Serie A 2019/20: Juventus vs Bologna – tactical analysis

Upon their return from the international break, Juventus triumphed to a 2-1 win over an impressive Bologna side that has been catching the eyes of many pundits and analysts alike so far in Serie A this season.

Before the game, it was hard to predict just quite how this game would go with Bologna, statistically leading the league in xP (expected points) after boasting the second-best xG (expected goals) in the league, at 15.4 (Juventus ranking only 9th in this statistic, with 11.26). Both sides returned from their international duties to put out rotated lineups and in the end, the quality of depth in Juves squad helped to overpower the away side.

This tactical analysis piece will examine the tactics used during this featured clash and our analysis will highlight where both teams enjoyed success and experienced failure within this match.

Lineups 

After a number of key players returned from their travels, Maurizio Sarri opted to rotate several of his starting players. As the likes of Paulo Dybala, Blaise Matuidi and Aaron Ramsey either dropped to the bench or out of the squad entirely, there were rare starts for players like Fernando Bernadeschi and Adrian Rabiot. Sarri otherwise continued with his new 4-3-1-2 formation.

Bologna were unfortunately without the thriving Takehiro Tomiyasu at right-back as well as the ferocious Gary Medel in midfield. In their places, Ibrahim Mbaye and Mattias Svanberg, adopted the starting roles. Bologna also stuck with their current formation, the 4-2-3-1.

Bolognas defence 

Aware of Juves narrow formation, and lacking the steel of Medel in midfield, Bologna opted to forsake a high-pressing approach in favour of maintaining a compact defensive block.

This forced Juve to win the game through the talent they had in the wide areas of the field. By congesting the centre of the field, Bologna attempted to limit the space available to Juves midfield within their own half. In order to do this, Bologna pushed their back-line up, brought their wide men into the middle and rarely asked Soriano to push forward alongside Palacio to press the opposition.

The idea behind this, to f