Juve stumble when they can’t afford it, lose to Parma for the first time in a decade

A set of huge head-to-head matches in the race for the top four are looming. Ahead of them, Juventus were looking at a pair of games against teams firmly in the relegation race — games that they absolutely couldn’t afford to drop points in.

So, of course, they did just that in the first one.

Facing off against a Parma side desperate to open up some space between them and the drop zone, Juventus went about as flat as they’d looked towards the end of Thiago Motta’s tenure. The energy, drive, and purpose that we’d seen in three games in charge of Igor Tudor was absent at the Stadio Ennio Tardini on Wednesday night. The home side wasn’t especially brilliant, either, but when Juventus are on one of these crappy days, a single mistake can be all it takes to ruin it completely.

Three guesses who made that mistake?

Lloyd Kelly’s abysmal marking gave Parma the lead on the stroke of halftime, and Juve’s attack didn’t fare any better in the second half than it did the first. Juve barely tested Parma’s goal — except when they lofted ineffectual crosses into the box for the keeper to claim. When the curtain came down on a thoroughly uninspirig performance, Juve was once again on the outside looking in at the Champions League places, although somehow they still controlled their own destiny.

Tudor was without an injured Teun Koopmeiners and Federico Gatti, while Kenan Yildiz was only fit for the bench after picking up a minor knock in training. He employed his usual 3-4-2-1 setup, anchored by Michele Di Gregorio in goal. Pierre Kalulu, Renato Veiga, and Kelly. Weston McKennie started as the right wing-back, while Andrea Cambiaso was finally healthy enough to make his first start under Tudor on the left. Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram covered midfield, while Nico González and Randal Kolo Muani played behind Dusan Vlahovic in attack.

Parma had stabilized their form since replacing Fabio Pecchia with Cristian Chivu. The Romanian had a full roster on hand, although Adrián Bernabé was coming off an injury. He countered with a 3-5-2. The New Jersey-born Japan international Zion Suzuki (not kidding) started in goal. Lautaro Valenti and Alessandro Vogliacco were joined in the back three by 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni. Enrico Delprato and Emanuele Valeri manned the wing-back spots, while Mandela Keita joined Bernabé and Simon Sohm in midfield. Mateo Pellegrino and Ange-Yoan Bonny teamed up up front.

Things nearly got off to a roaring start within 30 seconds of kickoff. Locatelli hit a shot across goal with the outside of his foot that had Suzuki beat but flew a foot or so wide of the post.

It was perhaps the highlight of the day offensively.

The rest of the game saw Juve find almost every way to shoot themselves in the foot when they got the ball in decent position. González got himself into the box off a great through ball by McKennie, but stumbled as he got to the byline and had to settle for a corner kick. Thuram charged out of the defensive third after a free kick was cleared, only to get himself trapped along the sideline and run out for a throw.

It was this kind of frustrating breakdown that characterized the Bianconeri attack. Whenever they got into a promising position, they either took a bad touch or had the ball poked away from them by the defense — or, in Vlahovic’s case, was out-physicaled in pursuit of it, often by the callow Leoni. They had nearly 70 percent possession over the last 15 minutes of the half, but the closest they came to scoring was another shot that flashed wide of the post, this time by González just as the half ticked into stoppage time.

Parma had lost both Vogliacco and Bernabé to injuries early in the half, leading to three added minutes being posted. It only took 15 seconds of that time for Parma to take a smash-and-grab lead. Valeri launched an early cross toward the back post, and Kelly, who was supposed to be marking Pellegrino, instead drifted inside toward Nahuel Estévez — who was already being guarded by Veiga. That gave the striker a free header, and he dispatched it with aplomb.

It was the 10th headed goal allowed by Juventus this season.

Vlahovic’s torrid day ended early due to a thigh injury, and he made way at the break for Francisco Conceição. That pushed Kolo Muani up into the striker position, and early on the change seemed like it might have a significant impact. Kolo Muani found several creases in the defense that Vlahovic hadn’t, but heavy touches took him out of position to take any shots. It was soon clear that more would be needed to try to press the issue, and Yildiz was sent on only 11 minutes after the restart.

The Turkish teen immediately upped the quality level on the field, dropping a beautiful cross into the box, but no one was there to take advantage of it. But Parma nearly connected with a second sucker punch when Sohm charged downfield and exchanged passes with Pellegrino to get himself into the box, only to take a mercifully tame shot that Di Gregorio easily smothered.

