Mottaball unleashed: Juventus dominate AC Milan from start to finish

Today at 04:30 AM

The Bianconeri showed everyone what it was we were waiting for as they avenged their Supercoppa collapse.

We were told it was coming.

We were told that things were slowly coming together. That the players were showing good signs. That the team looked fantastic on the training pitch, and just needed to translate it to match day. That everything would come together and we'd see the kind of flowing football that we saw Thiago Motta conjure at Bologna over the last two years.

There were doubts. People who didn't think the Italo-Brazilian could handle coaching at a club like Juventus, that his tactics wouldn't play and that pressure to win in Turin would break him before his style broke out.

Oh, ye of little faith.

On Saturday night, Mottaball finally arrived. Juve went out against AC Milan and avenged their Supercoppa Italiana crash-out two weeks ago by dominating wire to wire. They harrassed them with an unrelenting press that forced Milan into mistake after mistake. They never let their opponents breathe, often recovering the ball within seconds of losing it.

As the game continued, Juve's grip tightened, and a goal started looking like more and more of an inevitability. It finally came just before the hour mark, and then the cherry on top: they kept going, kept pushing, and added to the lead in just five minutes, putting the game away before they saw the rest of it out, adding the exclamation point of a must-needed clean sheet in a 2-0 win at the Allianz Stadium.

It was Juve's first win since beating Monza on Dec. 23, their first clean sheet since beating Cagliari in the Coppa Italia Round of 16 five days before that, and their first clean sheet in the league since Nov. 23, when these same two teams played out an insipid goalless draw at the San Siro. It was the day things finally came together — hopefully the first of many.

Motta was still without the services of a proper striker. Arkadiusz Milik's injury saga continued and Dusan Vlahovic was only fit for the bench. Randal Kolo Muani had yet to be registered thanks to the incompetence of the Paris Saint-Germain front office. That left Motta needing more solutions again, although he had everyone else that wasn't already out for the year at his disposal save Francisco Conceiçåo, who once again couldn't face off against his father. Motta sent out a 4-2-3-1, with Michele Di Gregorio anchoring the formation in goal. Weston McKennie started at right-back, joining Federico Gatti, Pierre Kalulu, and Andrea Cambiaso in defense. Manuel Locatelli and Khephren Thuram started in midfield, while Kenan Yildiz, Teun Koopmeiners, and Samuel Mbangula lined up behind Nico González as the false nine.

Sergio Conceição had picked up a major win on his first night in charge when Juve fell apart in Saudi Arabia and then came back against Inter to win the Supercoppa. But his results since then had been spotty at best, drawing against Cagliari and needing a late comeback to take down Como. Alvaro Morata was serving a yellow card suspension, and top performer Christian Pulisic headlined an injury list that also included Malik Thiaw, Samuel Chukwueze, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Noah Okafor and Alessandro Florenzi. Conceição countered Motta with a 4-3-3. Mike Maignan was in goal, protected by Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori, and Theo Hernández. Ismael Bennacer, Youssouf Fofana, and Tijjani Reijnders started in midfield, while Yunus Musah and Rafael Leão flanked Tammy Abraham in the trident.

The match began as if it had been shot out of a cannon. Mbangula attacked the suspect Emerson early, hitting a cross that just flew over Yildiz's head—then produced a tremendous counterattack that saw Reijnders put a good ball into Leão, but his attempt at a back-heel flick failed to do anything. By the time the sequence was over, there were barely two minutes on the clock.

In the eighth minute, Mbangula came close to scoring with a screamer from just above the box that flew just over the bar. Three minutes later Koopmeiners took advantage of a ton of space and let fly from 25 yards, similarly sending it streaking past the crossbar by less than a foot.

Juve's press was causing a ton of confusion for Milan's defense and midfielders, to the point that Maignan was very nearly caught out almost 30 yards from his goal. It took until the 19th minute for Milan to create their most serious threat, when they ran a clever set play off a corner that saw Reijnders peel off the scrum and receive a low pass and fire from 12 yards out, but Locatelli got in the way and then got the luck of the bounce when the ricochet came off Tomori for a goal kick.

