JUVENTUS STADIUM — With the addition of Romelu Lukaku in the summer, it appeared Thomas Tuchel had found that elusive missing piece to his most picturesque puzzle.
As Chelsea stormed to Champions League glory last term, their success was built around the airtight defensive unit, one without flaws or even the suggestion of a leak.
Goals were not always in plentiful supply and opponents were rarely steamrolled, especially as the Blues’ Champions League odyssey reached the latter stages, but that did not matter, as with their impenetrable backline, all they needed was to score once and the job was done.
Timo Werner often struggled in the pressure situations, fluffing his lines to great hilarity among rival fans. Therefore, a clinical, proven striker like Lukaku to lead the line appeared to make the Blues a force to be feared Europe-wide.
Federico Chiesa’s performance as Chelsea slipped to somewhat surprising 1-0 defeat to Juventus in Turin showed that the Tuchel masterpiece is not the finished article quite yet.
The visit of the European champions, amid a run of one defeat in 17 away from home in the Champions League, appeared to have come at the worst possible time for fading force Juventus.
A trip to take on the Old Lady, whether in their previous famous concrete enclave – the Stadio delle Alpi – or the current modern hi-tech Allianz Stadium, used to represent as tough as challenge as it gets in Europe.
Now, having relinquished their Serie A title last season in an unfathomably meek manner, Juve sit 10th in the Italian top flight this season, and without a host of first-team players through injury, they looked there for the taking on an unusually warm late September’s evening in Turin.
Allegri needed a performance to raise the spirits, and he got just that. The Juve coach made a surprise decision and elected to go with a False 9 approach, and it caused Chelsea’s backline unexpected problems early on, as the visitors did not know whether to come or go.
Firstly, the man selected in that deep-lying forward role – Federico Bernardeschi – should have done much better when finding himself through on goal, with Chiesa offering him an outlet he ignored to his right.
Then it was Chiesa’s turn to break clear, drilling an effort just wide to leave Tuchel scratching his head – where was this level of Chiesa-shaped zing in his supposed perfect unit?
The crowd, currently restricted to 50 per cent of capacity in Italy at the moment, were buoyed by their side’s opening half hour of football. While this type of modern arena hardly appears intimidating all light shows to a AC/DC Thunderstruck soundtrack, the way they are built, keeping the fans on top of the players, creates plenty of volume.
The Blues were looking a little Thunderstruck themselves. The chances kept coming for Juve, with Adrien Rabiot arrowing an effort for goal that just flew over the top.
Chelsea had 72.5 per cent possession in the first half, but other than Lukaku’s early effort, they did not create another meaningful chance.
Tuchel has made a name for himself as being the most proactive coach we have seen for many years on our shores, and once again he elected to make a half-time change, but as Ben Chilwell was taking his position on the pitch, and the referee’s whistle still ringing around the enclosed stadium, Chiesa slipped in and gave Juve the lead 10 seconds after the restart.
The German then seemed to let his reputation get the better of him, as he made three more changes in search of that leveller, but it left Chelsea looking even more disjointed and, uncharacteristically, lacking a obvious plan.
The possession remained, but the lack of threat was all too prevalent as well. Even Ross Barkley entered the fray as Tuchel got desperate, but other than Lukaku’s late spin and shot over the bar Chelsea looked more like the side who last came to Turin under Roberto Di Matteo and lost in 2012 – a performance that cost the Italian his job.
For the second time in as many games, Tuchel had perhaps been outthought by a more experienced adversary. Juve seemed set to deploy Moise Kean as the lone striker in the absence of Alvaro Morata and Paulo Dybala – the Juve coach even said so himself pre-match – but the inclusion of Bernardeschi as that False 9 threw Chelsea for six.
If the tactical masterclass administered by Pep Guardiola at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was an outlier, then the effect of Allegri’s system shift should at least put a dent in the superiority complex Tuchel has inadvertently created since arriving in England.
Allegri, like Guardiola, still needed his match-winner, however, and Chiesa, as he showed for Italy at Euro 2020, is just that man for the big occasion.
His dynamism alone was the reason Juve could turn Allegri’s well thought-out plan into a victory nobody saw coming, and ensured the doors to the Chelsea vault could well swing open again soon enough.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ijTaUV
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