Round 11: Juventus vs. Udinese match preview

11/01/2024 09:00 PM

After two very different kinds of draws, Juventus are back on the field with hopes of getting back to their winning ways.

There reaches a point, no matter how you much patience you try to use, where the worries start to creep in about what you've been watching during the early portions of a new season. And I'm talking about the Radiohead version of "creep," although that is a very thing to blast on your speakers while you try and forget about what Juventus did on the field a couple of days ago.

The good vibes that came out of last weekend's Derby d'Italia draw were very much not present on Wednesday night during Juve's draw with a Parma side that entered the midweek fixture in 17th place and with just one win so far in their return to Serie A. For the first time since Thiago Motta took over, the boos rained down from the Allianz Stadium crowd. They weren't from every person in the stadium, but they were plenty loud enough to be heard as the players walked off the field and into the dressing room as they trailed 2-1 at halftime.

Things are very much not all right with Juventus at the moment. And it's not like the minimal amount of rest and lack of time to truly work on the training field is going to help a bunch.

So, here we are again, left to see if Motta's Juventus can right the ship after another disappointing draw. They are very much the definition of inconsistent play at the moment — and it's not like their sudden downturn defensively has helped things on that front. Now they're heading off to Udine to face the team that is right behind them in the Serie A table — which, if you ask me, is something that speaks of how drawing six out of your first 10 league fixtures is a very ineffective way to stay toward the top of the standings.

The 2024-25 season still has nearly three-quarters of the way to go. Juve's got a long way to go and still plenty of chances to get back to where they're expected to be with the kind of talent they brought in this past summer. But when you know they're going to be without their top defender and they're now suddenly struggling at the back, it's hard to think that will be as good as they were when Juve were racking up shutouts and barely giving their goalkeepers anything to do most games.

But against Parma ... yeah, things were very different. And until things change for the better, it's hard to imagine that Juve's defense will be the only thing that is suddenly of worry.

Or we can just let Andrea Cambiaso describe what went wrong on Wednesday night (and almost certainly in games before that).

"We didn't interpret the match well. Today we were a bit lazy in preventive marking and we conceded several restarts to very fast players like Parma's. We were a bit too quick when we got into the attacking area, we needed to read those situations a bit better. We need to get to know each other better, we are a new team that needs to come together gradually and grow every day so we can all think and play the same way."

There's a lot in that quote from Cambiaso, but it also just hits at the core of what is currently giving Juventus a whole lot of problems. We knew this squad, with the large number of new players as well as the new manager putting in his new tactics, was never going to fully click on a consistent basis right off the bat. And it's not like Juventus' injury situation has helped matters all that much — especially with new signings Teun Koopmeiners and Nico Gonzalez missing much of the last six weeks due to their respective injuries.

Add to the fact that Bremer's absence is being felt as much now more than in previous weeks and you've got a Juventus team that feels like it is searching for a lot of answers.

But now, as we are now stand on the back half of Juve's three-week stretch that saw very little rest between each game, Juventus won't have a potential relegation battler next up on the schedule. Instead, they're going to be playing one of the

Udinese, who are two points behind Juventus, have been one of the biggest surprises to start the new season. They started out incredibly hot, including briefly staking claim to first place in the Serie A table. They've cooled off a bit since then, losing four of their last six after winning three of their first four fixtures. A key to Udinese success to begin the season has been how they've played on their home turf at the Friuli, with four wins in five games at home and that lone loss coming against Inter on Sept. 28.

That essentially means that as much as Udinese staved off relegation a season ago, they are very much an improved squad even with their recent cooling off in form.

It all equates to far from a straightforward kind of opponent to try and get back on track against. And, maybe just because of that, La Gazzetta dello Sport are already implying that Juve's draw against Parma and the seven-point gap between themselves and Napoli already means that any potential Scudetto hopes might already be on life support. Whether you believe that or not, it's not exactly the best thing to see being written about Motta's squad as we roll into the first weekend of November.

And until further notice and until they get back in the win column with better performances, those types of things will only continue to be written in the Italian media.

TEAM NEWS

• The injured list is exactly what it was when Juventus faced Parma midweek, as Thiago Motta is without long-term absences Gleison Bremer and Arek Milik as well as Nico Gonzalez and Douglas Luiz.
• After making his return from injury against Parma, Teun Koopmeiners is expected to slot back into the starting lineup when Juve face Udinese. It will be Koopmeiners' first start since the Oct. 6 draw against Cagliari. (A related side note: Four o Koopmeiners' last five appearances have ended in draws, something the Dutchman and Juventus both hope to see end come Saturday night.)
• Who is at the very top of Juventus' attack is a little bit unknown after Motta floated out the idea of potentially giving a rest to Vlahovic this weekend. It's understandable considering Vlahovic leads Juventus in minutes played so far this season and has started all 13 games in all competitions.
• When talking about potentially giving Vlahovic a rest against Udinese, Motta added that "at this stage of the season the players aren't tired, we all have to give something more."
• As you might expect with what Juventus just put out on the field, Motta said that his team "has to do much better" when they take on Udinese and as they go forward. "We must grow," Motta added.
• It's a second straight call-up to the senior squad 18-year-old Spanish defender Javier Gil Puche, who is currently a part of Juventus' primavera squad. Gil Puche, a 6-foot-3 center back, came to Juve from Alaves in the summer of 2023.

JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH

Well, here we go again.

At this point, I don't like doing it. But, unfortunately, I feel like we have to do it — even if there does end up being some sort of rotation up front in the No. 9 spot for the first time all season at the opening whistle.

Here are three things Dusan Vlahovic currently leads Serie A in:

• Annual salary (€12 million net)
• xG (7.67)
• Big chances missed (9)

You want to know what Vlahovic doesn't currently lead Serie A in?

That would be goals scored, where his total of six rank third behind Atalanta's Mateo Retegui (10) and Inter's Marcus Thuram (7). Now, when you look at the simple number, six goals in 10 games is far from a bad number. But, as we know, there's much, much more that has gone into Vlahovic's season than just the goals that he has scored.

And as we know, outside of his strike against Inter last weekend, pretty much all of his goal scoring this season has come in a four-game pick of fixtures.

Because of the simple fact that he is the highest-paid player in the league as well as Juventus not having an alternative to him, the pressure is on for him to find the consistency under Motta that eluded him for a good portion of the time when Max Allegri was his manager.

Based on his xG and big chances missed this season, it hasn't been for a lack of chances. Rather, it's simple finishing problems that continue to haunt him. We saw it against Parma and we've seen it a good number of times as well earlier this season.

Until he dispatches of those issues, the same things will be said about Juve's most expensive player on the current roster.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.

Where: Stadio Friuli, Udine, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific time.

(Please note that Daylight Saving Time went into effect in Europe on Sunday, Oct. 27, therefore times may be different in your location rather than the usual 18:00 CET kickoff.)

HOW TO WATCH

Television: Fox Deportes (United States).

Online/Streaming:Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, fuboTV, Foxsports.com, FOX Sports app (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).

Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.