Reimagined Mandzukic can make the difference in Sunday's Derby d'Italia

So much of the focus in the build-up to Sunday’s Derby d’Italia will be on the Argentine tango up front. Gonzalo Higuain has scored in each of his last six games for Juventus. The last Bianconero to go on such a run, believe it or not, was David Trezeguet more than a decade ago. El Pipita’s goal at Sassuolo last weekend was his 15th of the season in the league.  

Thrillingly, Higuain is now neck-and-neck with Mauro Icardi at the top of the scoring charts, sprinkling another handful of peperoncino on this game. Icardi of course will be confident of adding to his total for the season at the J Stadium. He has scored seven goals in eight games against Juventus, which leaves you wondering who dislikes him more: Maxi Lopez or the Old Lady? Ironically it was Juventus’ general manager Beppe Marotta and director of sport Fabio Paratici to bring the Bianconeri’s nemesis to Italy in their old jobs at Samp. Their respect for him remains undiminished and why should it? Inter’s captain has fulfilled the potential they saw in him, going to the next level this season by adding to his all-round game.   

Once criticised for doing nothing other than score goals - a modern striker is expected to do more - Icardi has set up his teammates on eight separate occasions this season. No striker has laid on more assists in Europe’s top five leagues and Juventus fans haven’t forgot how he spotted Ivan Perisic at the far post to score the winner the last time these two side met in September.  

Then there’s Paulo Dybala who caused some controversy at the Mapei Stadium when he didn’t shake Max Allegri’s hand upon making way for Marko Pjaca. La Joya isn’t exactly a picture of joy at the moment. Stung by public criticism from Allegri after he missed a string of chances and a penalty in the shoot-out that decided the Italian Super Cup before Christmas, Dybala also wants to play more. Not some place else. The 23-year-old is about to sign a new contract until 2021 with a sizeable pay-rise. But, as someone about to earn more than anyone at the club apart from Higuain, he expects to feature more regularly. Dybala has started 12 games this season, finishing only three of them. He has been substituted nine times.  

The frustration manifested itself at the weekend, but there are no hard feelings. Allegri downplayed it. “Players want to play,” he said, and Dybala hasn’t been fined. He apologised for showing a lack of respect to his manager and his teammates, and there doesn’t seem to be anything more behind it other than Allegri looking out for Dybala. Allegri doesn’t want to overwork his magician and provoke another muscle tear like the one that kept him out for six weeks in the autumn, particularly as we enter the most important phase of the season. With this trio involved, one imagines Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza will be an interested spectator when they face-off on Sunday. He has hinted that he plans to end Icardi’s mindless exile from the national team when the time to name his next squad comes around.   

Sunday’s game will not dance exclusively to a tango beat however. The Derby d’Italia will be as keenly viewed in Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik as in Cordoba, Buenos Aires and Rosario. As mentioned before, Perisic settled this encounter at San Siro earlier in the season. 1-0 down in their opening fixture of 2017, he scored twice in a come-from-behind win away at Udinese.  

Incidentally his international teammate Marcelo Brozovic has been brought back in from the cold by Stefano Pioli. Juventus would have happily taken him off Inter’s hands in the summer and, although Brozovic stayed, his days at San Siro looked numbered when he fell out of favour with Frank de Boer. Epic Brozo played 90 minutes just twice in Serie A under the Dutchman but that’s changed dramatically since Pioli took the reins. He has been ever present and scored four goals in Pioli’s first five games. Brozovic also found the net in Tuesday’s Coppa Italia defeat to Lazio.  

Last but not least is the player who no one talks about nearly enough. Mario Mandzukic is known as Mr. No Good at Juventus. Not because he isn’t any good but because nothing impresses him much. Judging by his performances this season, Mandzukic should be renamed Mr. Very Good instead. He remains one of the most underrated players in Europe. “It’s hard to fall in love with him,” Zvone Boban explained on Sky Italia. “But it’s very hard not to respect him. He always makes his presence felt. He’s always there to lend a hand.”  

Allegri is of the opinion that Mandzukic is simply misunderstood. “People only think of him as a physical player, but there aren’t many Croatians I can think of who are unable to play a bit as well. He’s got quality and skill.” His flick in the build-up to Higuain’s opening goal against Sassuolo is a case in point. From the outside looking in, Mandzukic didn’t seem to have much of a future in Turin last summer. The signing of Higuain threatened to break up his partnership with Dybala and reduce his game-time. No longer at an age when he can bide his time, he seriously considered his options. Burt Allegri gave him a reality check. Mandzukic had to make peace with the fact that it is always going to be like this at the very highest level. Competition for places at teams tipped to win the Champions League should be fierce. Even Higuain has sat out a few games from the start, as he did in the last Derby d’Italia. “If you want to play every week, Mario, go to Southampton,” Allegri said.   

But Mandzukic chose to stay and it wouldn’t surprise me, if, deep down, he is Allegri’s favourite player on the team. “He is an example to young players,” Allegri says. It’s hard to think of a centre-forward who sacrifices himself more for his team than Mandzukic. It’s not just the tracking back, often from one penalty area to the other to stop an opponent’s counter-attack. It’s not just his willingness to put his body on the line, as he did against Atalanta, making a series of blocks one after the other, which the crowd celebrated like goals. It’s his overlooked importance as the key balancing agent of this team. Allegri probably wouldn’t be able to play this new Famous Five system, featuring all of Juventus’ big name attacking talent, without Mandzukic.  

Nominally it’s a 4-2-3-1 with Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira anchoring the team and looking to get the ball to Dybala, Mandzukic and Juan Cuadrado who play between the lines behind Higuain. Mandzukic occupies a position wide-left, a role similar to where he started his career, but it often looks like he is playing in midfield precisely in the areas where Paul Pogba used to operate. Juventus have missed Pogba’s physicality in that zone, but not anymore. Observe Mandzukic’s heat map against Lazio. His stats from that game are remarkable. He had averaged 36.8 touches per 90 until that day. But his numbers in this regard leapt to 59 against Lazio. The passes he made almost doubled from 22.8 to 44 and the aerial duels he won increased from 2.88 to 5, in part, because putting Mandzukic against a full-back is almost always a colossal mismatch. The only decrease was recorded in his shot count, which fell from 1.8 to 0.  

Mandzukic is a player reimagined. Re-dimensioned. Comparisons have been made with the time Jose Mourinho persuaded Samuel Eto’o to play almost as an auxiliary full-back in the spring of 2010. Convincing Eto’o to do that job proved instrumental in Inter winning the treble and it remains to be seen if Allegri has now found the balance to help the team achieve the success it craves in Europe with Mandzukic essentially in midfield. Higuain, Dybala and Icardi will likely grab the headlines in the lead-up to Sunday’s Derby d’Italia, but Mandzukic should be the real story.