Juventus began their post-Ronaldo era with a shocking 1-0 defeat against Empoli, but somehow the Portuguese’s exit seems to be the least of the Bianconeri’s problems, writes Lorenzo Bettoni.
More than 17.000 fans returned to the Allianz Stadium for the Old Lady’s first game after Cristiano Ronaldo departed from Turin. Not many of them were wearing shirts of the Portuguese star. Some still did it, but with some major adjustments to mark the distance from their former hero.
Ronaldo had scored 101 goals in 134 appearances with the Old Lady, but the feeling is that even a lethal finisher like the Portuguese could not do much had he still played for Juventus last night. The Bianconeri had an excellent start and Federico Chiesa looked absolutely on fire, with the Old Lady’s fans who provided their loud support to the squad. However, that lasted until Leonardo Mancuso netted the opener, and the eventual winner, after 21 minutes.
At that point, Juventus looked weak, unable to react and way too confused. Their fans become a double-edged sword as their moans turned into boos both at halftime and after the final whistle. The crowd was furious with Adrien Rabiot and Rodrigo Bentancur when the two midfielders were subbed off in the second half. Neither Paulo Dybala nor Dailo could calm the fans down when they ran under the Curva Sud to apologise at the end of the match.
Many thought Ronaldo was a burden for Juventus. Financially, it may have been true, but the Portuguese star hid all the problems the Bianconeri have on the pitch. And they have many.
They don’t have a deep-lying playmaker and neither the signing of Manuel Locatelli could solve this problem as Max Allegri seems convinced to play him as a ‘mezzala’ in a 4-3-3- formation. The coach started Danilo in front of the defence on Saturday, but the Brazilian’s performance was underwhelming, to say the least, although that wasn’t entirely his fault. No coincidence the Tuscan boss wants to reunite with Miralem Pjanic in Turin, but in order to do so, another midfielder has to leave. But who?
Aaron Ramsey is constantly injured and his €7m-a-year salary makes it difficult, if not impossible, to sell him. Weston McKennie seems to have attracted interest from a few Premier League sides and although Allegri claimed the midfielder ‘should not leave’, the American looked like a fish out of water against Empoli. He played as an attacking midfielder behind Chiesa and Paulo Dybala, but his game only lasted 45 minutes.
The midfield has been Juventus’ biggest problem for a few years now. They don’t have the same quality that elite European clubs possess in the middle of the park and neither Pjanic nor Axel Witsel, who has also been linked with a move to Turin, will solve this problem. They can be an upgrade, but not enough to make the difference.
Moving up front, Dybala played everywhere but didn’t seem to cover a clear position on the pitch and he also became too irritable after Empoli’s goal. Federico Chiesa was the only one able to bring the ball forward, creating trouble for the Tuscans, but way too often, he was left alone up there and the Italian starlet could not find a point of reference inside the box.
Once again, this is not something entirely new for Juventus. The Bianconeri experienced the same during Cristiano Ronaldo’s time in Turin as the Portuguese never wanted to play as a centre forward but preferred to start on the left flank, cutting inside to shoot.
‘It’s not a team’ – Chiellini delivers worrying message to Allegri
Things don’t seem smooth on the back as well, although, on paper, Juventus’ defence is the best department of the team. Leonardo Bonucci seems en route to finding his best form after an outstanding UEFA Euro 2020 campaign. The same isn’t true of Matthijs de Ligt, but they represent an affordable defensive partnership, provided that midfield and full-backs help them tracking back.
Juventus’ problem at the back is depth with Daniele Rugani, Mattia De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini who haven’t been part of the club’s plans for the last couple of years but seem destined to stay in Turin this season, more for economic than for tactical reasons.
All in all, Juventus seemed an unbalanced team, in Giorgio Chiellini’s eyes, the Bianconeri still aren’t even a team yet. Ronaldo scored 29 goals in 33 Serie A games last term. Despite that, the Old Lady managed a narrow top-four finish on the final day of the season, when CR7 was left on the bench.
Juventus didn’t lose against Empoli because of Ronaldo’s absence, although his goals had hidden the Old Lady’s problems during the last two campaigns. Now that he is gone, everybody can see them. The Portuguese had to go, sooner or later, the issue for Juventus is that they are now in a worse situation than when CR7 arrived three years ago and that the team must be rebuilt completely in a Serie A that is now much more balanced than in the last decade.
@lorebetto
and ronnos departure is part of the healing. team ethic destroyed through the Experminent.
Juventus have looked absolutely awful thus far and to be honest I do not see that changing. There is just not the necessary quality in the team and some of the players are just Serie b standard at best. All they can do is hope to win La Coppa again – the Scudetto and the C.L. are totally out of reach.
