Serie A 2018/19: Empoli vs Juventus

Cristiano Ronaldo has started to gather some pace with his goalscoring and it was his double away at Empoli that stretched Juventus lead at the top to six points. This tactical analysis looks at the trends of the game. Empoli impressed in the first half and caused Juve some trouble, but in the end the Bianconeri thoroughly deserved the win.

Teams

Empoli are interesting this season as they are the only Serie A side consistently using a 4-3-2-1 formation. They started the season in a 4-3-1-2 but has moved to the Christmas Tree formation in recent weeks. Their starting eleven included the interesting front-three of Slovenian Miha Zajc and Bosnian Rade Krunic behind striker Francesco Caputo.

Full team:
Provedel
Di Lorenzo-Silvestre-Maietta-Antonelli
Acquah-Bennacer-Traore
Krunic-Zajc
Caputo

Juventus continued with the striker-less formation which helped defeat Manchester United in midweek. The fluid front-three on this occasion was Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala and Federico Bernardeschi while Rodrigo Bentancur continued in central midfield.

Full team:
Szczesny
De Sciglio-Rugani-Bonucci-Alex Sandro
Bentancur-Pjanic-Matuidi
Bernardeschi-Dybala-Ronaldo

Tactical analysis: Empolis approach to stifling Juventus

Lets take a look at how Empoli approached the game and how Juventus overcame their opponents.

Empolis defending

Empolis 4-3-2-1 is naturally a very centred formation. The back-four is protected by three central midfielders and two attacking midfielders playing behind a sole striker. You can see the setup in the image below. The focus was very clearly to prevent Juventus from progressing through the centre of the pitch. The 4-3-2-1 gives natural protection of the half-spaces and the centre while leaving the flanks free.

Empoli tried to make it very tight in central areas and force Juventus into the wide spaces. Below is a great example of how compact they were centrally. The midfield three is well connected to the two attacking midfielders. Juventus themselves chose to attack very narrowly with their front-three which made the centre of the pitch extremely congested. This suited Empoli as they blocked the central progression Juve sought.

Empoli also engaged in som