As Juventus enter their richest vein in form in years, soon after escaping their poorest run of form in years, many have been left wondering what changes have been made that has seen such a significant increase in The Old Lady’s form. One of the key reasons has been a much needed change of tactics. For a while now, Juve have deployed a 4-4-2 diamond formation, meaning the majority of their attacks are focused on attacking the central and halfspaces. With players such as Pirlo, Pogba, Vidal and Tevez, this has been totally understandable and probably the correct decision, as it allows the manager to utilise the full strength in depth of his squad. However, after losing key core players such as Pirlo, Vidal and Tevez, as well as manager Massimillano Allegri seeing the need for evolution in the modern game, Juve have made the switch to a 3-5-2 formation in recent months.

Despite having done a couple of team analysis'(Southampton and Leicester), I will not be analysing Juventus as a team but instead a specific part of their newly found 3-5-2, the central-midfield trio.



As we can see above, Allegri uses a pretty standard 3-5-2 system at Juve, a flat back-three, two wing-backs, a relatively flat midfield trio and two different types of strikers up front. There are obviously a few tweaks here and there which differ Juve’s 3-5-2 to other team’s but I will discuss this later in the piece.

In goals for Juve is legendary shot stopper Gianluigi Buffon. The back-three reads Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini from right to left. As the right wing-back is usually Stephan Lichensteiner, however Juan Cuadrado sometimes plays here too. LWB is Evra, although Alex Sandro occasionally occupies this role.

Coming next is the area we will be taking a closer look at, the centre-midfielders. As the deepest of the three, and most like a 6, is Claudio Marchisio. The right centre-mid is now Sami Khedira. Khedira is now a regular starter and key player for Juve but was ruled out of the opening period of the season, and is only just recently back in action. The left interior is French starlet Paul Pogba, who often drifts into the left halfspace, he is the most advanced of the midfield trio.

The two strikers are Mario Mandzukic and Paolo Dybala. Mandzukic plays as a traditional number 9, often with his back to goal, holding the ball up for others to make runs into the final third, Mandzukic also makes lots of runs in behind and into the opposition box. Dybala plays a different role, he drops slightly deeper around Zone 14, to link build-up play into the final third.

Putting in a Shift in the Defensive Phase

In order to understand how the Juve central-midfield works defensively, you must have at least brief knowledge on how the overall defensive structure works. First of all, it must be noted that Juve played a more intense game without the ball this season, than they did last season under Antonio Conte. Despite defending in a higher and more aggressive block now, one trait when defending which remains from last season is the focus on horizontal compactness and lateral shifting.

One key feature of Juve’s defensive system is the positioning of the wing-backs when defending in their own half. Depending on the position of the ball, a wing-back will drop into a full-back position, to form a back-four rather than three. This makes a formation not too dissimilar to the horizontally compact 4-4-2 Juve played last season. The wing-back which drops into a deeper position is that furthest from the ball, while closest to the ball presses near the touchline. In the image below we can see that as the ball is being circulated onto Alex Sandro, the LWB’s, flank, he is springing into press, leaving the back four to join the midfield, while Lichensteiner, the RWB, is moving back to the back four.

The reason this feature is so significant to the Juve midfield is that it means despite playing a in high intensity system, the trio in the centre do not actually cover a massive amount of ground and actually don’t do too much work defensively.

The stats below compare another high-pressing European giant, Bayern Munich, to Juve’s midfield. Despite Juve playing at a similar intensity without the ball, and pressing in a similar manner, the two teams have different priorities in different areas of the pitch.













Above is the defensive actions by Bayern midfielders in their last game(vs. Hannover) and Juventus’ midfielders in their last game(vs. Roma). We can see that despite playing in similar systems without the ball, Bayern midfielders complete more defensive actions their Juventus counterparts. This is largely down to the fact that Bayern midfielders are a key component in their press, while Juve midfielders don’t press the ball directly as often, rather retaining solid positions to restrict space centrally.

Movement in the Build-Up

Despite being relatively high(15th)in Europe’s top five leagues possession table, Juventus are certainly not a possession orientated side. With players such as Khedira, Pogba and Dybala occupying central zones on the pitch for Juve, it’s clear that their intentions are to have a quick and direct style of play.

An element of Juve’s play which allows them to move the ball forward quickly and smoothly is the freedom of movement for the midfield trio, particularly Khedira and Pogba. The freedom is movement is very intriguing and exciting to watch, as Khedira and Pogba are unpredictable and can cause the opposition serious problems, disrupting their shape a lot. Touching on the unpredictability of the pair’s movement, Khedira specifically, varies the areas he moves into during Juve’s build-up. In some games, Khedira has moved from typical 8 positions to deep in the right halfspace, to support Claudio Marchisio in the build-up. This was seen in the game against Hellas Verona, were he was almost a second 6, playing to the right of Marchisio the majority of the time.



Above we see Juve in a 3-2-4-1/3-4-2-1 shape, a structure seen used by Pep Guardiola’s Bayern. This structure is very effective and in Juve’s case, the central overloads caused disruption in Verona’s defensive structure, particularly in central midfield. The movement of Khedira deep into the right halfspace and Pogba high in the left halfspace opened passing lanes from the centre-backs to Morata and Dybala, this too, caused Verona’s man-marking system large problems. As well as frequently dropping deep into the right halfspace during build-up, we have also seen another movement by the German. He often pushes forward, in line with Pogba and a dropping striker(usually Dybala). This provides Marchisio with plenty of space to dictate the play from deep in the manner he’d like. Moving into typical 10 positions is not something with is not something many would associate Khedira with, as he is usually seen as a typical 6 who can’t play any further up the pitch. This is far from the truth however. Khedira is actually a very good technical footballer who has good ability with the ball at his feet, he is a good fit as an 8. This makes him an ideal choice of footballer to move from 8 to 10 positions, as he can also use his excellent intelligence which he shows at 6.

