Considering how Juventus have played for much of this post-international break stretch, most of us were hoping for some glimmer of hope that this weekend could be different than the last couple that we’ve sat through. Maybe not asking for a miracle to be worked, but something of a positive compared to … whatever the hell we had seen against Cagliari and Lazio.
The first half can say there were a few things to be happy about.
The second half looked like a team just trying to hang on for a win against
a provincial opponent.
Thanks to first-half goals from Weston McKennie and Douglas Luiz, a very short-handed Juventus side built their first two-goal first-half lead against Serie A opposition in what felt like forever, then held onto said lead in a less-than stellar final 45 minutes to hold on for a 2-0 win over Lecce at the Via del Mare on Sunday evening. It was Juve’s first Serie A win since their Sept. 20 win over Atalanta right before the international break, and just the second time they’ve won in the league since recording back-to-back wins to open the season.
That’s not what you want to be saying at any point of the early goings of the season. But now that we’re about to hit the final days October, that is very not exactly setting up a very good trend for the weeks to come.
After that second half, I have to be honest: I really don’t know how Juventus actually kept the clean sheet intact. OK, so Lecce certainly weren’t peppering Guglielmo Vicario and forcing him to Hulk up or anything and make save after save after save. But the level of the performance was not vey good — at all. And the only thing that enabled Juventus to keep the clean sheet alive and ultimately get the win was that Lecce aren’t just very good.
Lecce outshot Juventus 16-8 in the game and 12-4 in the second half, but Vicario — who didn’t exactly make things easy on himself sometimes when it came to his distribution — didn’t really have to make any saves that would be considered difficult. But Lecce had the vast majority of the chances, and that had you wondering just how long Juventus could actually hold onto things as the second half went on.
Yet they did.
Somehow they did.
And it makes the two first-half goals all the more important because, simply put, they couldn’t afford let another game go by without collecting all three points.
The goals provide a little bit of hope that the midfield can do something — be it McKennie looking like his old self and being dangerous in the box or Douglas Luiz (who supplied that assist to Wes) doing what it felt like many Juve players have been shying away from lately. Shooting from long distance to begin with, having it be a very good shot once he makes connection with the ball and then scoring because of it.
On the whole, it wasn’t a good performance, though. If Lecce was a team that could be more dangerous in front of goal, then this likely would have been a different kind of second half than it ended up being in actuality. But, the thing is, it actually is Lecce, and that thankfully worked out to Juventus being left off the hook a bit for their sub-par second-half performance and allowing them to get three points.
One thing is for certain, though: If Juventus play anything close to the way they did in the second half on this day when they face Genoa on Wednesday night and then Napoli next weekend, it’s going to be the kind of situation that we’ve talked about quite a bit already this season. You know, the one that has involved them dropping points, playing poorly on the whole and then wondering what is wrong with this team.
Then again, there’s probably going to be those types of discussions about Juventus again after this performance even though they won. But at least they won — which is more than we can say about their last couple of Serie A outings. So there’s that, which is better than the alternative, I guess.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- From 10th place up to seventh place. We are so back!
- (I really hope you don’t take that seriously because, well, Frosinone are still ahead of Juventus in the Serie A table, so that should tell you all about how both clubs have started the season.)
- Of course the game after I was openly starting to wonder about Douglas Luiz losing some of his early season juice he goes out and gets a goal and assist. Or, simply put, something he had never previously done in his career, according to Opta.
- But man, you do wish Douglas Luiz can connect with shots like he did against Lecce more often. That was an absolute bullet and left the keeper no chance at stopping it. Wladimiro Falcone might have gotten a bit of his glove to it, but that ball just had too much velocity on it.
- Speaking of goalkeepers, that early heart attack moment from Vicario when he saw his clearance attempt blocked and ricochet toward the goal should have been a sign of things to come. Not Vic’s best day with his feet — and not that’s not the first time we’ve said something like that the last couple of weeks, either.
- But at least he was capable when it came to the most important part of his position — making saves.
- Did you notice how there weren’t any shots at all through the first 20 minutes? Yep, me too.
- Nick Woltemade finished with one shot against Lecce.
- Randal Kolo Muani finished with one shot against Lecce.
- Neither of those shots from Woltemade and Kolo Muani were actually on target.
- That is not exactly what you would hope for from your two starting strikers against Lecce.
- Juventus had two shots from close range at the near post on the left side of the penalty area. Neither Jérémie Boga nor Juan Cabal actually put their respective shots from that area of the field on goal.
- Cabal actually played! That is the first time we can say that this season. How about that?!?!
- Weston McKennie popping up in the box like much better times. More of that stuff, please.
- Teun Koopmeiners didn’t exactly see a ton of time on the ball as compared to Douglas Luiz, but that man put absolute work in defensively. Lots and lots and lots of running from that Dutchman — who understandably looked absolutely gassed in the final minutes.
- I thought this was a solid game from Federico Gatti. He had a big-time block in the second half as Lecce were starting to show their attacking intent out of the break. He also had the assist on Luiz’s goal.
- Just the whole sequence on Luiz’s goal was good to see. The shot was the cherry on top.
- Jhon Lucumí had a solid day defensively, but some of his passing out of the back left so much to be desired.
- Same can be said about Andrea Cambiaso’s passing, too. He gift-wrapped Lecce a couple of very quick counters with bad giveaways. The more things change …
- Pierre Kalulu is still leaving a lot to be desired when it comes to his overall form so far this season, but he made a couple of really nice blocks on Lecce shots and offensive actions that made you think that maybe just maybe the same guy from the last couple of years is still there.
- Getting your second yellow literal seconds before the final whistle sounds has to be one of the worst things to do, right? Not only does it not actually matter for the game that is about to end, you then put your team in a worse place for the next game, too. And who does Lecce have next up on the schedule with Kialonda Gaspar suspended? Oh, just a Frosinone side that sits in sixth place and just dropped four goals on Atalanta this weekend. Good luck!
- Tiago Gabriel once again shows why he’s a player who probably should be a young center back that Juventus should be paying attention to the next couple of transfer windows. A move to a much bigger club has to be in store for him soon.
- It’s unfortunate that this switch to more of a 3-5-2 doesn’t suit Kerim Alajbegović until the final minutes of the last couple of games because he is a player you want to actually watch. (Which is obviously something we can’t say about a ton of Juve players right now.) But, it’s hard to say where he really fits into this setup when Spalletti ditches the wingers and plays with two strikers.
- Getting doubled up on shots by Lecce. Who woulda thought …
- Hey, at least we don’t have to talk about Juventus dropping points over the weekend for the next couple of days, right? Positives! Serenity now! Serenity now!
