Antonio Conte’s Juventus (2013/14 season)
Introduction
Antonio Conte’s 2013/14 season at Juventus broke many records, including finishing with a record 102 points and 33 wins, finishing 17 points ahead of 2nd placed Roma. Not only did Juventus win Serie A for the third time in a row, they also won the Supercoppa Italiana.
Conte’s Juventus side was unbelievable, in that they were dominant in all facets of the game. I Bianconeri scored the most goals in Serie A (80) and conceded the least in the league as well (23). Tactically sound, this team had a phenomenal season.
Starting Eleven
In most matches, Conte would line up using his favoured 3–5–2 system. Below was his best starting eleven across the season:
Buffon
Barzagli — Bonucci — Chiellini
Lichtsteiner — Vidal — Pirlo — Pogba — De Ceglie
Tevez — Vucinic
Defensive Style
Most of the time, Juventus would defend deep in their half. This was to restrict mainly central areas for the opposition to work in. What made it even more difficult for the opposition, was Conte instructing his players to always return quickly to their defensive positions.
When it came to pressing the ball, the two strikers would not press as much and it would usually just be light pressure. Their pressure was more present if the opposition concentrated their build up play in central areas.
Juventus’ primary objective when defending was to block passes into the central zone.
When defending, Juventus would adopt a 5–3–2 shape, with the wing backs dropping back and the midfielders shuffling from side to side, depending on where the opposition circulates the ball.
The three centre backs in Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini were the most important centre backs for Juve that season. Chiellini was LCB, due to his dominant foot being his left but also, he was very good at covering if the LWB hadn’t arrived on time for an opposition attack. Chiellini’s flexibility also at times allowed him to play at LB.
Bonucci was in the centre of the back three. From an offensive viewpoint, he would act in deeper positions and can play as a ‘Libero’ (a sweeper). This sweeping action would also be present when defending, as he would act as cover for the wide CB who would be pressing.
Barzagli was similar to Chiellini, as he was right footed but more importantly, if the RWB could not return into his defensive position in time, like Chiellini, he could slot into RB. Again, this massively aided Conte, especially when his teams were caught on the transition, albeit it was not often.
The organisation of the back five was impressive. All of the defenders moved in sync, relative to the ball. They also knew when to step out and apply pressure to the ball, as well as understanding where they should move to cover for the defender applying the pressure.
I mentioned before about the three midfielders. Their organisation was also paramount, especially in the defensive phase. The priority for them was to defend the central zones, as well as pressing out wide. So they had to stick close to each other, in order to not sacrifice protection of the central zones.
For instance, if the ball shifted to the right hand side for the opposition, it would be Pogba, the LCM, who would assist the LWB by applying pressure. This was to create a 2v2 situation, as most teams would try to exploit Juve only having one defender naturally in a wide area, by creating a 1v2. The same would apply if the ball was moved to the other side, but instead it would be Vidal applying the pressure.
The two strikers would have limited defending roles when the ball was in Juve’s half. This was mostly for them to conserve their energy for a potential counter attack.
But back to the three centre backs. From a possession viewpoint, they would normally have a 3v2 advantage, with most teams utilising two strikers. The same can be said when they’re defending, as the 3v2 advantage would still be present.
There would be the occasional problem, should Juve be caught on the transition. Fortunately, these centre backs were elite at the time. Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini were all superb in these very difficult situations. But in order to not leave the CBs as isolated as much, Conte gave very strict instructions to the WBs to return to their defensive positions as soon as possible.
Attacking Style
Maybe not as pleasant a style as other successful teams, however for Juventus, it worked. They depended mainly on long balls. This would normally be initiated by one of the three CBs or Andrea Pirlo, who were some of the best distributors of all time, particularly Pirlo, who would often act as a DLP (Deep Lying Playmaker).
Despite the aggressive nature of the style, their build up play was patient. The WBs would provide the width, due to no other natural means of providing width as the 3–5–2 has no pure wingers. With Pirlo being more reserved, both Pogba and Vidal are able to advance forward and combine with the two strikers. They would also provide options for a potential long ball.
