Juventus enter this game on the back of only 1 league win in their last 5 games. They are currently lying in 6th position in Serie A. Udinese are currently in 8th position and morale will be high after their impressive 3-1 victory over champions Inter in last weekend’s round of fixtures.
Juventus’ title ambitions have all but fallen apart within the last month. A run of 1 win in their last 5 league games has left them 9 points adrift of league leaders Milan. Whilst it remains to be seen as to whether Milan can sustain their form for the rest of the season, it seems very unlikely that Juventus will be the side to take advantage of any slip ups that do occur. The injury to Fabio Quagliarella (who is out for the rest of the season) has left them looking completely toothless and devoid of ideas. They are heavily reliant upon Milos Krasic in terms of creativity and his early season form has dipped quite markedly. Which perhaps shouldn’t come as a great surprise considering it is his first season in Italy, and he hasn’t had a sustained period of rest due to the schedule of the Russian league.
Their last two performances against Sampdoria and Roma (Coppa Italia) have been very flat. They have had no real cutting edge. Amauri has led the attack in both games, although he only managed 45 minutes against Roma before being substituted. During these games, he has resembled a robot that is controlled via the stands by remote control. Except there is a slight problem, somebody forgot to put the batteries in. Therefore, the robot has been stationary. No input. Just a passenger as the game passes him by. He has one goal in the past 12 months in Serie A. Thankfully for Del Neri (and all those watching) Iaquinta has returned to fitness, so we may be spared from having to watch Amauri ‘perform’ this week.
Juventus’ home form this season has been inconsistent, only winning half of their games. They currently have 18 points from 10 games at home, which gives them the 11th best home record in Serie A. Their record is as follows;
Played: 10
Won: 5 (Cagliari, Lecce, Cesena, Lazio, Bari)
Drawn: 3 (Sampdoria, Roma, Fiorentina)
Lost: 2 (Palermo, Bari)
Juventus’ home games this season have been filled with goals.
They have the third highest number of goals scored, and they also have the worst home defensive record in the league, conceding 17 goals! It should probably come as no surprise then that their home record isn’t the best. They have managed 1 clean sheet at home in Serie A coming against Lecce in a 4-0 victory. They have however scored in every home game in Serie A.
Del Neri is likely to stick to his preferred 4-4-2 formation. With the terrible form of Amauri and the injuries to Luca Toni and Quagliarella, it is likely that Del Neri will partner Del Piero and Iaquinta in attack if they are both deemed to be match fit. Pepe was pushed into a more advanced role vs. Sampdoria in last weekend’s game, but this didn’t really work to any degree. There are injury doubts over Motta and Pepe. On a more positive note, Andrea Barzagli may be in line for his Juventus debut after completing a mid-week move from German side Wolfsburg. They will also welcome back Melo after a 3 game suspension.
Juve’s main threat in terms of impacting the game in an attacking sense is likely to come from Krasic who leads the way for Juventus with 5 assists in Serie A. He is also joint second top goal scorer with Iaquinta and Del Piero; they all currently have 4 league goals. The injured Quagliarella leads the way with 9.
Udinese are arguably the most entertaining side currently playing in Serie A. In their last 3 league games, they have scored 11 goals. No mean feat when the teams they were facing were Milan Genoa & Inter! Udinese have recovered well after what was a poor start to the season for them, losing their opening 4 games in Serie A. They are a fairly free-scoring side, boasting the 3rd highest number of goals this season, with only Milan and Juventus scoring more goals.
Their away record is in need of some improvement. They currently have the joint 8th best away record in Serie A with 11 points from 11 games.
Their record broken down is as follows;
Played: 11
Won: 3 (Brescia, Bari & Genoa)
Drawn: 2 (Sampdoria, Milan)
Lost: 6 (Inter, Bologna, Catania, Roma, Parma, Lazio).
Udinese currently have the most away goals scored in Serie A with 16 goals to their name. However, it is worth pointing out that half of the 16 goals have come in their last two away games at Milan and Genoa! They have failed to score in 3 of their away games this season (Sampdoria, Catania, and Roma). Looking at them from a defensive standpoint they have conceded 18 goals in their 11 away games, keeping a clean sheet on 3 occasions.
Udinese will be looking for a significantly better performance than in the first meeting between these sides this season, which resulted in an emphatic 4-0 victory for Juventus. At the time of writing there are no apparent injuries concerns and it is expected that they will field the same side that has won the last two games vs. Genoa and Inter. Their front two of Di Natale and Sanchez is likely to cause plenty of problems for the Juventus backline. Whilst Sanchez has been far from prolific in his Udinese career, he seems to be warming to the task of playing behind Di Natale. He has scored 4 goals in his last 5 Serie A games, with the only game he failed to score in being last week’s win vs. Inter. Di Natale has continued his fine form of last season. He has got himself on the score sheet in 8 of his last 10 games.
Udinese are riding a considerable wave of momentum at present and I think their good run will continue in this game. After viewing Juventus’ last two matches, I am struggling to think of a great deal of positives for them going into this game. Although Udinese’s away form is nothing to write home about, I think they’ll run out 2-1 winners.
Odds at the time or writing: Udinese - 3.55
Udinese to win 2-1 - 13.5
Amauri to feature on a new series of Robot Wars* - 1.25
* Which reminds me...Phillipa Forrester, not bad back in the day. Off to Google Images I go...
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