Match date: 2 April 2013

Bayern Munich are coming off a 9-2 league win against Hamburg, conceding two goals from corner kicks, which is a strength of any team that has Andrea Pirlo in it.

There was some talk that Antonio Conte would scrap his usual 3-5-2 and go for four at the back, but in the end, he stuck with the system that Juventus have looked most comfortable in.

Bayern’s Front Four

Toni Kroos has been in really good form for Bayern Munich and was, for me, possibly the best Bayern player against Arsenal over the two legs of the last round. He started today as well, with Jupp Heynckes choosing to play Kroos, Muller, and Ribery as his three behind Manzukic in Bayern’s 4-5-1.

Kroos got injured at about a quarter hour in, and this actually worked out very well for Bayern. Robben replaced him, and moved out to the right wing, with Muller coming inside behind Manzukic. The introduction of Robben gave Bayern attacking threats in both wide areas and Juventus didn’t respond well enough.

During most of the first half, Robben and Ribery would switch flanks and both of them found a lot of freedom down the right side with help from Muller and Lahm. Muller would usually drift to the right side, causing Chiellini to pick him up and this would make it the responsibility of Peluso to contain Robben or Ribery which he had a hard time doing. With Peluso picking up one of the two, it allowed Lahm to run into that space and made Marchisio have to shift out of position and cover Lahm’s runs, thus opening up the midfield a bit more.

The combination of RIbery, Muller, and Robben worked very well together. They switched positions very well, particularly Robben and Ribery, who switched flanks a great deal in the first half. While Muller, whose job seemed to be to just find the open space and drag defenders with him, grabbed a goal and Ribery and Robben ran at Juventus’ defense, it was Manzukic who arguably put in the best shift for the Bavarians. He was very good in the air, tracked back well, often times covering for Ribery and Robben when they would stay further up the pitch, and pressed the Juventus’ back three when they were in possession of the ball. Below are the average positions of the Bayern players, just notice Ribery and Robben’s average position higher than both Muller and Manzukic.

Midfield Battle Goes to Bayern

On paper, following Kroos’ injury, you would more likely give the midfield battle to Juventus, only because it was then 3v2 in their favour. Theoretically, they have a decent balance to their midfield three as well with Pirlo acting as the regista, Marchisio the hard-tackling, defensive midfielder, and Vidal a more dynamic, box-to-box type. With Muller a more attack minded player, Bayern could have been a little more stretched in the middle, but Bayern’s quality in the wide areas opened things up.

Bayern’s ability in the wide areas, whether it be the combination of Robben/Ribery and Lahm on the right or Robben/Ribery and Alaba on the left, caused Juventus a number of problems. It dragged their back three all over and caused Vidal and Marchisio to have to help on the wings, opening up the midfield for Schweinsteiger and Gustavo, both of whom enjoyed 93 and 96 percent passing ratings because of the lack of pressure that the Juventus players were able to put on them. As mentioned before, Manzukic worked hard for the team and liked to drop a little deeper at times too, which occupied the likes of Pirlo, again opening things up for Schweinsteiger and Gustavo to operate.

Juventus’ At The Back

As mentioned already, Juventus’ back three got caught out numerous times by Bayern’s wide play, but it wasn’t just Bayern that were causing problems, it was Juventus’ own want to play out of the back that did it.

Aside from Buffon’s two mistakes that led to the Bayern Munich goals, it seemed that every time Buffon lined up to take a goal kick, he wanted to play it short. To be fair to him as well, he has three options in his back three plus either Pirlo or Vidal would commonly drop in to add another option, but even if Buffon were able to get his pass to the intended target, they were closed down quickly as Bayern’s front four pressed very well. In the first half, Manzukic closed down Bonucci, making a good tackle on him and playing in Ribery, who saw his effort deflected narrowly wide.

Many times, Buffon and the rest of the back three would try to play passes that simply never reached their target. Fair play to Bayern Munich for pressing very well, but Juventus seemed insisted on doing what they couldn’t. They were largely unsuccessful and at times, even if  Buffon did get his first pass out, they wouldn’t continue to try to work the ball up the pitch with such composure. Twice in the first half, Buffon played the ball out to Chiellini, who was closed down quickly, but was able to get the ball about 10 yards forward to Vidal, who was checking in, but with a Bayern player on his back and thus just kicked the ball into the centre of the pitch for Bayern to easily regain possession.

It is useless to play the ball out of the back, only to have little movement from most of your midfield and forwards in order to allow the ball to continue moving around with short, composed passes.

Changes

Antonio Conte made two changes in the 65th minute, taking off both his forwards and introducing two more in Vucinic and Giovinco, but little had any impact on the game, attempting just 10 passes between them during their time on the field. It was an odd one as well, as Juventus were struggling to even get a supply to their forwards as their midfield was mostly outplayed.

Conte did bring on Paul Pogba, who is coming off a very good match for France against Spain during the international break, but the change came with just 15 minutes left in the game. His introduction did seem to push Juventus on a little pit and it changed the shape a bit as well, allowing Chiellini to get forward a bit more and take the defensive burden off the likes of Pirlo, who had little impact on either side of the ball.

Conclusion

Bayern were the much better side, keeping possession well and getting a lot of opportunities on goal; they had nine shots on goal compared to Juventus’ two. Conte will have to rethink his system a bit if Juventus are to get back into the match as his back three were largely exposed by the fluidity of Bayern’s play.