Inter face lifelong rivals Juventus on Tuesday night and we decided to talk to David Tenenbaum before the game. If you don’t know him from before David Tenenbaum is a Juventus fan from the United States who writes about Serie A and US soccer. He also helps run JuveFC.com, a Juventus fan site and a fellow part of the Football Collective.
Allegri came in and Juventus, just as Inter has changed formations from a three man defense to a four man defense. Do you think the coach has improved Juve with the new formation or is there anything you miss from Conte’s time?
“Allegri’s 4-3-1-2 has really helped Juventus out in Europe, and in Serie A as well. The 3-5-2 was not a bad formation, and indeed Allegri still uses it (like against Fiorentina, though that was a 0-0 draw.) The 4-3-1-2 has two big advantages for this side: first you have four midfielders on the field, and you still get to keep two strikers. So this means you have four very good midfielders (aka you don’t need to bench Claudio Marchisio) and you also have Carlos Tevez with either Fernando Llorente or Alvaro Morata working as his reference point/target man. The only issue has been a lack of a definitive trequartista or just an attacking mid who can create chances the same way Andrea Pirlo does. Vidal and Pereyra have done alright at attacking mid, but neither has excelled. This is why our two clubs are fighting over Shaqiri.”
Which of the Juve attack most excites you for this match, and why?
“The default answer here is Carlos Tevez. He has been the best attacking player for Juventus since he put on a black and white jersey. Fernando Llorente is a fine player as well, and Alvaro Morata has a ton of potential. Still, Tevez is “the guy” for Juventus in attack. He makes it happen, and he can win games for us at the flick of a wrist (or rather, an ankle.)”
Do you think the supercup loss effects this game ?
“The SuperCoppa loss certainly upset some fans, and it probably bothered some players as it went to penalty kicks. But, overall I don’t think it will matter. Had it happened closer to a Serie A or European game, perhaps. But at this point the players have already had a well deserved week of vacation (which, for rich athletes means jetsetting around the world) and then another week of training for this game. So the SuperCoppa game is far from their minds, I would hope.”
Which Inter player will be the bigger danger for Juve?
“Based off of form, I would say Mateo Kovacic would be the most dangerous for Juventus. However, based off of history, it has to be Mauro Icardi. The guy is kryptonite for Juventus. Even if Juventus score a few goals and Inter only scores one, I bet it will be Icardi who scores that one.”
A lot of Juve’s gameplan connects with Pirlo’s role on the midfield. Does Inter have to take Pirlo out of the game to win the match, or are the other midfielders just as important for Juve?
“This really depends. Now, it’s always important to take Pirlo out of the game for Juventus. Not marking him is crazy, though teams try to win without doing so. Marking him is also an issue, now you have committed a player to marking him, you open up some space somewhere for another Juve player, most likely another midfielder. The rest of the midfield are plenty creative, Marchisio plays in place of Pirlo when we need to rest Andrea. Vidal and Pogba are also very creative and love to bring the ball upfield. However, Pirlo is really the only player on Juventus who can consistently create chances, often out of nowhere, for his teammates. The other midfielders can step up if he is marked and create scoring chances, but they are less consistent in this area than Pirlo is.”
Traditionally Juve has always had the upper hand against Inter. What will the bianconeri have to do to get yet another victory?
“They need to create scoring chances. Also: watch out for Icardi. Versus Napoli they left a few chances on the table, and then they lost in penalties. Juventus needs to capitalize on everything, and preferably score early like against Cagliari, so the pressure is on Inter and Juventus can calmly continue and try to widen their lead.”
Juve barely loses at home since they moved to the Juventus Stadium. How much does the fans and the atmosphere effect the games?
“Judging by the record, it matters quite a bit. However, as we know, if there is one team that can be unaffected by the crowd, it’s Inter. They were the first team to beat Juve at Juventus Stadium.”
We thank David for taking his time to answer. You can follow him on Twitter here and you can read his work on juvefc.com
Our Sia was interviewed on JuveFC.com here