Another recurring theme cropped up in the second period: blocked shots. Fully half of Juve’s 16 shots on the game were blocked, and six of those came in the second half. Conceição finally got a shot all the way through with 16 minutes left, but couldn’t get it to dip and it sailed a yard and a half over the bar.

Two more blocked shots from good positions came in the next 10 minutes, as time increasingly became Juve’s enemy. Tudor finally dropped in another set of reinforcements in the 86th minute, pushing Timothy Weah, Douglas Luiz, and Alberto Costa into the fray, but they didn’t have much time to make an impact.

It was Conceição who very nearly did after five minutes of stoppage time went up on the board. Just a few seconds into the added time the shifty Portuguese cut inside from the right and fired a shot for the far post. It would have had Suzuki beat, but like Locatelli and González before him, it flashed just wide. He got another bite at the apple within 60 seconds, but his attempt to surprise Suzuki with a near-post shot didn’t have the desired effect, and it was easily stopped. Juve’s final chance exemplified the kind of day they had, as a free kick dropped into the box and deflected off the foot of Thuram, only to skitter wide of the post. Kalulu might’ve been able to tap the ball in, but he’d slipped and fallen and couldn’t complete the run.

One last desperation heave up the field was the final ball claimed by Suzuki in the air, and when the last whistle pierced through the air, the old questions were staring Juventus right in the face.

Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6. Had no chance on the goal, and otherwise did everything asked of him, which frankly wasn’t much, as Parma didn’t really have a whole ton of opportunities.

PIERRE KALULU – 6. Made two tackles and three clearances, while also pushing forward in the attack to try to overload the right side. It wasn’t just for show, either — he made two key passes.

RENATO VEIGA – 6. Made five clearances and completed 91.4 percent of his passes, not letting much of anything in his area cause a threat.

LLOYD KELLY – 4. Absolutely horrific defending on the Parma goal. He looked to have no idea who he thought his man was, nor where he was. He also completed only 77.8 percent of his passes.

WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Worked hard but couldn’t create any danger on the wing by himself.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5.5. Just couldn’t break through with his passes out of the midfield, only completing 86.4 percent of his passes. He did make one key pass and led the team in tackles with four, but he needed to insert a little bit more control into the midfield passes.

KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5. Couldn’t exert the influence in midfield he usually did with his strong runs. He did make three tackles on defense.

ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. Launched 11 crosses but only completed one of them. Looked a little rusty in his first start in a while.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 5. Didn’t have a lot of influence in the first half, but was better in the second. He found a lot of the gaps that Vlahovic couldn’t, but his control let him down constantly when it mattered most. He did have two key passes.

NICO GONZÁLEZ – 5. Two key passes but like Kolo Muani never managed to get the last touch quite right.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 3. He was physically shoved out of the game by an 18-year-old.

SUBS

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5.5. Took a team-leading five shots in just 45 minutes, but couldn’t break through.

KENAN YILDIZ – 6. Upped the quality level on the field considerably, but his two key passes were wasted and no one else could match his level of creativity to finish anything off.

ALBERTO COSTA – NR. Actually looked lively in his brief time on the field. Might be interesting to see him on the field for longer.

TIMOTHY WEAH – NR. Didn’t really get any chances to do anything with seven touches in four minutes in change.

DOUGLAS LUIZ – NR. Completed all nine passes and had a key pass. Wonder what he might do in the hole along with Yildiz?

MANAGER ANALYSIS

Everything good about what Tudor’s brought out in the team disappeared on Wednesday. The directness and verticality of the team’s game was gone, and the press was decidedly pared back. Did the two extra days in the wake of Pope Francis’ death affect their focus? Who knows — and if it did, that’s a piss-poor excuse for a piss-poor performance.

Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

Tudor isn’t blameless in this, either. Putting Yildiz on the field early was the right move, but leaving the rest of his subs until there were four minutes left was an Allegri-like blunder. Costa, Luiz, and Weah had little time to do anything. Considering the fact that Costa looked lively and Luiz managed to set up a shot, some more time to work could have helped.

Tudor needs to reinvigorate the team and do it fast. Three points from the Monza game ahead of the Bologna/Lazio back-to-back is as non-negotiable as any three points could be.

LOOKING AHEAD

With five games left, Juve are in fifth place, tied on points with Lazio and a point behind Bologna in fourth. They play Monza — who are on the verge of being officially relegated — at home on Sunday, then go to Bologna, then Rome. These are the biggest three games of the year.