What went wrong for Juventus FC?
European heavyweights and Italian giants Juventus FC have had a rollercoaster of a season in 2019/20. From winning the Italian Serie A competition for the thirty-sixth time (and a record ninth time in a row) to getting knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the round of sixteen against lowly Olympic Lyon, the men from Turin have had a bittersweet ending to their season. The only piece of silverware that will adorn their much-vaulted cabinet is going to be the Serie A title, as they also failed to win the Coppa Italia, losing to eventual winners Napoli in the final via penalties.
The high command at the Allianz Stadium in Turin is angry, and unsurprisingly so, given the amount of time and money they spend on enhancing their squad every season.
One of the biggest heads to roll was manager Mauricio Sarri’s, who was relieved of his duties after just one season in charge.
The former Napoli and Chelsea manager, who won just the second title of his career with Juventus (he had earlier won the UEFA Europa League with Chelsea in 2018/19), was replaced by former club servant Andrea Pirlo, and there are rumours buzzing through the streets of Turin about several other changes being in the offing.
Pirlo, who is considered by many as being the greatest central midfielder of his generation, is a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006 and has seen a lot of success in his playing days, spread across Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and New York City. He has been the recipient of six Serie A title medals and two UEFA Champions League winners medals, and there is no doubt that Juventus have picked him based solely on the experience he has had in such high-pressure situations. Pirlo was one of the most vital cogs in whichever team he played in, and the Old Lady hierarchy want him to emulate the same as the coach of the first team. As a matter of fact, he had just settled into his role as the coach of the under 23s when Sarri was sacked and he was handed the top job.
The point, however, that we are trying to make here is that Pirlo should never have got here, or more appropriately, that had Juventus maintained their momentum going into the final stages of the season, then Sarri would have retained his job and Pirlo would have got a little more time acclimatising to coaching with the under 23s. So what went wrong for a Juventus side that was laden with players with the most amount of potential if such a thing could be measured in numbers? Or, if put in other words, what could possibly lead a team which had talent dripping out of even its reserve benches, to lose to an unlikely foe in Olympic Lyon in the round of sixteen of the UEFA Champions League, a competition they have prided in winning two times?
A team that has the likes of Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, Leonardo Bonucci, Georgio Chiellini, Sami Khedira and Gianluigi Buffon. And not to forget, perhaps the greatest of them all- Cristiano Ronaldo. Opposition teams should be quavering inside their cloaks when a playing eleven consisting of such players is announced, yet it has not quite created the uproar it should and as recent results show, Juventus FC seem to have lost their touch. So what exactly went wrong for them? This is what I will be analysing in this article.
RESUMPTION OF FOOTBALL BUT NO RESUMPTION OF NORMAL SERVICE FOR JUVENTUS FC
Juventus had been in top form in March this year and despite having lost 0–1 to Olympic Lyon in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of sixteen clash, they went on to defeat close title challengers Inter Milan by a 2–0 scoreline at home. Inter Milan, managed by former Italy midfielder and loyal Juventus servant Antonio Conte, eventually finished second in the Serie A table and this win gave Sarri’s boys a lot of confidence. They were gaining courage and momentum after the setback against Olympic Lyon and were ready to take on the world. However, football was suspended just then with the lockdown put in place across the world owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and Juventus’ hopes of maintaining their momentum stalled.
There was no football for more than three months and such a long lay-off is bound to wreak havoc into the minds of players, even though they are professionals and are trained to take the good with the bad in life. When football resumed its operations in mid-June in Italy, Juventus played out a dull goalless draw with AC Milan in the second leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal and only proceeded to the final to be held a week later on the basis of the away goal they had managed to score in its first leg. However, it went from bad to worse in the final of the Coppa Italia as Napoli, managed by former AC Milan boss Gennaro Gattuso, did not give an inch and fought tooth and nail to keep possession all the time.
As the game went into penalties, Juventus succumbed to the pressure of the situation. Paulo Dybala and Danilo missed their shots from the spot while Lorenzo Insigne and Matteo Politano duly converted theirs for Napoli. Although Leonardo Bonucci and Aaron Ramsey were on target for the side from Turin, Napoli did not miss and went on to clinch the game 4–2 on penalties.
Juventus supremo Cristiano Ronaldo was left ruing and questioning as to why he had to wait till the last to take his shot.
In the event, he was not needed, as the side from Naples hooted, celebrated and shouted from the top of their lungs as they clinched the 2019/20 Coppa Italia. Manager Sarri was seen shaking his head in disgust as his former side went off the hook but there was nothing left to do. If Juventus had let the game drift towards the penalties, then they had already conceded it.
STARTING TO LOSE MOMENTUM AS THE END OF THE SEASON BEGAN TO COME NEAR
The loss to Napoli in the final of the Coppa Italia should have been the signal of more bad news for Sarri but the immediate results after that fateful night at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome did not quite suggest so. Top performances which led to wins against Bologna, Lecce, Genoa and Torino followed and it was only 8 July that Juventus tasted defeat against AC Milan at the San Siro Stadium. Sarri did not know it then, but his side would go on to win only two of their seven remaining league fixtures till the end of the season. Almost immediately after the shocking loss to a considerably weakened AC Milan, Juventus drew against Atalanta and Sassuolo, with them putting in less than convincing performances in both.
But things would go from bad to worse for Sarri and his men, as they did win two more games, but also went on to lose a shocking three.
This meant that Juventus had lost five of the total seven games they lost in the Serie A this season in its last month.
Udinese, Cagliari and AS Roma were all beneficiaries of poor performances from the Old Lady with the latter having the audacity of turning up at the Allianz Stadium and defeating them 1–3. The sword was starting to hang upon Sarri’s neck now, and even though they had won the Serie A title, they had done everything in their power to give it back to their closest competitors Inter Milan and Atalanta. In the end, Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan finished with 82 points, just one point less than Juventus’ 83 and it was only the latter’s strong performances in the beginning of the season that had saved them from losing out on the league title.
THE FUTURE LOOKS DIFFICULT FOR JUVENTUS BUT ANDREA PIRLO CAN BE RELIED UPON
Then the challenging game against Olympic Lyon came up at the Allianz Stadium for the second leg of the round of sixteen clash in the UEFA Champions League and although Juventus won by a 2–1 scoreline, the away goal that their opponents had managed to score in the first leg ensured that they went through to the quarterfinals of the intra continental competition. What was worrying for Juventus all season was that only Cristiano Ronaldo led the team with a stunning 31 strikes to his name. The likes of Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain lacked far behind in the goalscoring charts and this hurt Sarri’s side dangerously.
New manager Pirlo is known to be possessing of a no-nonsense nature and he can be trusted upon to bring some changes inside the Juventus dressing room.
There have already been rumours about how he does not want the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Sami Khedira in his team anymore, and with Blaise Matuidi about to complete a move to Inter Miami, it seems that a complete overhaul is about to take place at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. We ought to see a lot of changes, most of which should be positive in Turin.