Serie A: 5 Tactical changes to expect from Maurizio Sarri at Juventus

Juventus begin their Serie A title defense against Parma next weekend. With the club deciding to part with Max Allegri after five trophy-laden years, it was perhaps unsurprising to see the club appoint Maurizio Sarri.

The Neapolitan did bring an attractive brand of football to his hometown club, although his efforts to replicate that success with Chelsea in the English Premier League was disappointing, to say the least.

The Londoners qualified for the Champions League on account of incompetent displays from their direct competitors and won the Europa League in a rather underwhelming fashion with Frankfurt being the only team to give them a shred of competitive action.

Hidden amidst the chaotic and rather inconsistent Chelsea displays were moments of finesse; Mateo Kovacic's brilliant assist for Eden Hazard's goal at Anfield or N'golo Kante's sublime finish at Selhurst Park.

Perhaps the Italian needed time to imprint his style on an aging squad bereft of leadership and robbed of the financial clout of its previous campaigns. Perhaps the Italian himself could not settle into the football culture prevalent in the country, preferring to go back to familiar pastures or most conveniently, the opportunity to manage one of the biggest clubs in Italy, and if not in the world was too big for him to pass up.

Speculation put aside, the incorrigible fact remains, the Italian is the present coach at Juventus. The Juve hierarchy made a concrete decision to let a highly capable manager walk away as they want to imbue a more attacking football style on the pitch, Allegri's failure to deliver on the coveted Champions League, even after the inclusion of Cristiano Ronaldo into an already formidable squad also might have played the board's hand.

The board perceives the adoption of an attacking style paramount to winning the European grail and the signing of Sarri signals an impetus in that direction. For better or worse, the Italian has a fixed philosophy that he brings with him, here are a few tactical changes that Juventus might undergo under his guidance.

#5 A high defensive line

Sarri favors a high defensive line in his systems. His preference for ball playing defenders is also well documented with Kalidou Koulibaly at Napoli and David Luiz at Chelsea. He likes mobile defenders who can give support to the pressing style implemented in the system and play quick interchanges down the passing lanes, and often switch long plays down the flanks.

This system worked wonders at Napoli but was unsuited to Chelsea, fullbacks Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso were not mobile enough to support the system, causing Luiz and partner Toni Rudiger to often play the ball up long.

Sarri will be looking to implement his system, starting from the backline, while also planning to avoid the problems that plagued him at Chelsea. With Juve possessing a marauding fullback combination in Alex Sandro and the recently acquired Danilo, the centre back pairing of Leonardo Bonnuci and Georgio Chiellini will surely be phased out in favor of a more vibrant partnership in the form of Daniele Rugani and Matias de Ligt.

Sarri has been a long term admirer of Rugani, attempting to buy the young defender at both of his last clubs. The Juve prodigy has largely spent his time being an understudy to his more senior counterparts, he has decent pace and can pass the ball. Alongside the domineering presence of another precocious talent, De Ligt, Sarri will seek to increase the mobility of his backline.

#4 An inverted midfield setup

Allegri used a plethora of formations at Juventus, most renowned among them the 3-5-2 and the 4-2-3-1 formations. In the last couple of years, the former Juve coach abandoned the former formation in favor of using variants of latter, which mostly included the 4-5-1 or 4-2-1-2-1 formations. The emphasis was on defensive solidity first and attacking output later.

This outlook eventually crippled Ronaldo who was not able to replicate his goalscoring exploits with Madrid at the Old Lady. Sarri will seek to espouse a more free flowing midfield which will offer greater attacking channels for the forwards to exploit. His Juve formation will resemble somewhat of a 4-3-3 formation with an inverted midfield structure.

Sarri typically prefers a regista against an all out defensive midfielder in this system. The regista sits at the base of the defense, prompting the central defenders to split up and the fullbacks to stay on the lines, such a tactic allows great passing lanes if employed using technically adept personnel.

Jorginho played the role to variable degrees of success at both Napoli and Chelsea. Miralem Pjanic offers similar dynamism at Juventus and is expected to occupy the position. Alongside him on either side will sit an attacking midfielder to assist in the attacking transition and an engine to break up the play, and carry the ball to the frontline. Mateo Kovavcic and Marik Hamsik played the former role, while Kante and Allan played the latter role, at his former clubs.

