Unfortunately, the big news surrounding the club today is not their second leg match at home against Sturm Graz, but the imminent departure of Diego, just one year after his arrival in Torino via Werder Bremen. Regrettably it seems that neither Del Neri nor Marotta nor Agnelli believed that he could break out of his much talked about trequartista mould, and fit into this new-look Juventus side. However, there are many of us fans who think very differently. Today a significant portion of the 170 million Juventus fans around the world are truly saddened to see you leave so soon.

“We have reached an agreement with Juventus over the transfer today,” announced Wolfsburg’s managing director Dieter Hoeness. “This evening, his father and his assistant are due to arrive here.”

The agreement is for a fee of around €15 million, paid in installments over the next couple of years, with another two or so million attached to Wolfsburg’s Champions League qualification. The Brazilian is reportedly getting a salary of €6 million per season for a four year contract. Which I think is a bit more than what we were paying him, but I’m not really sure.

Now the deal for Diego to come to Juventus in 2009:

“Juventus will pay Werder Bremen €24.5 million divided into three installments in bank guarantees. €14 million on the 1st of July 2009, €5.5 million on the 1st of July 2010, €5 million on the 1st of July 2011. The price can rise by a further €2.5 million in case of the fulfillment of established sports objectives in the next five years.”

Safe to say we can take that last €2.5 million bit off the table now, but somehow I always thought we would much sooner be willing to take a €10 million financial hit on Melo’s price tag, then on a player like Diego- guess I’m just fucking crazy. Marotta, I hope you have your last good eye on the ball.

Lost in this shuffle is the pending transfer of one of the greatest goal-scorers to ever wear our jersey, David Trezeguet. His transfer, whenever officially announced, will be given the proper attention it deserves with his own post, highlighting his amazing career with Juventus. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t come to that, then again I didn’t think a certain someone would leave us either.

Sturm Graz Links: atdhe.net [direct match link] myp2p.eu [match thread] rojadirecta.org [home page]

IERI… OGGI… DOMANI… SEMPRE JUVE!!!

Later today, Juventus will play the first leg of their last play-off against SK Sturm Graz en route to the Europa League group phase beginning September 16th. The Austrians are already 4 games into their top-flight campaign and sit second, two points behind Josko Ried. Because of their early start, we’ll have to be acutely aware of their fitness levels and approach the game with the same amount of determination. More information about this tie after the jump.

SK Sturm Graz is an Austrian football club that was founded in 1909. Graz is Austria’s second-largest city behind Vienna, and the capital of the federal state of Styria. It has a population of 291,890 as of 2010, and has a long tradition as a student city as evidenced by its six universities and more than 44,000 students. In keeping with the city’s student theme, SK Sturm Graz saw most of its success using young players from the club’s academy beginning in the mid-nineties under Bosnian football manager and former player from the former Yugoslavia, Ivan Osim.

Between 1994 and 2002, Osim led SK Sturm Graz to the Austrian Championship in 1998 and 1999, the Austrian Cup in 1999 and the Austrian Supercup in 1998 and 1999. SK Sturm Graz was also featured in the UEFA Champions League in 2000-01 where they won their group against Galatasaray, Rangers, and AS Monaco FC, reaching the second round for the first time. That year the league campaign was less successful – a fourth place finish, the worst under Osim.

Since Osim left in 2002 due to increasing criticism from the club’s President, SK Sturm Graz has never been the same. After some modest European success, the added revenue was never re-invested in the youth academy and was squandered on fruitless talent. Eventually, SK Sturm Graz filed for bankruptcy on September 1st 2006. As of today, the team is coached by German manager Franco Foda, and share a 15,400 seat stadium with their local rivals Grazer AK. Until 2006, the stadium was named after Arnold Schwarzenegger who was born near Graz but was re-named in February 2006 to UPC-Arena.

