The struggle of Turin: Why there's a crisis at Juventus
As June approached, Juventus were this close to completing a historic treble, the UEFA Champions League final pending. However, they found Barcelona too big of an obstacle to get past and ultimately had to settle for domestic honours alone.
Not only did Juve’s dreams of European glory end that night, so did its association with one of its biggest legends in recent times, Andrea Pirlo. The Italian midfield maestro had already mentioned that he would be heading to the United States at the end of the season, bringing to a close his tenure with the Old Lady where he had become a god.
Following a summer that featured a lot of movement, Juventus, have got off to a terrible start in the new Serie A season, losing their opening two games to Udinese and AS Roma respectively, the first of which was in their fortress, the Juventus Stadium.
And these losses weren’t smash-and-grab victories from the opposition where a bit of lady luck smiled down on their opponents to help them escape with a win after absorbing wave after wave of Juve pressure. Rather, Juve haven’t quite managed to get going.
So why have Juve suddenly gone from the league elite to looking rather pedestrian?
Player Exodus
Pirlo wasn’t the only big name that Juve lost in the close season. Not only were there others, but these others happened to be the mainstays of the team that had come to dominate the Serie A. Midfield warrior Arturo Vidal left for Bayern Munich, Carlos Tevez headed back home to Argentina and as mentioned earlier Pirlo left to join the likes of Thierry Henry and David Beckham in Major League Soccer.
Each of these players occupied a pivotal position – Pirlo and Vidal formed the heart of the Juve team in midfield as Pirlo controlled the tempo of the game and played the role of pass master while Vidal was the enforcer who also ventured forward when the game demanded it.
Tevez was the leader of the attack who at times conjured up chances for the team purely through his hustle and intense pressing of opposing defences. There have been numerous games during this dominant era where Juve have edged games thanks to the dogged efforts of Tevez.
The departure of Pirlo also has had another major effect in that he was the chief set piece taker in the team. The quality of his delivery, be it from free-kicks, direct and indirect, as well as corners, provided the team with an additional edge.
Alvaro Morata’s Injury
With Tevez gone, Juve needed their other mainstay from last season, Spaniard Morata, to lead the charge during the transition, but the striker is out with injury and missing from the frontline. The Spaniard, who arrived from Real Madrid for €20 million at the beginning of last season was one of the revelations of last year contributing 15 goals and forming a deadly partnership with Tevez. His ability to hold up play as a lone striker at times was hugely important for Juve. He has played a mere 28 minutes in the two games combined.
Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic have arrived as replacements to shore up the front line, but it has been a bit of a blow for Juve in this particular area of the pitch.
Midfield problem and the added pressure on Paul Pogba
The exits of Pirlo and Vidal have brought up challenges for Juve in midfield, traditionally the area of the pitch where they constantly outshone their rivals. In the last game against Roma, Juve’s midfield featured Pogba, Simone Padoin and Stefano Sturaro.
That midfield got owned in the capital and it was only after the introduction of Roberto Pereyra that Juve actually managed to get a foothold in the game and mount a late charge. Claudio Marchisio and Kwadwo Asamoah aren’t at full fitness and haven’t been able to go while newcomer Sami Khedira, signed on a free from Real Madrid, will not feature until October. Hernanes has been signed from Inter and Massimiliano Allegri will hope that the Brazilian does rekindle his Lazio form in Turin.
And though that might sound like a lot of personnel, the truth is that some of the bite and dynamism from the Juve midfield of old is gone. Only Pereyra and Pogba offer any sort of cutting edge and there is a certain workmanlike appearance to the midfield now.
To boot, Pogba, who thrived with the likes of Marchisio, Vidal and Pirlo around him, now finds himself firmly entrenched in the spotlight and forced to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The rumours about his transfer and future at Juve could also be unsettling the player and team alike.
Allegri inherited a winning team
Most important of all though, and perhaps the biggest reason why we’re seeing Juve struggle, is that this is in fact the first true test of ‘Allegri’s team’. When the former AC Milan manager walked into the hot seat last summer, he did so on the heels of former boss Antonio Conte resigning due to differences within the organization. However, though Conte’s exit was ugly, he bequeathed his successor with a winning squad and strategy in place.
Allegri had to manage the resources available to him and the squad pretty much did the job for him, though he must be credited with bringing in an improved attacking edge to the team.
That was sustainable though because the bedrock of the team was still its midfield and defence. Those are the two areas that have now taken a hit and Allegri while getting in replacements in attack has not been able to successfully mitigate those losses.
Plus, his new arrivals, 8 of them in total costing over €120 million, are going to need time to settle in. It is not easy for a side in transition to have all its players hit the ground running.
It’s still far too early to pass judgement on whether Juventus are going to struggle this season as a side in transition because two games is too short really to decide. The international break has come at a welcome time for Allegri and his team as it gives them the opportunity to tinker and work around shortcomings.
It does look likely though that Juventus are going to struggle more than normal with all the changes that have taken place and with that traditional winning formula no longer available at the snap of a finger, perhaps it is not a given that they will retain their Serie A crown.