The role of Marchisio in Juve’s build-up is obviously very important, as is usually the case with any 6. The Italian has an important role as he is relied upon to help move the ball forward quickly, whether that is by passing it himself, or opening a lane from a CB. One piece of movement which we have commonly seen in games against high-pressing opponents, is Marchisio peeling away from the centre, to deep in whichever halfspace is unoccupied. The reason for moving into the halfspace is as if he remained centrally he would probably be overrun and caught in possession right beside the central defender, in the halfspace however, he can drop in between two CB’s, finding space in a relatively safe area. This also opens a passing lane forward.

Now, moving onto the most-spoken-about of the three, Paul Pogba. During the build-up phase, Pogba takes up very advanced positions in the left halfspace. This is done for a number of reasons. One reason is to create space for Marchisio to dictate play freely, in tons of space. The second is simply because Pogba’s qualities are far better suited high up the pitch, rather than deep. Despite Pogba having the ability to be a ball carrier from deep, possessing power running with the ball at his feet, the Frenchman can make a far larger impact closer to the opposition’s net. His powerful and accurate long-range shooting, quick, skillful feet and direct running with the ball are very well suited to an advanced 8 moving into 10 positions.

As we can gather from the above points, Marchisio is Juve’s key player in the build-up phase. He must move the ball forward quickly and effectively, to allow Juve to have a successful transition into a dangerous attack. The movements of Khedira and Pogba in the build-up phase are also important as they create the necessary space and lanes for Juve’s deep players to start attacks. The variation of Khedira’s movements are a great tool for Juve as it offers different kinds of impact, depending on the opposition. Pogba’s movement in the build-up doesn’t have an obvious big impact to the untrained eye, but his positioning beyond the opposition’s midfield line causes chaos and disruption to opposition defensive structure’s.



Creating the End Product- Into the Final Third

An element of Juve’s play which has carried through from the 2014/15 season is the use of cutbacks. Cutbacks are an extremely useful and successful method of creation if carried out by a team with correct players for the job. Juve are a side which benefit hugely from cutbacks due to the intelligence and timing of Dybala’s movement, the power in the late runs into the box from Khedira and Pogba, not too mention the stamina of Lichensteiner/Cuadrado and Evra/Alex Sandro which allows them to burst into the box at the last second.

Obviously Marchisio doesn’t have a huge impact on Juve’s play in the final third, however, he can have some sort of input. Marchisio will sit in deep positions, usually in the ball-near halfspace and offer an outlet to recycle the ball, restarting any attacks which break down or need to restart from a different angle. He is well suited to this role due to his ability to circulate the ball quickly and intelligently, as well as being able to play high passes over the opposition defence if necessary.

Khedira and Pogba, as already mentioned, have duties to get into the box and get onto the end of cutbacks. Khedira in particular has benefitted from this, as Allegri putting the German’s engine to good use, Khedira has had his best goalscoring season(4 goals so far beats his record of 3 in total in one season)so far, even after making just 11 appearances. Although Pogba hasn’t scored from a cutback this season, three of his four goals this term have come inside the box, a change from his usual long-shot beauties from 25 yards.

In terms of chance creation rather than direct goalscoring, Pogba has a bigger impact than Khedira on this front. As already mentioned, the Frenchman spends a lot of time in the left halfspace and this is no different in the final third. Similarly to Thiago Alcantara of Bayern, one of his favourite moves is to cut back inside from the left halfspace onto his stronger right foot to either cross or shoot. We have seen this with great success this season, thanks to runs into the box from the RWB, Lichensteiner or Cuadrado.



Another benefit from Pogba drifting into the left halfspace commonly is the creation of a wide overload. With Chiellini given some freedom to maraud forward into pretty advanced positions for a centre-back, and Dybala in a free roaming role, this often means Juve find themselves with four players occupying the left wing and halfspace. With Pogba on the ball in the left halfspace, this drags an opposition defender(often the RB) out of position to press the ball. This opens a space for Evra or Dybala to run into, giving them an oppurtunity to cut the ball back to an onrushing attacker. Another theoretical situation below shows the wide overload.

This situation shows that even if Pogba isn’t able to play a dangerous pass forward, Marchisio or Chiellini should be free and available to restart the attack from, thanks to the overload.

One of the many positives of this Juve midfield trio is the variation of types of players, giving a balanced and well-rounded combination.

In Comparison to Conte’s Quartet

Despite having one of the best midfield’s in Europe this season, it is still debatable whether or not this trio is able to top last season’s quartet of Pirlo, Marchisio, Vidal and Pogba.

Last season’s midfield too, provided Juventus with a nice balance of types of players. Marchisio and Pogba still remain, however Pirlo left to go to America while Arturo Vidal transferred to Bayern. Khedira replaced Vidal as the runner in the midfield, Marchisio changed from an 8 to do Pirlo’s duties at 6 while a player was lost in the change from a midfield four to three.

In a tactical look at the two, we could perhaps say the 14/15 midfield offered more going forward while the 15/16 crew rely too heavily on Pogba and Dybala to create chances. This season’s midfield seems to be more dynamic defensively as the ageing legs of Andrea Pirlo have left the side, to allow Marchisio to accommodate the 6 role he looks so suited to. Khedira is very sound defensively, while Pogba looks to have improved into a more all-rounded player this season.

There are arguments for both the 14/15 midfield and 15/16 midfield and ultimately, neither has proven to be the best of the two. Only time will tell which midfield is better…