How do you free yourself from insomnia and quickly fall asleep?
There are quite a few options. You can listen to peaceful music or nature sounds. You can assume a comfortable position and relax each part
of your face, before dropping your shoulders and arms and working your way down to your lower extremities. You can eat a melatonin gummy, or count sheep, or visualize another peaceful setting like a beach or a snow-capped mountain, or count to 1,000. Or, you can simply turn on the TV and watch Juventus.
OK, that last part may have been a slight exaggeration, but there’s some truth behind it. After succumbing to a fourth straight draw (a 0-0 stalemate vs. Milan), Juventus lost three matches on the bounce to Como, Real Madrid and Lazio, failing to score in all three matches. This necessitated a coaching change, with Luciano Spalletti replacing Igor Tudor as the club’s new manager on Oct. 30.
Juve were able to string together back-to-back wins vs. Udinese and Cremonese before regressing to the mean in a 1-1 draw vs. Sporting. Worse was to come in the Derby della Mole, where, despite firing 22 shots, Juve only registered two big chances in a 0-0 draw vs. Torino. Two weeks later, Juve returned from the international break and found themselves unable to overcome a dismal Fiorentina side, drawing 1-1 in Tuscany.
“Juve are boring, are they not?” stated CBS Sports’ Nico Cantor. “They’re a boring team, and they need to be ‘un-boring.’ What makes them un-boring? Scoring goals. A lot of people call Arsenal boring because they’ll win 1-0 or 2-0 off of set-pieces, but they win, first and foremost. Juve doesn’t win, and offensively, they need to get going.”
“If Spalletti can do a little bit of his modern, exciting approach to the game that we saw at Napoli, then it feels like Juve can resurface. Not beating a god-awful Fiorentina side really emboldened the narratives; this industry is so results-driven, and there’s so little patience. They made the right choice by going with Spalletti, and you’ve got to give them time to figure out who they are. If they can start getting the goals flowing again, they’ll be an exciting team and competing for a Champions League spot.”
Fortunately for Bianconeri supporters, they enjoyed a brief respite from their club’s incessant tedium on Tuesday at Bodø/Glimt. Despite conceding early on from a corner kick, and despite coughing up a number of dangerous opportunities in transition, they were able to level proceedings before the break as Loïs Openda recorded his first goal since joining Juventus in the summer.
Just like that, the floodgates had opened. Fabio Miretti shrugged off his man and unleashed Openda, who fired a pass across goal for Kenan Yildiz, who deftly cut it back for Miretti to slot home. When the goal was ruled offsides, Juve didn’t lower their heads — they merely got even more motivated. Yildiz then slalomed past a number of yellow shirts and found Miretti, who dialled up an inch-perfect cross for Weston McKennie to head home.
Juve were starting to heat up in the Arctic Circle, but they allowed their opponent back into the game as substitute Juan Cabal had a nibble on Sondre Auklend’s knee, enabling Bodø/Glimt to equalize from the penalty spot via Sondre Fet. Nevertheless, they immediately responded as Manuel Locatelli dialed in a lofted through ball to Yildiz, who left his opponent in his dust and fired a shot that was parried into the path of David, who coolly converted for his first Juve goal in three months to secure a 3-2 win.
It was a much-needed victory for Juventus, and it was a reminder of just what this team is capable of. But it’s one thing to do it against a Norwegian side that, just this season, has conceded at least two goals to Slavia Prague, Tottenham Hotspur, and Galatasaray. It’s another thing to do it against a team in Italy’s top-flight.
All things considered, it seems that Juve have forgotten the importance of being exciting. Perhaps it’s from having conservative managers like Antonio Conte or Max Allegri. Perhaps it’s from dominating Serie A thanks to teams that, rather than scoring for fun, are predicated upon stalwart defensive spines. Perhaps it’s from the old prevailing dogma that winning 1-0 is better than winning 5-4.
However, Juve don’t just need to be exciting for the sake of attracting new fans and ensuring that their current fans follow every single game. They need to be exciting for their own ambitions. With Juve struggling to generate danger in possession and counter-attacks, opposing teams are well aware that they can sit back, soak up the threat, and allow Juve to hopelessly fire shots away at the goal.
One decade after Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini formed an all-encompassing back three, it’s undeniable that Juve’s back three is one of their weak links. With Gleison Bremer out, there simply isn’t a single Juve defender that is in the upper echelon of Serie A center backs. The proof is in the pudding, with Juve managing just one clean sheet since the October international break.
This should, ideally, force a shift in mentality. Rather than focusing on keeping the clean sheet, Juve need to start assuming that they will be conceding at least one goal per match. They need to approach every game with the same gung-ho mindset, one that focuses on pushing the issue and getting numbers forward, even if that leaves them slightly exposed at the back. The days of taking an early lead and parking the bus for 80+ minutes are now in the rearview mirror; it’s time for a new era at Juventus.
By focusing on a more attack-minded approach, Juve will not only be able to pursue their goals of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League and challenging for the Scudetto, but they’ll also be able to attract higher-caliber talent. Superstar attackers are not going to join Juventus — no matter how much they offer to pay them — if they know that they will be having to make the most of half-chances rather than a plethora of opportunities.
You just have to look at Maurizio Sarri’s appointment at Napoli or Gian Piero Gasperini’s appointment at Atalanta. Players didn’t care that much that they weren’t winning trophies; they watched the matches, and realized that something special was going on, and that they wanted to be a part of it. It’s time we see something similar with Juventus.
Can Spalletti’s arrival be the shot in the arm that Juve need? Can he finally make Juventus an exciting team to watch?