Wow, three out of four editorials are about a twelfth place team with 1 point after 2 games and not one of them is critical of the front office or talent level of the players. So, all this pretending to be neutral and just reporting on the league is completely false, as I have been saying for years.
There are a ton of great stories to talk about in Serie A this season, but to F-I these things don’t exist. Examples of great stories you say? Sure:
Fiorentina has had a great transfer summer. Verona looks much tougher and well organized despite losing this past weekend. Inter sold 2 prime players and lost a manager but the replacements look interesting. In a small sample size, Mourinho appears to have given Roma a bit of ruthlessness and practicality that the club has lacked for a couple decades. Lazio doesn’t seem to have missed a beat despite some vital departures this summer.
All those couple be editorials that would be much more interesting than yet another article about stuff we already knew – to whit – that Ronaldo was the main, perhaps only, threat on a team that had regressed severely the last 2 seasons. That’s really all the 3 latest editorials are saying over and over and over. They don’t mention what a shame it is that a team with all the advantages over the entirety of Serie A has tripped up so badly on an unforced error as it has. No mention how the departure of Marotta and the inability of his successors to maintain the ship so affected this club.
No, they are the kindest. most gentle “the club is in decline” articles ever. I am not surprised by this at all.
Joe Shmoe something tells me you are not a Juventus fan
This article is 100000% SPOT ON! Could not have said it better. Juve’s midfield is ABYSMAL. Ramsey is useless. Always injured. Way overpaid. Bentancur will never be the top player people predicted. Rabiot is nothing more than a big ox. McKennie is an average player at best. Bernardeschi is, and always has been, a disaster. The well-functioning Nazionale just made him look slightly better than what he is. Arthur only knows how to pass sideways. We need two midfielders – an aggressive ball winning defensive midfielder, and a playmaker who can pass, unlock defences and score goals. The Ronaldo situation should have been resolved at the beginning of August, and we should already have had a settled team, like Inter and Milan and Roma and Lazio. At this point, I would sign right now for 4th place.
Joe Schmoe, I agree with most of what you are saying, however, it’s not the first time you have mentioned Juve’s ‘advantages’ over the whole of Serie A. If Juve have built their own stadium (this is one of the advantages you mentioned previously) that’s due to good planning and economic management 11 years ago and they should be congratulated for that in trying to drag the Serie A into the 21st century, not derided or sneered at by other clubs and their supporters out of jealousy. It’s time that other clubs in Serie A get off their butts and do the same for the benefit of the entire league. Poor infrastructure is one of the key things holding back the Serie A.
It’s been heading downhill for a long time. They were champions the season before last, but that has to be one of the worst squads to ever win Serie A. The only reason they won it was because the rest of the teams were somehow worse.
They let their midfield deteriorate in recent years, splashing their wad on the superstar up front who would lead them to the CL. But midfield is the most important part of any team, and letting that rot was their downfall.
Selling Spinazzola was another very odd choice.
Donnarumma was let slip away this summer, and they kept Sczezeny for some reason. Danilo is no world beater. The midfield is average, though Locatelli should improve it. The attack is unlikely to be good enough to scare the cream of Europe.
Sczcesny, De Sciglio, Sandro, Danilo, Chiellini, Bonucci, Ramsey, Cuadrado, Bernardeschi, Demiral, Pjaca, D Costa, Mandragora, Pinsoglio, Dybala (could go for free next summer) Rugani, Rabiot and Bentancur are all either coming to the latter part of their career, not good enough, or worth selling.
So a huge rebuilding job on now.
lol All this negative reactions are funny to watch. In my opinion, we only need 1 good regista, no need world class, just good midfielder to dictate play and he must has big confidence when keeping the ball. That’s all! I know Bentancur and Rabiot are awful but they can be improved if given only simple task on the pitch. Bentancur’s task is play closer to Regista (but I highly doubt it as Locatelli will replace his place in the next match) and Rabiot’s task is to run with the ball in counter attack situation. When Juve start to win, confidence will start to grow and all this stupid over reactions can go to hell.
Juve’s cycle ended last season but really should of ended 2 season’s early. Ronaldo’s goal scoring ability carried another two scudetto’s. Juve never replaced the ball winning of Vidal, the power of Pobga, the deep playmaker of Pirlo and the soul of the midfield like Marchisio. Instead they went after the likes of Ramsey and Rabiot on free’s who can’t lace their boots
It seems we are all in agreement… Now will Juve’s management LISTEN……………!!!!!!?????
Frankie, an exhaustive explanation why Juventus has a stadium and no other team in Serie A does has been banned by F-I. F-I won’t write an article regarding the circumstances of Juventus getting the land from Torino nor will they allow me to do so. Suffice to say that several academic articles debating the move are available.
