If the message from Luciano Spalletti before kickoff was to not make things as tricky against Cremonese on Monday night as they were back on the first day of November, it’s safe to say his Juventus squad took it to heart.
In a major kind of way, too.
Juventus didn’t just pick up three points against Cremonese at the Allianz Stadium. It wasn’t just a win that sent them into third place ahead of Napoli and Roma on goal differential. It was a 5-0 hammering that involved Spalletti’s squad playing some
very good football and also having Lady Luck fully on their side for what feels like the first time in a long time. Juventus didn’t just beat Cremonese — they absolutely steamrolled them. They were up 3-0 before the first half was over. And Spalletti didn’t just have his team sit back and chill during the second half. Nope, not at all. They were pushing for a fourth, a fifth and even a sixth.
While that sixth goal never arrived, they certainly had the intent there to try and score it.
They’re now just a point off second-place AC Milan and four away from league-leading Inter Milan, although both of the San Siro’s occupants do have a game in hand. Either way, it’s quite the showing to prove to us just how far Spalletti’s squad has come since his first game as Juventus manager in Cremona a little over two months ago.
There’s also this little nugget of information to throw out there after Juve’s blowout victory …
Since Spalletti’s first game in charge on Nov. 1, Juventus now have the second-best record in the league, collecting a total of 24 points in 11 Serie A fixtures. That trails only to the 25 points put up by Inter, who have lost just once since the first week of November. (They also have a game in hand because of the Supercoppa, but that has been repeated many times already, so we’ll just leave it there.)
Since we’re all in a good mood, let’s go ahead and throw another little nugget out there …
With Monday night’s win, Juventus are now level with Inter when it comes to the best home record this season. And we don’t have to mess with any sort of game in hand this time, either. Juve’s got 10 home fixtures played. So does Inter. If it wasn’t for a couple of those frustrating draws under Igor Tudor and then Spalletti, then Juve would certainly have the best home record in the league.
No matter how you look at it now, though, this Juve team is finding their groove — and the win over Cremonese just proves it once again.
Cremonese came in on a tough run of form. Juve did what they should do against a club that is in that kind of situation. Did we all expect them to be up 3-0 within the first half-hour and the goals they scored would be rather nice? Probably not. But the way they’re doing it is just a huge indication of how Spalletti has changed things for the better and how they’re not applying it for the field.
Juventus recorded 17 shots against Cremonese.
Ten of those shots were on goal — and it could have easily been a lot more if not for a few offsides calls.
This is the same Juve team that was struggling to both score and create scoring chances during the final days of Tudor’s managerial spell in Turin. Now, though, they’re out here just pushing and pushing to create more and more. They’re coming from different sources and they’re not just only creating things through their talented albeit still very young No. 10. They’re moving so much better now compared to when Tudor was in charge.
The proof is in what they’re doing on the field.
Monday night’s win, all of 72 days after Spalletti’s debut against this same Cremonese, was a reminder to us all of how much good he’s done in a still-relatively short amount of time as manager. The bigger tests will come in short order — looking at you, Napoli game on Jan. 25 — but for now the team is playing as well as they have (and consistently, too!) in a long time. This is quite a nice little development to begin the new year.
That’s how you turn a season around in relatively quick fashion. And Spalletti is starting to do that here.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Can I just go ahead and type something with all-caps real quick? I can? OK, good. Here we go: RENEW WESTON McKENNIE’S CONTRACT NOW, PLEASE.
- Thank you for letting me do that. I feel better now.
- Well, that sure was fun.
- Actually, it was fun after the total scare by Andrea Cambiaso at the back. Then it was fun.
- That little moment on the sidelines between Spalletti and Teun Koopmeiners before he was subbed on in the second half. The vibes, my friends, are pretty good right now.
- Also fun? Another clean sheet. That is fun.
- Also pretty good to see Michele Di Gregorio, who has not had much to do at all these last few games, come up with another big save or two to keep the shutout intact. That’s the good stuff right there.
- Another false start for Juventus at the opening kickoff. Making it their thing, I guess!
- A welcome back to Turin for Emil Audero and has wonderful jawline. I will never not admire it.
- Then again, does it rival the jawline of a certain Gleison Bremer? I don’t know.
- Bremer’s waves, by the way … looking very, very good.
- Did Bremer also somewhat hard launch him and his partner having another baby? That goal celebration might be a pretty good hint considering that’s exactly what players do in those situations.
- Two VAR decisions in one half and they both go Juventus’ way? Am I dreaming or what?
- Cue all the conspiracy theorists because you know they are going to have a field day with those VAR decisions. It’s like meat on a stick for them.
- Poor Fabio Miretti. Gets a potential goal to his name go to Bremer and then a lovely would-be assist on what proved to be an own goal after Weston McKennie’s shot. That pass was lovely.
- So, let’s play the game with how he’s playing right now: If both are healthy, do you start Miretti or do you go with Francisco Conceição? It really decent luxury to have, but Miretti feels like the player you just gotta go with because he’s doing so many good things at the moment.
- Speaking of nice passes, that pass from Manuel Locatelli to spring the counterattack on Jonathan David’s goal was fantastic. So was the run from Khephren Thuram.
- The finish from David wasn’t too bad, either.
- Are we starting to see the David-demption tour begin? Because it might be looking that way. And finding form right before the tougher opponents arrive on the schedule later this month? Nice timing, JD.
- If Thuram is going to keep shooting these shots from just outside of the penalty area, I’m going to need him to make them much more dangerous than they have been the last few months.
- Kenan Yildiz has matched his goal tally from all of last season. It’s the second week of January!
- You know what I said about luck earlier on? That bounce right back to Yildiz so that he could score the goal after he didn’t convert his penalty is what happens when the things are going your way.
- Seriously, a 5-0 win. Wouldn’t have thought that was possible out of this team.
- Milan play Como on Thursday. That’s another chance to see some dropped points. That happens and Juventus can suddenly go second for a few hours? That’s pretty remarkable with how this season started out.
- I’m still hedging on Scudetto thoughts just because I know there are much more difficult opponents to come over the next few weeks. But to be playing like this against teams Juventus should be beating and they’re actually doing just that? Yeah, that’s the good stuff, Luciano. We love to see it.
- Beating a team 5-0 is a pretty good way to start the week.
