Player Focus: Bonucci Ability Taking Pressure Off Pirlo

“You might have mistaken me for Pirlo if I had long hair, but I don’t,” joked Leonardo Bonucci after Juventus’ 4-1 win against Lazio at the end of last month. Let’s just say there was a ‘passing’ resemblance between teammates. Not everyone saw it. La Gazzetta dello Sport instead discerned someone else in Bonucci that evening: Franz Beckenbauer. It must have been quite the performance by the centre-back.

Pushing up towards the halfway line as Juventus pressed Lazio high, Bonucci didn’t just build his side’s play from the back, he imposed it. On the ball and making strides up the pitch in the 26th minute, he looked up, saw Arturo Vidal running in behind and found him with a long diagonal pass. The only thing left to do was dash over and celebrate as he scored.

After the interval, Bonucci was at it again. Like Edoardo Molinari, the Ryder Cup-winning golfer [and Juventus fan], he chipped a ball over the top into the area as if he were playing a shot onto the green. Mirko Vucinic lined it up and put it away. With Lazio pinned back in their own half, their focus being on stopping Pirlo when out of possession, Bonucci had the run of play.

As you might expect, Juventus coach Antonio Conte had anticipated this would happen. “It’s something we worked on in training during the week,” Bonucci revealed. Of the many nuances to Juventus’ play, this ability of his to step out from the back like a libero and pass like a regista has become ever more pronounced.

Among the top five centre-backs to have made at least 20 appearances over this season and last, Bonucci’s long balls are the most accurate [7.9 per game] as are his through balls [0.24]. He’s also second in terms of accurate passes into the opposition half [22.1] and successful dribbles too [0.8].

Against Hellas on Sunday, Bonucci was decisive once more as Juventus came from behind to win 2-1. They needed him to be too.

Explaining why he’d substituted Andrea Pirlo in back-to-back games, Conte said that, on this occasion, it was “because Jorginho followed him even to the toilet.” Indeed, in his 66 minutes on the pitch Pirlo had just 28 touches. Conte continued, “It was a man-marking job from the old days: I remember one day I came to Turin with Lecce [February 24, 1991] and marked Roberto Baggio. He never touched the ball but the game ended 0-0 and I was given a 7 in the ratings. Jorginho adjusted his game to mark Pirlo and we had to find other solutions: Bonucci did the Pirlo, Barzagli the Vidal, Ogbonna the Pogba and so on.”

Juventus’ defence, again operating closer to the half-way line than their own goal, became its midfield. Down a goal, they got back on level terms when Bonucci ventured deep inside Hellas territory and played Carlitos Tevez through to shoot and score.

It was his third assist of the season. Only Francesco Totti has made more in Serie A [4] and remember Bonucci was rested in midweek while the Roma captain nudged ahead with another in a 2-0 win against Sampdoria. Outside of Italy, Koke at Atletico Madrid [5] and Cesc Fabregas and Neymar [4] at Barcelona boast more. But that’s it. Needless to say, no centre-back has made as many assists this season.

There are a number of things to take from this. First, given how few genuine ball-playing centre-backs there are around, Bonucci is a real asset to Juventus. Second, if you are going to stop the Bianconeri, then man-marking Pirlo isn’t enough. Inter understood this last season when they won 3-1 at the Juventus Stadium, playing a 1+1 in attack with Diego Milito and Rodrigo Palacio taking it in turns to mark Pirlo AND Bonucci. Third, having a player like Bonucci relieves pressure from Pirlo, allows Conte to rest and rotate him while also changing the composition and dynamic of his midfield.

Might Juventus be moving towards a shift in emphasis? Pirlo’s contract expires at the end of the season and, though they’ve been linked with similar players - Marco Verratti in the past, Xabi Alonso in the present - it’s not to be ruled out that in the medium to long-term a restructuring of the midfield, particularly considering Pogba’s rise, could be on the cards. These are questions that Bonucci’s ability as a ball-playing centre-back can raise. It’s an interesting ‘problem’ for Conte, one that managers like him love to have.

Are there any better ball playing centre-backs than Bonucci right now? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.