Juve were creating more than just chaos in their opponent's ranks. They were also turning out some wonderful passing sequences, full of quick and creative touches. The only thing lacking was the last pass or two to set up a shot. They nearly paid for that just shy of the half-hour mark, when McKennie was caught too far up field when Leão sent Hernández down the left side. His low cross was headed for Reijnders but was interdicted by a fantastic sliding challenge by Thuram, who was inch-perfect exactly when he needed to be. Leão followed the ball and hit a daisy-cutter that Di Gregorio got down low to punch away. Musah collected the rebound and found Hernández, who took not one but two shots, both of which were cleared from the line by Gatti.

Complex as it was, that sequence was the exception rather than the rule, and most of the play in the first half was flowing toward the Milan goal, and the threat level was starting to rise. González came a hair's breadth from redirecting a pass into the middle of the box toward the goal, and they finally forced Maignan into action less than 60 seconds later when Cambiaso's cross went behind González but ended up perfectly teed up for Yildiz—only for him to scuff his shot and put it right at Maignan. Disappointing as the miss was, Yildiz doubling over and grabbing the inside of his thigh was doubly so.

The numbers at the end of the half were staggering. Juve had attempted 362 passes to Milan's 170, and completed them at a 95 percent rate. Locatelli led the way, dropping deep between the center-backs to orchestrate things before moving up to continue to pull strings closer to the box.

Yildiz made way for Timothy Weah at the break. The game came out of the half more subdued than it was at the start of the match, but the game rhythm quickly settled back into what it had been before. Juve forced turnovers seemingly every time Milan touched the ball.

In the 53rd minute, Maignan was forced into an impressive double save, first parrying a shot from Weah, then denied Koopmeiners with his hip after the Dutchman jumped Hernández in the box before he could clear the rebound.

A goal had a look of inevitability to it, and it finally came just before the hour mark thanks to some more slick passing and a little bit of luck.

It started with a nifty exchange on the sideline between McKennie and Koopmeiners. He pushed it upfield to Thuram, who laid it off with his first touch to González. The Argentine feigned a shot before sliding it to the left to Mbangula. The winger looked for one of his far-post curlers, but it deflected off Emerson, wrong-footing Maignan, who could only flail at the ball with his trailing hand while it flew past him.

It was only what Juve deserved. But Juve have scored deserved goals before this season, only to let their opponent back into the game by dropping too deep to defend that solitary goal. This time the reaction to scoring was the one we've wanted to see all season: they didn't change at all.

Right back on the front foot, Juve kept pushing, and within minutes had the second goal that has so often eluded them. Mbangula started the move this time, jumping on a heavy touch by Fofana and allowing Thuram to recover the ball and send Weah screaming down the field. He opened up a shooting lane with a quick twist and then fired across goal past Maignan, who was convinced he'd go near post and was completely rooted to his spot as the ball rolled right past him and into the net.

The stadium was well and truly alive at this point, in a way that it hasn't often been the last few years. Juve made a few final pushes before gradually dropping back, defending their two-goal advantage the way they would normally do with just one. Milan made one or two threats — especially with 10 minutes to go when 16-year-old striker Francesco Camarda looked ready to put the ball in from short range, only to have Cambiaso poke it away at the very last second — but they generally took on the look of a dejected, defeated team, badly wasting any promising positions or firing long shots that had no chance of going anywhere. Juve had a chance to put a cherry on top in the final minute of stoppage time when Maignan again went on an adventure in goal and was caught way up the field, but Dusan Vlahovic was hurried into his shot by the defense and bounced it wide.

By that time, though, Juve had had the game well in hand, and the final whistle brought down the curtain on a fantastic day — one that gives fans a taste of what may be to come the rest of the season.

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO - 6.5. Had nothing to do in the second half — literally, Milan didn't record a shot on target in the second period — but made a couple of great saves in the first to keep the game tied and allow Juve to continue executing the game plan without having to force things by playing catchup.

WESTON McKENNIE - 6. Played well in the buildup and in the defensive press, although the few times Milan managed to really threaten in the first half came on passes down his flank when he was caught out of position. Still, the positives outweighed the negatives.

FEDERICO GATTI - 7. Made not one, but two clearances off the line in that chaotic sequence in front of the Juve goal at the half-hour mark. Add in two interceptions and a 98.1 percent pass completion rate, and you have a very good day.

PIERRE KALULU - 7. Continued to torment the team that gave up on him, playing solid defense and working to recover possession quickly to snuff out counterattacks. Blocked a pair of shots as well.

