Juve, the return of Pogba: Allegri’s recipe starts from the role

Great investment of the summer and image of the Juve to come, what Massimiliano Allegri and the Lady expect and hope for, and the Paul Pogba met six years ago at Continassa and not the one who became saddened in Manchester. A broad operation that passes from the feeling with the environment and the relationship with the technician, but also from how it is used. For this reason, it makes sense to bring the time machine back to 2016 to research in the role that the Octopus had in black and white the ideas from which he would start now with his return, to return to enhancing the qualities that had launched him in the elite of world midfielders.

POGBA BIANCONERO

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It is logic to say that the recipe for Paul Pogba from which Allegri will restart will predictably not be so far from the one that worked in the four years with Juventus, the second half of which with the Livorno coach. Impossible to summarize in a few lines, let’s try briefly and macro-categories: left half-winger of construction but also of raid to keep him as involved as possible, at the center of the game and at the same time near the door, enjoying his foot as a prompter in the last 30 meters and his race to be found in the insertions in the area. Then when needed, without Pirlo, it was he who moved to the control room or in any case in some cases in front of the defense, but secondly: enhancing him meant relying on his touch and his visions of the game without living his physicality only in a defensive key but on the contrary spreading it on large portions of the field, riding its dynamism.

POGBA NOT BIANCONERO

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Said it also seems easy, but its coaches have often used it elsewhere, exploring the many dimensions of which the Octopus is capable but – to be able to afford certain side mates or a certain type of game around – ending up getting lost in the joints of that what he can do, instead of what he enjoys doing. The greatest success was Deschamps in putting him in front of the defense of France, a bit director and a bit midfielder alongside Kanté, to give him more touches by keeping him in the nerve center of the field but also with a teammate who granted licenses to the his flair. With Mourinho at United the problem more than the position turned out to be the tasks, counting in the connection between defense and attack on Pogba’s talent as the only way to turn on a dull team and ending up crushing him and losing his brilliance; with all the difficulties in summarizing the seasons at the Red Devils, it is a fact that with Solskjaer instead he found himself, until he was marginalized on the left side of the 4-2-3-1 trocar.

THE MODULE AROUND THE OCTOPUS

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An overview only briefly does not do justice to the detail that the analysis of the question deserves, but it is enough to frame a part of the success that Paul Pogba had with Juventus even with the role in which he was employed. And that is from left midfielder, first of all, and not as one of the many positions in which to use him according to team needs, but with the awareness that if it is his elective role, it is the rest that must revolve around him. This is why it makes sense to imagine a Juventus that with Pogba points everything on 4-3-3 also as a natural setting for the three-man midfield to enhance the French. The variant of which, more than the 4-2-3-1 about which it has long been fabled this year (more than what has actually been seen), is rather that 3-5-2 that is in Allegri’s baggage, which besides the right attacking partner for Vlahovic also requires a left central, a role in which there are those who can adapt but who without Chiellini remained virtually unguarded. But that’s another story. Yet it helps to understand how the new Juve was born.