“It’s a special game for me and will be more emotional than usual,” our very own Austrian, Alex Manninger, told Juventus Channel. “We’re going to play in a beautiful city where football is passionate and the stadium, albeit small, will be packed. Within two days of the draw, the tickets for this game were sold out. For them the meeting with Juventus is the match of the year.”

“Many people have asked me for information about Sturm Graz, but I’ve been away from the Austrian League for a long time. Their Bundesliga only has 10 teams who face each other four times per season. The level of football is clearly inferior to Italy, but our opponents will be more physically fit after a month of official games. They’ll give it their all, run a great deal and try to play attacking football. We must be careful, but I am confident. If Juventus put their superior quality on display, we will return with a positive result.”

SK Sturm Graz (4-4-2) Probable Starting XI: Gratzei; Strandfest, Schildenfeld, Feldhofer, Purcher; Weber; Holzl, Bukva, Muratovic; Kienast, Szabics. Injuries: Midfielder Kienzl

Juventus (4-4-2) Probable Starting XI: Storari; Motta, Bonucci, Chiellini, De Ceglie; Lanzafame, Sissoko, Marchisio, Pepe; Diego; Amauri. Available options: Manninger; Legrottaglie, Constantino, Ferrero, Grygera; Melo, Martinez; Del Piero, Trezeguet. Injuries: Goalkeeper Buffon

Links: atdhe.net [direct match link], rojadirecta.org [homepage], myp2p.eu [match thread].

IERI… OGGI… DOMANI… SEMPRE JUVE!!!

Last week was rough. With Diego, we went through the 5 steps-
Denial
Anger/Immaturity
Bargaining
Depression
And now we get to enjoy the 5th…….REJECTION. Bahahaha.

“Diego will remain with Juventus,” said the Coach in his Press conference. “He has proved that he can play in this team and we are happy about that. “The transfer rumours have nothing to do with us. Will he play tomorrow? Seeing as he is a Juventus player, I don’t see why I shouldn’t use him.”

I was pretty confident Diego would be remaining with us, but the flurry of rumors, the fact Hoeness and a FIFA agent were in Turin, and the resounding silence, I admit it got to me. 49 words. That’s all it freaking took, if only Delneri and Marotta had nipped the rumors in the bud with “IL PANDA NON SI TOCCA” we’d all have breathed a bit easier. C’mon now.

Looks like we can strike this transfer story from the list.

It’s apparently moron week here at the Juventus Offside, as players and agents try to one-up each other in displays of incompetence. Word is that Delneri has sent Felipe Melo to Mongolia for the week, to attempt to keep him out of the contest. FYI- the new official Juventus Offside term for “moron” is going to be Bill Cosby’s favorite term “knucklehead.” So Tiago and Camoranesi’s agents are now knuckleheads.

Tiago has fired a parting shot at Juventus following his move back to Atletico Madrid on loan. The Portugal international seemed to revel in the idea that Juventus couldn’t sell him outright. Tiago has made no secret of his annoyance at the way Juventus have treated him in recent years. Speaking at his second official unveiling as an Atletico player, Tiago said: “Atletico and I are happy, but in the end Juve will be a little less so. I am very happy. It was very difficult for me, but in the end I got what I wanted. I believe that we are much stronger than last year.

The Juventus Offside exclusive on how the prior incident went on.

For someone who has NO personality on the pitch, he has a large amount of it off the pitch. You all may remember when he LOCKED our club President in the bathroom for trying to make him sign with another club. I didn’t understand why he did it the, and I don’t understand why he’s being such a bitch about things now. Tiago has nothing to complain about at Juventus. At one point under Ranieri AND Ferrara, he got his time to prove himself, and failed to do so. He was never verbally assaulted by the fans like Felipe Melo or Z3BINA. And now, we try and offload him to a club he wants to be playing for, and he acts like a complete ass about the whole thing.

Either way, between the Tiago and Andrade experiments, here is a new official policy for Juventus.

