Sergio’s Grab Bag: The Beat Goes On

We have arrived at the — unfortunately — traditional game in January in which Juventus takes a step up in competition and comfortably proves their fraudulence.

It happened against Napoli a few years back and against Inter Milan in recent memory. Juventus comes into the new year with relatively decent showings — or even in the thick of the title race — when they have to play a top team to prove their bonafides and they get thoroughly dismantled.

This year it was old familiar enemies as the downtrodden Bianconeri got outclassed and outplayed in back-to-back games against Napoli in Serie A and Benfica in the Champions League. With those results Juventus closed out a remarkably terrible month of January in which they won all of one (1) game in seven in all competitions.

The good news is that despite their result against Benfica, Juventus did enough to qualify to the play-off round of the Champions League in 20th place, averting the absolute worst-case scenario of crashing out early in continental competition. They also had a relatively favorable matchup go their way as they gear up to face PSV Eindhoven for a spot in the round of 16, a team they already beat this campaign. For the Scudetto, however? Well, let’s just say that being down 14 points to the league leaders and with a fair chance of getting leapfrogged by Fiorentina to tumble down to sixth place in the standings wasn’t anyone’s idea of a successful season so far.

To be fair to the beleaguered squad, there was a decent start to the month of February with a 4-1 victory against Empoli at home this past Sunday that was significantly closer than the final scoreline would indicate. But it was a win nevertheless.

Will this win serve as a jumpstart to their tumultuous season? My money is on … no.

But I’m wrong often, so who knows.

Let’s cook.

Trouble behind the scenes

There’s been some worrying developments recently for Juventus off the pitch as well.

The departure of now-former captain Danilo always felt like it had a lot more to do with off the field stuff rather than his actual playing level. And given the quotes he gave after his departure from Italy, those feelings got confirmed.

That’s as bad as it gets as far as a quote can go.

Sure, you can chalk that up to sour grapes from a player that has just left the club. But once you start to take everything into account, it is hard not to start to see a culture issue developing. You had another guy in Wojciezch Szczcesny commenting about Danilo’s departure and mentioning that he didn’t see it coming because he did not see coming his own dismissal from the club back in the summer. Reports about unrest in the locker room due to the perceived mistreatment of Danilo and Nicolo Fagioli by the front office. And this:

I love Mattia Perin as much as the next guy, but should the backup goalkeeper be the one facing the media after a brutal loss in the Champions League? Weston McKennie was the captain against Benfica and it was painted as a reward for his level of play and sacrifice — which is not untrue — but this changing of the captaincy in an almost per game basis, coupled with the systematic purging of pretty much every player who had been part of the previous project evidently has left a leadership hole in this team.

With the departure of Nicolo Fagioli — a product of Juventus academy and someone who very clearly loved the club — the longest-tenured Juventus players are Carlo Pinsoglio and the aforementioned Perin. I’m sure they are respected players in the locker room and you don’t always need to be a superstar to be a leader, but with a young team and a young coach, it sure would help to have someone in the clubhouse who has actually been successful with this jersey before.

(It’s also kind of telling that there has been a huge 180-degree change in terms of squad building and overall philosophy considering the immediate, unceremonious erasure and departure of a guy like Fagioli. This was a guy that the club completely stood behind after his gambling ban and supported throughout the process. The regime changes and he gets buried in the depth chart and sold off at the first chance they get. Similarly to the Danilo departure, it feels less about his football and more about something else.)

New Year, New Club

This was the most hectic and active January transfer window I can remember in recent memory has concluded and with it a relatively major retooling of the team especially considering that traditionally this transfer window tends to be a lot quieter than others.

That’s four new signings in one window, and considering that the three departures were players who were buried in the depth chart it’s not like they are coming in to fill in the holes left by outgoing players.

Obviously most of these signings were made with hopes of plugging in holes — three reinforcements for a defense that has been by far the most depleted by injuries and one striker to try and make that position more competitive.

There’s not a ton of early returns yet, but I’m excited about Randal Kolo Muani and the fact he has scored three goals in two games so far. Renato Veiga looked a bit shaky in his first few minutes against Empoli, but considering that a huge part of defending has to do with creating chemistry with the people you play with I can’t fault him too much for it.

Overall, I think these signings will end up being a positive, especially since Juventus will continue to play multiple competitions at least in the near future. With the schedule crunch of current football, you can never have too many warm bodies.

It does, however, throw another wrench into what has been a challenging season for Thiago Motta. Between injuries and a lack of continuity the biggest struggle for this team has been to be able to establish consistency and an identity in the squad. How will Motta handle adding four new players — who will have to get minutes due to the aforementioned injuries — into an already inconsistent mix of lineups and performances? Will he continue to integrate these players or do they have profiles that are easier to assimilate into the way he wants to play?

It’s way too early, but I do find it kind of puzzling that he hasn’t given any minutes to Alberto Costa, for example. Especially when the depth at the position is so thin that anyone from Weston McKennie to Tim Weah are getting minutes. Is Costa too green? Is he just not grasping what they need of him at this point in time?

(That aforementioned non-existent depth another reason why letting of Danilo was so puzzling. Are you telling me you’d rather roll with Weah or Jonas Rouhi rather than Danilo? A guy who was an entrenched starter not six months ago? So, so weird.)

Time will tell if these moves can move the needle for the remainder of the year or if they become random jerseys on the clearance rack a few months from now.

Parting Shot of the Week

It’s crunch time for Juventus.

Arguably, their most challenging stretch of the season is about to begin with the Derby d’Italia against Inter Milan sandwiched in between their two legged tie in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven.

If that wasn’t enough, in the last days of February, they play in the Coppa Italia for the quarterfinals. With the hot and cold form this team is on, any result is on the table. Juventus could move on to March alive both in Europe and the domestic Cup or they could be entirely out of contention from any silverware in the second month of the year.

Neither result would entirely shock me. It hasn’t been a fun season to watch, you guys.

See you next time.