The Old Lady were the all-conquering force in Italian football throughout the 2010s but their situation has nosedived in recent times and appears to have hit a nadir
Juventus have made their worst start to a Serie A season in 60 years and sit in the relegation zone after four rounds of matches.
While the Bianconeri will not finish their season there, and will rapidly rise up in the table, it is alarming for a side with aspirations to win the league title.
Turin’s giants have failed to win four of their top-flight matches since 1961-62, which was only the fourth time they had failed.
The Italian media have hammered the team’s slow start with Corriere Dello Sport claiming they have hit ‘rock bottom’ while Turin daily sports paper Tuttosport labelling Juve as the ‘crisis’ club.
Massimiliano Allegri is back in the Old Lady hot seat following a disastrous campaign under Andrea Pirlo, where the club surrendered their nine-year grip on the Serie A title and only scrapped into a top-four spot on the final day of the campaign.
Allegri led Juve to the league title in five of his five seasons as a manager, and the club won domestic doubles in four of them. This helped establish a stronghold in Italy.
Inter won the Serie A title last season – their first since 2010 – while Milan are back in the Champions League for the first time since 2014 with little Atalanta now establishing themselves in the knockout stages of Europe’s premier club competition.
There is also added competition from the Italian capital, where Jose Mourinho and Maurizio Sarri – formerly of Juve – are hopeful of engineering title challenges for Roma and Lazio respectively.
Juve’s final Champions League spot was clinched by Napoli, who Juve beat to that title last season. They also have a strong coach in Luciano Spalletti and suffered a defeat in Naples last week.
Sunday saw Juve held to a 1-1 draw at home to Milan thanks to Ante Rebic’s late equaliser, meaning that the Bianconeri have now failed to keep a clean sheet in 18 domestic league matches.
Their league results reveal other familiar themes. They lost a two-goal lead to Udinese on their opening day and then drew 2-2 at home to Milan. Then they let a lead at Napoli slip, thereby losing their advantage over the Rossoneri.
While the defensive numbers are concerning there is an equally alarming lack of goals – only the promoted clubs Salernitania, Venezia and Empoli have scored fewer than Juve’s four goals this campaign, with Inter, Roma and Lazio all comfortably in double figures.
There will be talking about Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit. The Portuguese superstar scored 101 goals during three seasons at Juve and helped them win five trophies, two league titles, and a total of six trophies.
Juve’s main goal threat is now Alvaro Morata – who scored just 11 league goals last season – alongside the returning Moise Kean and the mercurial Paulo Dybala.
There is no shortage of attacking talent in the club’s ranks with Euro 2020 star Federico Chiesa, Swedish winger Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Bernardeschi all offering a threat from deeper areas.
Yet there is no longer a reliable striker who will guarantee upwards of 25 goals per season, a problem added to an ageing defence and continued question marks over the suitability of error-prone goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny.
Brazilian full-back Danilo said after Sunday’s draw against Milan when quizzed about the club’s run: “In my view, it’s more an issue of mentality than physical fitness.”
That is an indication that the exit of talisman Ronaldo has played a part in the club’s fragile mentality – the antithesis of the winning-machine the club became during the 2010s.
Allegri’s exit in 2019 led to the short-term reins of Sarri and Pirlo respectively, as the club failed to revitalise an ageing squad and signed free agents on expensive long-term contracts – notably midfielders Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey.
Last week, the club confirmed a £179million loss covering the period of last season – 134 per cent higher than the previous campaign as the club’s debt rose by £3.4million.
Club CEO Andrea Agnelli has become somewhat of a pantomime villain in European football for his prominent role in attempts to create a European Super League, with the plight of his side’s fortunes on the pitch unlikely to draw much sympathy from outside the club.
Juve is still far away from the Scudetto dominating side of the last decade. This means that they will need to fight hard on and off the pitch in order to regain their domestic pedestal and become a European force.