Delneri-“Is Diego on his way out? We never considered him like that,” said the Coach after last night’s double Trofeo TIM defeat. “He is at the centre of a transfer situation that can evolve positively or negatively. But he knows that we have great faith in him and the important thing is that he proves he deserves to stay and wants to stay. Certainly, if he continues playing like this then he is someone who gives us the quality we are otherwise lacking.”

Diego- “I still have much to demonstrate in this season. I’m very happy for my goal against Milan, it’s too bad we didn’t win the TIM Trophy. But to play against the strongest Italian sides in a friendly tournament is an excellent way to improve our conditions. But this is only the start, we have much to do.”

Tonight in Bari, at the Stadio San Nicola, the tenth edition of the Trofeo TIM will take place between Juventus, Milan, and Inter. This unrecognized and unsanctioned tournament has been held yearly in August since 2001, and consists of three forty-five minutes matches. The first mini-match will see defending tournament champions Juventus take on Inter. The losers will then stay on and play Milan in the second mini-match, while the winner will play against the Rossoneri in the final match.

Here’s how the scoring works: A regular time victory earns the winners three points, while the losers get nothing. If it goes to penalty shots, the winning team gets two points while the other team gets a single point for their troubles.

Thus far Inter lead with five trophies, Milan with three, and Juventus have one. Keep in mind however, this tournament should mean nothing to any team’s supporters for two important reasons. Firstly, this tournament’s only objective is to satisfy a marketing campaign designed by (you guessed it) TIM a.k.a. Telecom Italia and is not played according to FIFA’s rulebook. Secondly, pre-season is still pre-season. Last year we won this thing and look where we ended up. Also, one should expect each team to field a fair amount of their personnel in this one as fitness levels are the beneficiaries here after all.

When: Friday, August 13, 2010 – 2:45pm EST
Links: atdhe.net [direct match link] myp2p.eu [match thread]

Here are the call-ups: Motta Chiellini Felipe Melo Sissoko Marchisio Del Piero Amauri Manninger Trezeguet Bonucci Lanzafame Grygera Pepe Martinez Diego De Ceglie Costantino Storari Legrottaglie Ferrero. Felipe’s back, Diego’s obviously still in, and Camoranesi’s left out even though his Premier League move is on the rocks. Life is near perfect. Enjoy the photos of Thursday’s penalty kick practice.

IERI… OGGI… DOMANI… SEMPRE JUVE!!!

There are a lot of comparisons between Delneri and Fabio Capello. They are both cabbage men, as Special 1 TV would put it. They are both Friuliani, which by extension means they are incomprehensible and approximately 82% German/Slovenian. (No coincidence that at Real Madrid/Roma, Cassano had issues with both of them) And lastly, both are strict believers in the 4-4-2. Thus, some Juventus fans have groaned that we’re going to see defensive, boring football ahead of us, though that is not really the case. Below, a run-down on how Delneri likes to structure his team, and how it may apply to Juventus.

Unlikely to see any Roberto Carlos-style fullbacks in the team

As far as the defense goes, Marco Motta outlined Delneri’s philosophy on day one. “Above all, the mister reminded us that we are defenders first.” Fullbacks, particularly, are required to be defensive-minded first, as Delneri likes his defense to be compact, allowing little space to the other team. That also applies to the center-backs of course, and while Chiellini and co will certainly advance on set pieces, we won’t see any Giorgio-as-sweeper experiments in the future. Delneri likes his teams to keep a clean sheet, and that starts with defense. Motta and De Cegie are attacking fullbacks, of course, they are young, but both have spoken of the personal attention Delneri has been giving them. He’s got his work cut out with them, but we can be encouraged with what we’ve seen in preseason thus far.

