QUOTE (X-Offender @ Aug 27 2017, 11:14 PM)
It was the fact that Cagliari equalized which woke us up. What system change are you referring to? It was the same formation, just Montolivo took Hakan's position. Biglia was playing as anchor and Kessie occupied his usual position on the right.
Disagree here. it was clear we went for a 4-2-3-1 once Biglia came on. Monto pushed up and was playing behind the striker while Biglia and Kessie where clearly in a double pivot.
First half we were atrocious because I think no one knew wtf they were doing. Hakan and Borini to me looked the most lost out there with both of them making bad runs, getting in each other's way and just generally looked out of the game. The formation change clearly made a huge impact, sure the goal woke the players up a bit (especially Kessie), but you can't disregard how we looked much more compact once Montella shifted the players around.
Some observations going by the comments here:
Bonucci: Once again Danny, you simply go to the extreme for no reason. Rubbish? Come on now! He's taking his time to adjust, he had some good moments and some bad ones. And this can be applied to the entire group imo. All of the players, even guys like Suso and Cutrone who were the best 2 out there imo, had some iffy moments where they could have done better. It's going to take time for the team to really click with each other. We've been saying this all summer, yet now that the season has started we're going into meltdowns and labelling players rubbish because we're seeing what we'd already anticipated months ago? Bonucci is clearly going to need some time to get out of that Juve bubble he was in and adjust to playing for a different team in a system that is still a work in progress compared to the rock solid one he's been in at Juve for the last 6 years
Musacchio: Again, saw some criticism. He needs time as well. Montella is simply not helping things by using a different pairing each game. He should have let Bonucci and Musacchi play in all the games they were available for.
Hakan: No doubt a terrible game from him. But again, he's struggling to adapt and the position he's being played in simply does not suit him. It's not an excuse to say his ban is effecting hisd performance, but he clearly looks not completely match ready right now imo, just slightly off the pace which can really cripple you in such a physical game. I disdagree that he has no vision, his other games for us have shown us that he's a very intelligent passer he was simply not on his game yesterday
Kessie: Really off game, and I find it worrying how dependent we are on him in midfield as well. He's the driving force behind it atm and we looked one dimensional when he was struggling but looked much better when he finally woke up
Monto: He was decent, looked very tired in the last 30 minutes or so, but Biglia showed what we've been missing for a while now in the few minutes he was on the pitch
Cutrone: The kid is Pippo inzaghi with footballing skills. Like I've been saying for a while now, we shouldn't put too much pressure on him, he's obviously ice cold in front of goal but we need to handle him delicately as I don't want to see another situation where we ruin a very talented young attacker. Silva and Kalinic will need to really show what they can do when they get the chance. Too bad Montella is useing a formation that limits us to only using one while Borini starts
Borini: He was a ghost for most of the game, he's getting some mild praise because he runs a lot? So what, his running is useless, he's like the striker version of Poli. At times I even forgot he was on the pitch that's how ineffectual all his running is. He's partly to blame for why our left side is so weak compared to our right. Look how Suso makes it seem so effertless to link up with his mid and FB. They all bring each other into the game with smart runs and passing while our left side is dead and imo Borini is very much to blame for this.
Montella & formation: All I have to say is that Montella needs to resolve this formation issue ASAP
