Mark Nelson (marknelson)

That is what happens if you let Stuttgart play football. You will get torn apart. Yet, Motta's Juventus has this amazing quality of getting results even with mediocre play. Today was their worst match of the new season, a dead team, a complete tiagomottina - and they lost only 0:1, conceding only in added time. Too many problems have been amassed by the team from past seasons. Not all at once can be solved. A motley, strange lineup. Allegri's collective psychological trauma: you cannot set up a game like that right away, yet Motta still manages to succeed in many things. On the other hand, though, the most amazing thing is that on the worst days, too, this Juventus stands to the last. Plenty of willpower there, now a game overhaul is needed. There will still be a lot of Guerra this season, but hardly trophies, while next season, yes, we will evaluate Motta with all severity.

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Against Villarreal, Carlo Ancelotti experimented with a 4-2-2-2. This is how his players lined up without the ball. The big differences from the default setup are emphasis defending the central zone-a clear 4-2-2-2 rather than 4-4-2-and only a pair in attack; Rodrigo was exchanged for an extra midfielder. This helped contain Villarreal's potent attack-ambiguously speaking, before the match with Real, they scored in every game. But the attack is still in disarray-the usual intention to overload the left side of the field is there. But Madrid creates fewer of these moments than we are used to. Instead, we too often see a mutual misunderstanding instead of combinations. For example, here - during the episode the players pulled together on one line - in such a position it is almost impossible to combine.

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recast:farcaster://casts/0xfc4dbced4af4aeff9d42d1dce0218c79176ab0d990e9f6a279857ce749e41590

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recast:farcaster://casts/0x432650ee3e291690d1d7c5c979c2aad23f1b00aaa26d85341c160778e3071f1f

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