Juventus, Italian football team
Re-signed the best goalie ever on July 4th, Gianluiga Buffon.
The 41-year-old Buffon has won numerous awards in his career, with 11 Ligue 1 titles, one Ligue 1 title, four Italian Cups and one European Cup.
soccer league
Cup.
the national team
In terms of the team's performance, they have won one World Cup (2006).
Buffon currently holds the second highest number of games played in a season (640), the longest streak without conceding a goal in a season (974 minutes), and the highest number of matches without conceding a goal in a season (293), and if you count European matches, the highest number of matches without conceding a goal.
the national team
tournaments, or
Juventus, Italian football team
Team records, Buffon's list of honors can be too long to list.
After last year's season
Juventus, Italian football team
With Buffon about to turn 40, and with Szczesny ready to take over as first goalkeeper, Juve seemed to be hoping that Buffon would retire into management. However, Buffon obviously didn't think so, and felt that he could still compete at the top level, so he chose to retire at the end of the season.
transfer to another club (professional sports)
to Paris Saint-Germain PSG and seems to want to do one more big thing before he retires.
And in this year's season Buffon is competing with Areola for the No.1 goalkeeper position at PSG. For Buffon's age of 40, he is still scary, especially in his ability to judge the selection of positions. With 40 years of age in front of him, Buffon has become a bit weaker in terms of his saving maneuvers and his ability to deal with some of the finer details of the game.
This year at PSG in Ligue 1, Buffon has played a total of 17 games, while Areola has played 21 games. For the final record, Buffon had 6 CleanSheet games and a 35% CleanSheet percentage, while Areola had 11 games and 52%, and PSG's total goals conceded for the season was 35, with Buffon accounting for 18 of those goals in his appearances.
The number of goals conceded reached half of the season in 17 appearances (38 for the season), although the gap with Areola is not too big, and Areola's age is 26, it is very scary for Buffon to still be able to do so at the age of 41, but purely in terms of performance, Buffon's appearances have not been overpowered by Areola's, and Buffon is really getting old.
And PSG's intention to use Buffon as the ace goalkeeper to start in key moments didn't work out. In this year's
European crown
In the second leg of the round of sixteen, PSG took a 2-0 away goal lead at home, but were defeated by
Manchester United Football Club
A big comeback to eliminate 3-1, and finally
Manchester United Football Club
It was in Paris that scored three away goals to win. And Buffon committed a fatal off-the-ball turnover that allowed
Manchester United Football Club
After scoring the important second point, Buffon's crosses were significantly slower in the first point against Lukaku. It's true that Paris' defense is leaky because it likes to attack too much, but PSG brought in Buffon to be a lynchpin in the backfield, and he didn't achieve his goal in this crucial match.
In Ligue 1 this season, PSG's lead in points was originally very high, but there was a turbulence after half of the season. Although PSG still sealed the title with an absolute lead, they ended up with 29 wins, 4 draws, and 5 defeats, with 35 goals conceded, and quite a large number of goals conceded came in the second half of the season. The 35 goals conceded is also the highest number of goals conceded in a single season in Ligue 1 in the past 4 years. Obviously, PSG let Buffon and Areola rotate each other's starting goalkeepers, so the result of the competition between the two of them is not better. Buffon conceded 5 goals in the first half of the season and 13 in the second, which seems to be the problem with his form and age.
While the defense is looking at the goalkeeper & the whole defense, the goalkeeper can't be blamed only for the goals conceded, the Paris defense itself keeps losing positions & making mistakes. But compared to PSG.
Juventus, Italian football team
Seems to play Buffon better. Than PSG's preference to have wingbacks flanking the offense.
Juventus, Italian football team
Now the main three center backs, or the front of the penalty area will always accumulate 3 to 4 defenders to form a zone defense, the attacking team holding players to block the breakthrough, and then block the passing route with the advantage of the number of people, the enemy to form a great restriction on the tacit understanding between defenders also limit the opponent's shooting angle. In this way, Buffon can play the ability to predict the location of the blocking rate is very high with the characteristics of the striker duel, as long as the opponent is difficult to get a wide-angle range of shooting passes, but to be driven to the side of the way to a little bit or forced to obviously reveal the direction of the shot, then in this case, no matter the opponent's shot fast and tricky Buffon almost can be in place to block out.
Simply put, PSG is not like
Juventus, Italian football team
The lack of protection behind the center backs and in front of the goalkeeper has put Buffon in the awkward position of having to take a shot or having to pick his spot wide left or right. This makes the goalkeeper, not to mention Buffon, drop the ball. Therefore, Areola's goals conceded are quite a lot, and Buffon is already an old man, I am afraid that Buffon can't stand the high speed attack of the opposing team, and PSG's style of play is not suitable for him.
It looks like PSG won't be able to play like that next season after this season's unsuccessful goalkeeper and defensive strategy, so Buffon will have to leave again (rumor has it that PSG wants to court Milan's Donnarumma). At this point
Juventus, Italian football team
It is very much hoped that Buffon, the patriarchal great, will come back to retire, after all, as the spiritual symbol of Juve, has been playing for the Bama Army for 17 years, as well as being a living legend in Italy as well as in the goalkeeper position, if he is unable to play in
Juventus, Italian football team
Retirement would be a great shame.