As Juventus are wary of the impact of a defensive transition leaving them exposed, they leave four people in the rest defence (in the three CBs and Pirlo) while the other six outfield players are forward. In possession, it is the job of either the CBs or Pirlo to keep the patient involving short passes with each other until they spot a good forward run, where they’d make the long ball.
However, if they could not find a long ball option during that period of circulation, one, or maybe two of the six players forward would drop deeper to help out. On most occasions it would be either Paul Pogba or Artuo Vidal, but it could also be one of the strikers or WBs.
From there, if one of those players was to receive the ball, it is the hope that space has been created following their drop in position, in an attempt for a more advanced player to reach the space left, via a long ball.
At times, there were occasions where the four players at the back could make the pass to one of the six advanced players, who was not looking to go long, where they could create a sequence involving short passes.
In the image above, the coordination of movement from the WBs was also impressive. The LWB has dropped to assist Pirlo, while the RWB has identified the trigger to run into space, following Pirlo’s body shape.
On many occasions to break down a shape, Conte would instruct his players to use an “Up-Back-Through” passing sequence. These sequences would have been meticulously worked on in training by Conte and his coaching staff, in order for the movement and time/weight of the passing to be automated.
It was very hard for the opposition to stop Juve’s forward runs, as they couldn’t predict who would make the next sudden run. The unpredictability was caused by the fact that the run could be made by either a striker or a midfielder, following a short passing sequence close to the opposition’s box.
So in short, if build up play was created from deeper positions, the players would look to go long. If it’s outside the opposition’s box, the passing is much tighter and intricate.
Conte had a positive “negative dilemma” on his hands at times. At the time he had four incredible CMs, in Paul Pogba, Andrea Pirlo, Artuo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio. Unfortunately due to Conte’s system only including three midfielders, obviously all four couldn’t play. But the players who did play executed their roles well.
Andrea Pirlo was a ‘regista’, essentially the Italian term for a deep playmaker, who dictates the flow of the game from deep positions.
Vidal, Pogba and Marchisio were incredibly fit at the time, as they had to be. Physically, they were strong, as all of them would have to make lung bursting runs from box to box. So in order to solve this dilemma, Conte cleverly rotated the players, to ensure that whoever would start, would be in peak physical condition.
This was one of the reasons why Conte bought Paul Pogba from Manchester United. He would play the more rotational role in the midfield, as he was still young and developing, but he had amazing potential.
The WBs would also have to be in similar physical conditions to the CMs, as they in the offensive phase, would be tasked with crossing the ball in, usually to anywhere between two to four players waiting in the box. Or at times, they would be the ones making inverted runs, to cause more confusion within the opposition’s defence, although this wasn’t as common.
With the two strikers, Conte wanted a combination of pace and height. Due to the nature of his style being direct, there needed to be a striker that was tall and physically imposing to control those balls. There would often be long balls that would go beyond the opposition defenders into space, which is why there had to be a quick striker as well.
So for this season, the most common strike partnership was Carlos Teves (he had excellent pace) and Fernando Llorente (height).
I mentioned very early on in this piece that the two strikers would not be involved as much when the ball was in their own half. This was because another element of Juve’s attacking style involved counter attacks. Due to the high numbers that Juve defended with, the opposition would require more numbers to break them down. This left space behind to be exploited.
Usually the quicker of the strikers would be the one to drop in and receive the ball from the defenders. He would then use his speed and agility to break quickly, to give the opposition as little time as possible to get organised. From there, about two to three other players would join the attack.
This would also be the ideal situation to use a long ball into space for the advantage of a quick striker, like Tevez. But whatever the situation was, whenever Juventus would get a chance, the players and the tempo of the play had to be incredibly quick.
Another element of Juve’s attacking style was the use of long shots, where this predominantly came from players like Pogba and Marchisio due to their technique.
Andrea Pirlo also had an unbelievable free kick technique that would often aid the team, whether he was having a shot or crossing the ball in. This resulted in Juventus being dominant from set-pieces and corners, as they had many aerially strong players and combined with Pirlo’s technique, goals were incredibly common.
Conclusion
Despite this Juventus side not winning the Champions League, over the course of 2011–14, they were incredibly dominant winning three Serie As in a row.
Conte deserves tremendous praise for the way in which he set the team up defensively, as that too was unbelievable.