Blaise Matuidi and Aaron Ramsey offer similar characteristic abilities to the team and should slot into this system. Ramsey offers meticulous craft in exchanging passes while Matuidi is skilled at breaking up opposition plays and running with the ball forward.

#3 Triangular passing lanes

Sarri is an individual who by all confessed accounts is obsessed with triangles. He has spent the entirety of his career in perfecting a 4-3-3 formation that encompasses precise triangular passing lanes in order to deliver quick ball movements and start attacks from the base of the defense which reach the opposition goal in the least possible touches possible.

No less than five triangular passing channels are incorporated in his system. The centrebacks split up the length of the box to form the first one with the goalkeeper. The fullbacks on either side of the pitch form successive channels with the central midfielders and the wingers. The centre backs form another channel with the regista, and the wingers form a channel with the striker.

Such an outlay seems convoluted on paper but has been positively tested by the Neapolitan during his tenure with a Napoli squad that did not possess the most talented players in Europe but practiced the art of facilitating these triangular passing lanes to perfection.

The result saw his former team blowing teams away with scintillating displays and explosive attacking patterns. The system must be taught to the point of excessive repetition to replicate the mechanical movements of its schematics. Sarri's current squad contains more than technically capable individuals to carry out this system

#2 Overloading one side of the pitch

Sarri employs a pattern that seeks to overload one side of the pitch in his team formation, such a move is designed to tire the opposition with repetitive passing play in order to force an opening on the wing or switching play to the other side.

During his time at Napoli, Sarri focused on the left side of his team formation to carry out this job. Marik Hamsik would act as an offensive playmaker, transitioning the play forward and backward between fullback Faouzi Ghulam and winger Lorenzo Insigne, often recycling the ball with Jorginho to the point that the opponent either offered Napoli an opportunity to attack from crosses to Gonzalo Higuain or switch a long ball to the opposing side to Jose Callejon who would swing a low pass to the inside for the forwards to score.

This systemic play could not be repeated at the Chelsea for two reasons, the physical style of the Premier League offered greater resistance to such a pattern, and the Blues lacked a mobile striker and an adroit forward who could cross the ball on the right side.

At Juve, the former issue is less likely to crop up, in Douglas Costa and Federicho Bernadeschi, the Old lady has two able players that can offer dynamic options to the midfield and offensive service to Ronaldo, who is expected by Sarri to occupy a different forward role this year.

#1 A flexible forward line

With a mobile defense, intricate passing patterns, a mechanical nature of the play, and quick movement, the final piece in Sarri's constantly evolving system is to employ a flexible forward line that can adapt to different plays.

At his former clubs, Sarri slowly evolved the positioning of his forward line. Initially dependent on a number nine in the form of Gonzalo Higuain, his departure forced Sarri to incorporate Dries Mertens as false nine. Sarri shaped his front three around Merten's ability to occupy different striking zones.

When dropping deep to offer space, the team would look on to play Insigne and Callejon. When drifting away from the goal line, the wingers would look to play on the periphery of the box, and even occasionally look to cross the diminutive Belgian. The cut back from Callejon on the right side would become another promising feature of this role.

Lorenzo Insigne would also find a new lease of life through this role, as it allowed him to swap positions with the Belgian and cut inside to score. At Chelsea, the system largely failed as a result of a combination of a lack of personnel and a failure to quickly transition the forward play.

Sarri would expect his Juve front line to adopt a similar approach to the one embraced at Naples, with none other than a Herculean Cristiano Ronaldo occupying the role previously held by Mertens.

Ronaldo has had some success in playing in a 4-4-2 formation at Madrid as the second deep lying striker, and such a role is perfectly suited to his clinical heading and finishing abilities, coupled with a penchant for exchanging quick passes. This aspect of the system also requires wingers to press and track back, a burden that the veteran would not have to worry about.

If this Juve team can embrace the tenets of Sarri's philosophy, then surely, the club is set to have one of its most exciting and riveting seasons in recent memory.

Edited by Aaditya Narayan