If the fullbacks are generally more defensive, it is the opposite among his wingers. Delneri has always built his team based heavily on his wingers, be it Manfredini and Luciano back at Chievo, or Ferreira, Langella, and Valdes at Atalanta, or more recently Mannini, Guberti, or Semioli at Sampdoria. When asked about his instructions for wingers he said “between another striker and another defender, I prefer the former.” Indeed, his 4-4-2 in attack switches very much into a 4-2-4, with limited defensive responsibilities for wingers. It is obvious that this choice has influences the mercato, Lanzafame and Martinez are both attacking wingers that can even play in a 4-3-3 up top or as a seconda punta. That isn’t to say he doesn’t want his wingers to track back, during preseason Lanzafame has defended his flank and Pepe has shown his “workmanlike nature.” But between defense and offense, he clearly prefers attacking wingers. This is particularly important when you consider what happens when the ball is moved down a single flank.

Say the ball is moving down the right flank in Delneri’s system. Often, you’d see the right-back make overlapping runs and the left-back holding back to make up a 3-man counter buffer, typically the CBs (if one is forward, say on a set piece, then a CM) and one FB are meant to slow down counter-attacks. In Delneri’s system, I think we’ll often see the right-back providing support, but not making runs constantly in the corner. Instead, you’ll see the left winger running into the box as an additional scoring threat, and the left-back will move up a bit to occupy the space he left. It’s nothing earth-shattering new, but compared to Capello and Ranieri’s 4-4-2, the wingers are given much more freedom to attack the box.

As for the midfield, I think we’ll see a situation similar to Ranieri’s Juve, not as much like Capello’s Juve. Ranieri was criticized for fielding two defensive midfielders, but that wasn’t really ever the case. He basically had one pure central midfielder, and a defensive midfielder with a decent passing ability. Tiago was supposed to be the 2nd, Zanetti ended up taking the place, and in the first year Nocerino was the central midfielder and followed by Marchisio. (Case in point, look at our first game back in Serie A- Nocerino makes it all the way to the byline to cross it to Trezeguet. Later it became apparent he wasn’t really very well rounded.) Last year we desperately needed a regista, as I whined about plenty on this blog, and that’s where Felipe Melo’s inability became obvious. He will suit much better into Delneri’s system, where he will likely play the Zanetti role, of a defensive midfielder with an occasional eye for a pass. The playmaking burden is largely removed from the central midfielders and transferred to the flanks, hence the lack of a need for an out-and-out regista in a 4-4-2, particularly one with a heavy emphasis wingers. Filling the pure central midfielder role will of course be Marchisio, who Delneri said he intends to build much of Juventus around. Sissoko will probably be the (not exactly like-for-like) substitute for Melo, and perhaps Ekdal will remain with Poulsen’s sale as Marchisio’s reserve. I don’t know who he plans to use their otherwise.

Cassano on the bench last January, as Delneri tinkered with the offense

Up top, it’s simple. Delneri uses what works, and that is typically a classic pairing of a seconda punta and a prima punta. At Sampdoria, it was Cassano and Pazzini quite clearly, and it worked excellently. Cassano started the season drifting wide and not entering the box much, but Delneri converted him into a more central, more clinical striker. That’s not to say Delneri is not up for alternatives, though. At Sampdoria, the team struggled greatly in the dead of winter, going weeks without a win. Everyone assumed the team had gone bust, more or less, after an excellent start, and Delneri did the “unthinkable” and benched Cassano, opting for Nicola Pozzi and two prima puntas up top. It’s not pretty, but it’s a much more physical approach and it started to get Sampdoria some points on the board again. At that point, Cassano was reintroduced into the team.

