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

The signs on matchday 28 could hardly have been more different, as record champions Juventus faced U.S. Lecce. Ahead of the game, “la vecchia signora was already in first place in the Serie A table. In addition, Lazio Rome (2nd place) lost their away game against Atalanta Bergamo on Wednesday. So, it happened that Juventus had the chance (at least for the time) to be ahead of Lazio by seven points. Lecce, however, was already in the run-up to 18th place and will continue to fight for relegation till the end of the season.

With a look at the last games, it becomes even clearer who went into the game as the big favourite. Juventus have only scored four goals in all competitions in the last five games, but they have only conceded one goal. After the COVID-19 break, Juventus remained without conceding a goal, although they still weakened in the offence. Nevertheless, Lecce lost three of their last five encounters, with an important win against SPAL and a surprise win against Napoli. The defence is particularly weak, having conceded 13 goals in the last three matches against Roma, Atalanta and Milan.

In this tactical analysis, we will delve into the tactics that decided the match and provide an in-depth analysis on how Juventus wore down Lecce before seizing control of the match in the second half.

Line-ups

When looking at the line-ups, Juve were the huge favourite to win this match. Maurizio Sarri lined up his team in the typical 4-3-3 formation. Some media thought of Sarri rotating to spare some important players like Cristiano Ronaldo. In contrast to that, Juventus started with their best possible first eleven and Sarri only changed in one position. Since Alex Sandro and Mattia De Sciglio are injured and Danilo was suspended, central midfielder Blaise Matuidi needed to play as a left full-back. Federico Bernadeschi, who played very well in the last match against Bologna, got the preference over Brazilian international Douglas Costa.

Fa