ANDREA CAMBIASO - 6.5. Looked as good as he had bad against Atalanta. A constant fixture in the attack, he made a pair of key passes — one of which Yildiz really should've turned into assist — and prevented a grandstand finish with his last-ditch tackle on Camarda.

MANUEL LOCATELLI - 8. Maybe the best game he's played at Juventus, ironically coming against the club that raised him. He didn't have any direct contributions to shots or goals, but the way he orchestrated the team coming out of the press was amazing. He completed 12 of 15 long balls, added in a pair of tackles, and made the block on that early corner kick play by Reijnders. This is the Locatelli we bought from Sassuolo.

KHEPHREN THURAM - 6.5. Two key passes, including the assist on Weah's goal, and made himself a general menace to Milan's midfield in the press with his industry in the middle of the park. He's been the perfect partner to Locatelli, getting opponents off his back so he can do how Locatelli do to set things up.

KENAN YILDIZ - 6. Had a key pass and completed 94.4 percent of all his passes, including three of three at long-range. His defensive work was a big part of Juve's early press. But he really should have scored late in the first half. Perhaps the injury that forced him off the field altered how he took it (you could see immediately that that was when he felt it). Feel better soon, Kenan.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS - 6. Led the team with three tackles, which tells you just how far forward Juve was forcing Milan to make mistakes. He also led the team in shots, but put just one of four on target. It was far from his worst, but he's still not quite at his best.

SAMUEL MBANGULA - 8. He's started to really take off. He was a constant threat, especially against the substandard defending of Emerson Royal. His goal got help from the deflection, but I'm not 100 percent convinced that the shot he intended to take would have missed. Active without the ball as well, including winning the ball that Thuram and Weah turned into the second goal.

NICO GONZÁLEZ - 6.5. Didn't really have much of his own threat at goal besides one counter in the first half that he really should've done better with, but he did serve as the fulcrum of the rest of Juve's attacking play, exemplified by his assist to Mbangula and his two key passes overall.

SUBS

TIMOTHY WEAH - 7.5. He was a huge threat the moment he stepped onto the pitch. Forced Maignan into a save early, then took his goal beautifully, keeping the Milan keeper rooted to his spot. His defensive work shouldn't go unnoticed either — two tackles, two interceptions, and a clearance.

DOUGLAS LUIZ - 6. Had to do more defensive work than anything else given the time he came on—but the fact that he did it without incident is a serious step up from the penalty machine he was early in the year. Only had eight touches in his 15 minutes.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC - NR. Really only had the one chance at the very end with Maignan out of his goal, otherwise he was working as the target for the defense to break out.

NICOLÒ FAGIOLI - NR. Also had mainly defensive duties coming on after Juve already had the game put away.

VASILIJE ADZIC - NR. Good to see the kid on the field, even if it was just to see out the dying moments.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

This was what it was all building up to. This was Mottaball.

Everything we'd been expecting to see, everything we'd been assured we would eventually see, blossomed in this game. The ferocious press that gave Milan absolutely no time to breathe and completely discombobulated them to the point that they could barely complete simple tasks on the field. Winning the ball upfield to have a shorter line of attack. The quick passes and off-ball movement pulling defenses apart. The desire to kill games quickly instead of backing off to defend after scoring. All the things we saw his Bologna do that made him so sought-after in the first place were on full display at the Allianz.

There has been a lot of talk recently about discontent in the locker room, and that Motta's support among the players may have been slipping. Clearly, that isn't the case. A team can't put their coach's plans together and execute them so comprehensively if they're at loggerheads. Motta has been building to this, and though the fits and starts have been frustrating, the end result—at least for tonight—is glorious.

Now comes the harder part: he has to keep doing it. As wonderful as Saturday night was, it ultimately won't mean much if it's a one-off. Motta needs to keep the team on this trajectory, to make games like this the norm, not the exception. A hot run of form could catapult this team into a comfortable top-four finish and perhaps even set themselves up for a true title challenge next season.

The foundation has finally been laid. Now it's time to start building the house.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juve's job doesn't get any easier over the next few weeks. Juve starts the home stretch in the league phase of the Champions League on Tuesday on the road against Club Brugge, then visit league leaders Napoli (barf) and host Benfica in the league phase finale before coming to a softer landing against Empoli at home and Como away.