So where does Diego fit into the attack? The media would like to think he doesn’t, but he does. Delneri said, “I would play a trequartista behind one striker, but behind two, never.” Anotherwords, he’s not a fan of the 4-3-1-2 or the 4-3-3, but we already knew that. Everyone however has forgotten the first portion, and that’s where Diego fits in. There is plenty of history, too. At Atalanta, Delneri played a 4-4-1-1 with mercurial Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni as that trequartista, and talented central forward Sergio Floccari as the man leading the line. A switch between a 4-4-1-1 and a 4-4-2 is not difficult, and it simply depends on who is playing. If Diego is, it’ll be more of a 4-4-1-1 with him playing behind the prima punta, rather than around. If Del Piero plays, it’s a standard 4-4-2 as he’s a far more clinical striker, equally adept at banging them in as much as setting them up. At prima punta, Trezeguet, Amauri, and Iaquinta will all fit in naturally. Trezeguet of course offers the poachers angle, Amauri, the power in the air (hoping for some good crosses), and Iaquinta the pace to run onto through-balls.

Delneri gets excited about clean sheets

So what is similar and what is different between this and Ranieri/Capello’s 4-4-2s? Similar is the compactness. The team plays together, like a team, defending and attacking together. There is a strong desire for cleansheets, which will come as a welcome surprise after last season. There are two things that a tactical 4-4-2 side can do, and certainly did under Ranieri and Capello, that Delneri will aim for. The first is an ability to hold out leads. Perfect example of this would be our victories against Real Madrid, where we were under immense pressure for significant portions of the game, but did not crack. Not even when Van Nistelrooy scored. The second, is a strength at scoring, and defending against set pieces. During Capello and Ranieri’s era, the tactical discipline meant we took advantage of many set pieces, at the same time it is hard to think of many we conceded, rather, our weakness was generally on the counter-attack. (particularly for Ranieri) Delneri aims to resolve this by keeping the fullbacks defensive, but it also resolves by the refreshing of the squad. We had a fairly old team under Ranieri, and a lot of times they were simply too slow or tired late in the game to track back fast enough on the counter. I think we will find this refreshing- last season, we were pathetic at defending set pieces and more importantly, if pressure was against us, we would crack, and the floodgates opened. Games against Napoli, Bayern, and Fulham showed when we were under sustained pressure, at some point it would just all come apart. We could not hold our own.

How is it different from their systems? It’s more attacking, and more based on wing play. The fact that we don’t have the world-class wingers we did 5 years ago is a knock, but not a complete failure for the system as wingers who are quick are similarly important to excellent dribblers. 4-2-3-1 fans, rejoice. Given Diego playing deep at trequartista, and the attacking nature (both tactically and amount of goals they’ve scored in the past) of our wingers, the 4-4-1-1 is more likely to resemble a 4-2-3-1 (particularly on offense) than a Capello or Ranieri style 4-man midfield.

How have his teams looked in the past, as far as statistics go? His defense clearly is tight. Last year, Sampdoria conceded the 3rd least goals in the league, only 2 behind 2nd place. In 2008-2009, Atalanta conceded the 8th least amount of goals, though finishing in 11th. It’s no coincidence that the next year, Atalanta conceded far more and were relegated. At both Chievo and Atalanta, however, his first season had a relatively “high” level amount of goals conceded, by “high” I mean that expected, rather than a tight defense. We can probably attribute that to the lag of a team transformation that a smaller team forces, it takes far longer for Chievo to change their team than ourselves. As far as offense goes, Sampdoria didn’t light the world on fire last year, finishing a relatively miserly 9th in the scoring charts, though I would attribute that to a lack of depth for the wings and offense. At Atalanta, his team scored a few more goals than their placing in the standings, which is probably what we should expect. We shouldn’t expect Barcelona-style scoring, but we will score the appropriate amount of goals, assuming Delneri can extract the best from our forwards.

I’ve said enough, but I do have faith in Delneri. He’s a solid coach, and if his mission is to get us into the Champion’s League, he is a good man for it. Like Ranieri, there are questions over whether he can inspire his team with the confidence or odd tactical change necessary to win the league, but that’s not what we’re focused on this coming season. We fight for 3rd, and in March if we’re at Inter’s level, then we can start thinking about the Scudetto. Of course, this is his vision for Juventus- whether he gets us playing it is a whole different situation, and that’s one we’ll simply have to wait for. Personally, I can’t wait for the season to start.