Juventus took a step back in most facets in the game and were lucky to escape from Florence with a point, mostly thank to the opponents’ lack of clutchness
Leonardo Bonucci (5 points): once the defenders and the goalkeeper did away with an obnoxiously low ball possession that almost gifted La Viola two goals, the back-line actually stood tall under constant pressure, showing vast improvements compared to the previous game, which is about the only positive for the Old Lady out of this game. Bonucci helmed the department with his subtle but meaningful interventions and he was not booked, differently from Matthijs De Ligt, who held his own as well and displayed his impressive muscularity in a couple of occasions, on top of a healthy dose of pragmatism. Danilo and Alex Sandro turned a good shift in as well in this area, but they never attacked. Wojciech Szczesny gave the fans a heart attack in the early going, but then he answered the bell when called upon. However, the general attentiveness did not allow the adversaries to create clear-cut chances, but only manageable ones.
Blaise Matuidi (2 points): the whole squad went AWOL offensively, mustering only one or two chances on improvised counter-attacks or poucing on the mistakes by the enemies, but it was too little to produce a goal. In some stretches it looked like they were pacing themselves in the first half to prevent a repeat of what happened in the first two games, where they were gassed too early, but they never flipped the switch and struggled to keep up with Fiorentina’s pace. Matuidi gets the nod for his general activity in both phases. Sami Khedira had the best chance for the Bianconeri, but he tried to link up with a teammate with a difficult square ball where he could have perhaps attempted to finish on his own. Miralem Pjanic did not pull the string and subbed off early and Rodrigo Bentancur did nothing of note filling in. Juan Cuadrado was actually good as right back and, with more touch, he could have done some damage on a pair of runs.
Gonzalo Higuain: he had some flashes while trying to function as a hub for his teammates and dished some decent passes, but the feeds to the strikers were completely cut off today and they were left stranded up front. The immediate injury to Douglas Costa had a big part in that and Federico Bernardeschi did not take advantage of the playing time and was very sloppy and ineffective. Cristiano Ronaldo was just a bit dangerous on a couple of solo forays, but he had a lot of ground to cover and he too never got it going nor tracked back to try to ignite some offense.
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