Juve drop more points after second-half drop-off against Roma

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For all the good vibes that have come from the appointment of Igor Tudor to the top job at Juventus, it’s clear he hasn’t had time to fully correct some of the team’s shortcomings. That includes one of their most maddening tendencies: the inability to put a full game together.

Juve looked great in the first half of Sunday’s prime-time trip to the Stadio Olimpico to face a red-hot Roma side that had won seven games in a row coming into the night. In the first 20 minutes or so, they were utterly dominant, and even when Roma worked their way into a little bit of a better spot, they were still the team on top when a sick volley from Manuel Locatelli put them ahead early in the period.

But the Juve that came out of the locker room was not the same as the one that went in. Their edge was significantly blunted, and bad mistake on a corner allowed the hosts to equalize in four minutes. They were never able to truly threaten to retake the lead, and eventually skidded to a 1-1 draw, the utility of which won’t be fully clear until Bologna play Napoli on Monday.

Tudor had almost a full squad at his disposal, missing only Arkadiusz Milik, Federico Gatti, and Mattia Perin. He utilized a 3-4-2-1 system, with Michele Di Gregorio standing behind Pierre Kalulu, Renato Veiga, and Lloyd Kelly. The team’s Americans served as wing-backs, Weston McKennie on the right and Timothy Weah on the left. Locatelli linked up with Khéphren Thuram in midfield, while Nico González and Kenan Yildiz supported Dusan Vlahovic up front.

Roma manager Claudio Ranieri took over after the sacking of Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric and has since turned the team’s fortunes around. They’ve been the most in-form team in Serie A since Ranieri came out of retirement, one that hasn’t lost since December. He countered with a 3-4-2-1 of his own, but was missing Paulo Dybala — out for the year after undergoing surgery — as well as Lorenzo Pellegrini, Saud Abdulhamid, and Devyn Rensch to injury, while Alexis Saelemae was suspended for yellow card accumulation. Mile Svilar started in goal behind Mats Hummels (who just this week announced he would retire at year’s end), Gianluca Mancini, and Evan Ndicka. Zeki Çelik and Angeliño started in the wing-back spots, with Bryan Cristante and Manu Koné in between them in midfield. Matias Soule’ and Stephan El Shaarawy supported Artem Dovbyk in attack.

Svilar got tested in the opening minutes, parrying a shot by Weah around the far post after the American cut inside and skipped the ball in front of him. Juve were able to keep the pressure on Roma and won the ball back quickly every time Roma tried to get the ball out of their own half. Their problem was creating the final ball. A few close calls ended with the last touch not quite being in the right place, and the next test of Svilar came from distance when Thuram hit a relatively tame shot from outside the box.

Juve continued to hem Roma into their own defensive third, but Roma made life difficult for them once they approached the box and they were never able to settle themselves into a shooting position. Vlahovic exemplified this trend when he whiffed at ball in the box under pressure from Hummels.

It took 20 minutes for Roma to even make a move toward the Juve goal, although the attack ended up petering out with a giveaway. In the 25th minute, their first real chance arrived, when Dovbyk pushed the ball forward in the box to Cristante, whose shot was met at its source by a sliding block from Kalulu. Juve responded with a great break down the field by Vlahovic and Weah, who dropped in a delicious cross for González right at the six-yard box, but Svilar got the barest of touches to the header and deflected it off the crossbar.

Vlahovic was presented with a direct free kick just after the half-hour mark, and his shot evaded the wall but went right at Svilar, perhaps hoping to catch the keeper cheating to the open part of the goal. El Shaarawy headed a Soule’ cross off the post, and just a few minutes later the Bianconeri edged their way in front.

McKennie and Kalulu combined on the right side to send the latter into crossing position. His ball was headed out by Celik. but the clearance went right to Locatelli, who hit a gorgeous volley that went under El Shaarawy’s leg and skipped twice as it thundered past Svilar, giving Juve a deserved lead with five minutes to go. Vlahovic tried to quickly double the lead with a cheeky flick toward the top far corner from a tight angle, forcing Svilar into the air to meet it with a one-handed parry.

There was a last-second shout for a penalty by Roma, but Kelly’s arms were held tight to his chest and referee Andrea Colombo ended the half after a brief consultation with VAR.

It took all of four minutes for the second half to go very wrong.

A Roma corner saw Ndika hit a free header that Di Gregorio made an excellent save on, but Kalulu — who up to that point had been immense in the back — was caught ball-watching and halftime sub Eldor Shomurodov pounced on the rebound and slammed it into the roof of the net past the helpless keeper.

