TORINO – With Friday night’s goal against Lyon, <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/ligue-1-marseille-frustrated-by-lille-and-its-inefficiency/" title="Ligue 1: Marseille frustrated by Lille and its inefficiency”>Jonathan David reached 12 goals for the season adding up the achievements in all the competitions faced so far with Lille, i.e. the Champions League (including preliminaries) and Ligue 1. And if the detail of the Canadian ace’s goals – without counting the spoils won with his national team – concentrated only on the last 8 games, then the average would become even more impressive: 9 goals, therefore more than one per match. In fact, it is as if, with David on the pitch, Lille always started with a 1-0 result. On the other hand, the team coached by the old fox of French football Bruno Genesio allows some interesting space in the non-possession phase and occasionally dances in defence, especially against teams that press high and take away oxygen from the game organisers. But Thiago Motta already knows this and, apart from the blackout at the Stadium against Stuttgart, in the Champions League he fielded a Juve capable of dominating the game and making a clear mark in terms of performance. The Italian-Brazilian coach intends to rewind the tape starting from the only away match so far faced in Europe, that of Leipzig, with a comeback that instantly became a memorable example of Juventus resilience. This is where Juve starts again, but there is no doubt in saying that it would be an exaggeration to reduce tomorrow’s match at the Stade Pierre Mauroy to a challenge between David and the Juventus defense.
Benatia’s words
But it’s equally obvious how much it is it is essential to defuse the Canadian bomber: after all, if he ended up in Giuntoli’s notebook for some time for the attack in the summer (on a free transfer) there must be a reason. Motta’s team, in three Champions League matches played so far, has faced center forwards of a good level, in one case even excellent: in PSV Eindhoven there were first De Jong and then Pepi, who hadn’t worried much about a rearguard still with Bremer; in Leipzig there was Sesko, the worst bogeyman encountered by Juve so far, victorious despite the serious injury to the Brazilian center back and the Slovenian striker’s brace; in Stuttgart both Demirovic and Undav had caused problems for the Kalulu-Danilo duo, but Touré’s goal in injury time was needed to overcome an amazing Perin. But David is different from other centre-forwards faced so far and is perhaps the most complicated to mark for technical-tactical reasons.
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