Allegri against Di Maria, Cuadrado and Chiesa

SEVILLE – Then that of Square on the eve it wasn’t a joke: “If we leave the dribble to Sevilla it becomes difficult”, he said on Wednesday, “so we’ll have to stay tall, press them high. If the coach allows us…”. The coach, on the other hand, didn’t allow it, Juventus’ strategy was to wait for the Seville in the last thirty meters, never to press him, to limit him by occupying the spaces by reflex creating them for the counterattack: the tactic worked for an hour, but in the long run football rewarded those who had decided to attack, not defend.

Cuadrado-Di Maria and Allegri, opposing ideas

It was not a boutade, that of Cuadrado. There was a part of the team, or at least him, who disagreed on Allegri’s plans and, coincidentally, the Colombian was among the worst. With him, Di Maria: another who reluctantly lives the Allegriana philosophy, being used to very different ways of doing things: between Real, United and PSG, he spent his life forcing others to defend themselves, while on Thursday he was the Juve’s most advanced man and stood 35 meters from Szczesny.

The confusion of the Church

The third to have deeply disappointed was Church, a confused player: he too never got along with Allegri, who before the injury in January 2022, it should be remembered, did not treat him as a permanent starter and had doubts (still unclear) about his role . In the 3-5-2 there isn’t a place for Chiesa, if not by adapting him as a full-back full-back (but he can’t make it) or as a second striker (but that’s not his thing). For Allegri he could become a centre-forward. As a winger he had very few chances. The fact is that if those three are angry with Allegri for different reasons, Allegri is certainly angry with them.

Allegri only saves the young

After the last bankruptcy of this bankruptcy two-year period, Allegri essentially spoke only of young people or those who are no longer young but who still have little international experience, such as Vlahovic and Bremerwho have already played a World Cup anyway, or Cats. “No one is born learned. These matches are decided by the details and certain details with a little more experience in the future will make them turn in their favour. This season is still positive because we have valued many players” said Max, with contradictory theses. However, he wanted to rejuvenate the formation of the semi-final by choosing Gatti, Iling and Kean (the more experienced alternatives were there). And it will also be true that the details count, but the imagination, the inclination, the mentality remain important: by dint of attacking, Sevilla were able to ignore the details, unlike Juve who instead sipped the actions (it should be remembered that we started from a draw and that the Andalusians had no urgency to charge with their heads down). In the end Allegri said he was happy with both the tactics (“it was the right one”) and the choices, while he was not happy with the attitude of those who had plenty of experience and there was no reason for him to suffer from either the atmosphere or the weight of responsibility: Di Maria, Cuadrado, Chiesa.

Sevilla-Juventus 2-1: Lamela knocks the black and whites out in extra time

by our correspondent Emanuele Gamba

May 18, 2023

Di Maria irritating, relationship in the balance

The Argentinian was annoying. He missed a goal that someone like him should score in slippers, instead he shot as if he had aimed away from the goal. He lost tackles in series, ran little and huffed a lot and was even annoyed when Allegri subjected him to a sacrosanct substitution. Will they be able to last another year together or does the permanence of one of them exclude that of the other? More the second than the first.

Square towards farewell

The relationship with Cuadrado ended for a while, in fact the Colombian’s contract, which expires in June, will not be renewed. He had good years with Allegri and he owes a lot to Allegri, but in the twilight season something broke and in fact Cuadrado continues to play due to lack of alternatives, given the injury of DeSciglio and Allegri’s insistence on the 3-5-1-1. The Colombian had already combined it big with Napoli, right at the last minute, dropping into the opponent’s area and stopping to protest instead of following the counterattack of the future Italian champions, resolved by the goal of Raspadori: small (or big) signs of a tense relationship.

Chiesa remains, reflections on Di Maria

Cuadrado will leave Juve. Or rather: he will not be detained. Chiesa won’t move, also because his price tag is devalued after a season and a half lost between injuries and poor performances and he is also considered by the club a symbol of the new course. Di Maria’s situation is instead undefined: if up until a month ago the management was convinced that trying to confirm him was the right thing (Fideo’s contract expires next month, but with the renewal he would access the benefits of the growth decree and therefore the second year would cost significantly less gross), after the last few disappointing weeks that certainty wobbles, even if losing Di Maria would mean having to invest a lot of money for a first-level starter. But when Allegri says “at the end of the season we’ll take stock, we have to stay clear-headed and evaluate everything well” it’s possible that he’s also referring to this. And he could bring the images of yesterday’s match as documentary evidence.