5 surprises from the current European season that nobody foresaw
Everybody likes to make their fair share of pre-season predictions. They are all part of the atmospheric build-up that makes football come to life after a long few months of exhibition matches and transfer speculation.Avoiding getting involved in the chitter-chatter is difficult, but its equallytough to ensure these forecasts come true, after all they are outside all of our control. It does notstop us taking part in the ritual of conjecture on an annual basis, though.Unsurprisingly, then, the same turn of events happened before the beginning of the season.Which predictions did most fail to make? What turn of events seemed least likely to happen, and yet happened anyway? Scroll on to find out.
#5 Juventus\' surprisingly poor domestic form
They might not be the most underwhelming reigning champions in Europe this season, but they’ve certainly not covered themselves in glory either with a number of uncharacteristically disappointing league displays.
Considering they went unbeaten during the 2014/15 Serie A campaign, their four defeats after only 13 matches has left fans and pundits alike utterly dumbfounded. Not only that but they almost completed a treble last time out, so to see them so far from those same levels is a real thinker.
Their recent three wins from three league games is a decent return to form, but it’s still difficult to envisage how they’ll mount a league challenge one-third of the way along the road having stuttered and looked so off-kilter quite regularly.
Perhaps more worryingly is the fact the Bianconeri have not played entertaining football and have not been able to call upon the skill and quality of the likes of Paul Pogba, Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado – all of whom have only amassed a small portion of goals for the club from midfield. Indeed, it’s fair to say that they have been overly reliant on the attacking prowess of Paulo Dybala, who has six league strikes to his name.
They will need to be far more convincing as a team in the coming months if they plan on surging into the top four.