Roma picked up the momentum immediately, and El Shaarawy soon had a long shot deflected down to Di Gregorio. Thuram and Vlahovic nearly passed their way through the middle of the Roma defense, but the final pass from Thuram was intercepted and cleared. McKennie had a chance to put one on goal from a tight angle, but couldn’t get much on it and Svilar made an easy save.

Tudor finally went to his bench with 23 minutes left, making a triple change that introduced Randal Kolo Muani, Teun Koopmeiners, and Andrea Cambiaso into the fray. Unfortunately, it did little to push Juve forward, with the team still unable to set up any real shooting opportunities. Yildiz had an intricate dribble toward the Roma box carried away from safety in the 82nd minute, and a few minutes later Cambiaso was caught well offside before he worked the keeper. With 90 seconds left McKennie had a great shooting opportunity closed down by Angelino.

Ultimately, though, neither side managed much of anything in the game’s late stages, and the game pushed its way meekly across the finish line for a draw that would leave both sides unsatisfied.

Photo by Silvia Lore/Getty Images

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6.5. Did everything he’s supposed to do, including making a great save before the equalizer.

PIERRE KALULU – 5.5. Hard to come to a decision here, as everything about his performance Sunday night bar one was phenomenal. Unfortunately, that one was an awful switch-off on the equalizer, getting caught ball-watching and allowing Shomurodov to get to the rebound unchallenged.

RENATO VEIGA – 6. Limited Dovbyk to a single shot and made five clearances. Great night for him against a hot striker.

LLOYD KELLY – 5.5. Made a pair of tackles and three clearances, but you’re just never confident when the ball arrives at his feet. He made several giveaways that set Roma up with opportunities.

WESTON McKENNIE – 6. Strong defensively, and played a large part starting the move for Juve’s goal. The insanely versatile man adds yet another position to his list this year.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6.5. My goodness, what a pretty goal. He’s got that shot in his locker and has come very close once or twice this year, and it was gratifying to finally see him get one. He was a big part of the dominant portions of the first half, assisting in the press and also dropping deep to assist the back line when Roma had the ball. Ultimately made three tackles and three clearances defensively.

KHEPHREN THURAM – 6. Made a team-high six dribbles, and was constantly recovering the ball in the first half. Also had the second-highest pass completion of anyone in the starting XI.

TIMOTHY WEAH – 6. Made a key pass and three tackles, and forced Svilar into a save in the games first moments. Has done well so far as a wing-back for Tudor.

Photo by Silvia Lore/Getty Images

NICO GONZÁLEZ – 6. Interpreted the supporting attacker role well, and should’ve had a goal midway through the first half but for a fantastic save by Svilar.

KENAN YILDIZ – 5.5. Had four dribbles and a key pass, but lacked the impact he caused last week against Genoa.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 5. Was involved in one or two good moves, but more often than not his touch failed him. Until that first touch improves, he’s going to keep giving the ball away.

SUBS

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 6. Was the only Juve player with more than one key pass on the night, but only had the opportunity to attempt nine passes overall. Also made a pair of tackles.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 5. Got no service, touching the ball only nine times.

ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5.5. Made a few good runs, but ultimately wasn’t able to make any incisive runs. Still, I’m deeply intrigued by what he might do in this formation now that he’s (hopefully) healthy.

NICOLÒ SAVONA – NR. Made a tackle and had one accurate cross, but otherwise didn’t have too much impact after coming on.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

Tudor’s system is definitely getting the best out of a few players that had stagnated badly by the end of Thiago Motta’s reign. González in particular looks a new man these last two games. He’s also got this team in a better place mentally — that much is very clear.

Photo by Matteo Ciambelli/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images

But Tudor needs to work out something his predecessor only managed to do once or twice: get Juve to play a complete game, as opposed to playing games of two halves. Juve was utterly dominant for portions of the first half, and deserved their lead — and perhaps more — going into the break. But a different team came out for the second half. The lapse in defense that allowed the goal was awful, and they never managed to mount much of a threat in the attack after the break.

Obviously, Tudor’s only just had his first full week of training with the team, so blaming him for this fluctuation is not exactly fair — yet. But if Juve are going to make the Champions League, they’re going to have to pull together and produce full games at high levels. Otherwise, they’ll end up coasting into a place in one of the lesser European competitions.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juve are about to embark on a string of games that they will be heavy favorites in. That starts with Saturday’s home game against Lecce. That follows up on Monday, April 21, with a trip to Parma, then rock-bottom Monza come to the Allianz before crunch back-to-back road trips against direct competitors Bologna and Lazio.