory, the Italian champions thwarted City’s attack, and continuously exploited a flaw in their defensive setup.
Nonetheless, with a half hour to play, City foiled a one-goal lead in a lethargic home loss, which further highlights that apart from personnel, very little has changed in Manchester.