Every team that can be considered a top team in Serie A has desperately tried to get a stadium for their own. Every. Single. One. None, despite the ability to pay in the entirety for the land and building of the stadium, have been granted a sale of a parcel of land to do so – most recently Inter and Milan were refused sale for property to build on.
Land is owned by the municipality and they would be foolish to sell any team land for them to profit off of, when the city can continue to own the land and demand rent and a percentage of concessions forever.
Let me repeat – Every Single Top Team in Serie A has tried to buy land to build a stadium and EVERY SINGLE ONE has been denied sale – except one. The details of which I am not allowed to write here. That scenario makes it unfair. It’s an unfair advantage but one the Juventus and it’s supporters are happy to see past because the organization – club and fans – are so arrogant that they just feel that because of who they are they just deserve all the advantages they get .
Frankie, an exhaustive explanation why Juventus has a stadium and no other team in Serie A does has been banned by F-I. Suffice to say that several academic articles debating the move are available.
Every team that can be considered a top team in Serie A has desperately tried to get a stadium for their own. Every. Single. One. None, despite the ability to pay in the entirety for the land and building of the stadium, have been granted a sale of a parcel of land to do so – most recently Inter and Milan were refused sale for property to build on.
Land is owned by the municipality and they would be foolish to sell any team land for them to profit off of, when the city can continue to own the land and demand rent and a percentage of concessions forever.
Let me repeat – Every Single Top Team
in Serie A has tried to buy land to build a stadium and EVERY SINGLE ONE has been denied sale – except one. The details of which I am not allowed to write here. That scenario makes it unfair.
Joe Schmo, appreciate the background to this and will look for those articles you mentioned, however when you say “…Land is owned by the municipality and they would be foolish to sell any team land for them to profit off of, when the city can continue to own the land and demand rent and a percentage of concessions forever”, then it all comes down to money as usual – the council, like most entities, will turn when the offer is too good to refuse.
Udinese and Sassuolo own their stadiums, They arent the 7 sisters but they were able to get it done. Interestingly, Interestingly Mapei stadium was actually owned by Reggiana and it has a moat where fans have actually fished from!
@joe true… Roma was supposed to have their new stadio by 2017 !!! … just in time for Totti’s farewell season as an inauguration.
its now 2021 and they havent even broke ground and theres no longer mention of a new stadio.
This team has been in decline in Allegri’s last season. He knew the issues back then and what did the management do they fired him and started experimenting with different coaches with Ronaldo as the Captain of the sinking ship. They needed to fix their midfield, but management thought if we get Ronaldo to score goals all problems would be solved. So they got two coaches and gave Ronaldo the key. Don’t get me wrong, I am not accusing Ronaldo of anything, its just that Juventus have a lot of individuals at the club who have been way longer then Ronaldo and were basically all forgotten. Which killed the whole morale of the team. At the end of the day, Ronaldo was brought to bring us the CL and in 3 seasons he wasnt able to do it whether it was the whole team or his selfish attitude at times… I think its a combination of both. So it was only right to let him go, even though we will miss his goals, but I think Allegri will fix the morale of this team again and give them the believe he did when he replaced Conte when we kept getting knocked out of the CL. It will take some time and it will be painful at times, but I think we will pull out of this slump. Its only been two games and the international brake couldnt come at a better time. Lets see after 10 games where we stand. I feel the pain though of my fellow Bianconeri
white Rabbit, well said. Let’s ignore that idiot Shmoe about his “stadium” ramblings…. This is a soccer column, not a conspiracy theorist forum…..
@Frankie Yep the revenue is a BIG issue, which makes what Juventus did so rare and compelling – also indisputably an advantage. Anyway, I think it’s an interesting discussion and have a great one.
It’s funny how with all the issues that have been stated and are well known with Juve – poor quality midfield all around, Arsenal reject for goalie, unstable defence, revolving door of managers – and yet it’s still somehow Ronaldo’s fault. Even though he pretty much carried the team on his back, it’s instead translated to it being because he was selfish or the team was built for him. Amazing that the 3 previous seasons with Real Madrid, Ronaldo not only won the UCL but was also the top scorer each year. He was just as selfish and as much the focal point for the team. So what was the difference with Juve? That should be pretty obvious. People fail to realise that in 2018, Ronaldo was still in demand. In order to sign him, he was probably given loads of assurances about the club’s ambitions and player targets in order to get him to join. Id be sulking too if after being promised the best from a club continually linked with players like Kante and Pogba, I instead end up playing with Rabiot and Ramsey. The club hierarchy have covered up their mismanagement by hiding behind coaches and now Ronaldo so they don’t get the full wrath of the fans.
insert Michael Jackson eating popcorn.GIF