Well, at least Luciano Spalletti has found some continuity with his new squad.
The problem is that the continuity has involved the same kind of results that they guy he replaced was getting.
Saturday night
in Florence provided Spalletti and Juventus the chance to start the post-international break run of games entering the new year with some momentum. Instead, what took place against last-place Fiorentina was the same kind of disappointing performance and result that we have seen all too often from this squad over the last couple of years. Rather than look like the better side and have the result speak to that fact, Juve struggled against a desperate yet also winless Fiorentina squad in a 1-1 draw at the Franchi that saw Spalletti drop points for the third straight outing after winning his debut on the first day of November.
Fiorentina not only tied the game through a former Juventus player — who technically never actually appeared in a game for the Bianconeri while he was on the books in Turin — but also had the visitors scrambling for large portions of the second half. If not for one of those classic late-game pushes for a goal that doesn’t actually result in a goal, then Juve could have very well lost to the Viola and handed them their first domestic win of the season (and against the club they despise the most).
That feels rather appropriate for Juventus these days.
This is not one of those performances under Spalletti that leaves you feeling at least somewhat optimistic about things because they were a bit unlucky. Not at all. They just weren’t very good at all against Fiorentina. Should they have kept the penalty Dusan Vlahovic rightfully earned in the first half? Yes, of course. Then again, Vlahovic should have also scored in his 1-on-1 with David de Gea that ended up with the Juve No. 9 blasting a shot into the side netting. Juve also probably should have been losing when Moise Kean blasted a shot off the crossbar in the first half, so maybe sometimes these things even out in some kind of weird way.
With all of that being said, I want to show you a stat that you don’t want to have your name attached to when you’re beginning your time at Juventus:
If you want to hurt yourself a little bit more, just go ahead and look up the table from the 1955-56 season and see where Juventus finished. Yeah … it’s not good. And it’s not something that this current iteration of Juventus want any part of as they go on this season.
But, the problem is, they keep drawing against teams in which they shouldn’t. It was a problem under Thiago Motta, it was then a problem under Igor Tudor, now it’s becoming a problem under Spalletti.
This wasn’t like the Derby della Mole in which Fiorentina had their goalkeeper on a generational heater and de Gea was stopping everything that came his way with miraculous save after miraculous save. When it was all said and done, de Gea had to make all of — drum role, please! — three saves.
That’s it.
That is what Juve’s attack was capable of on Saturday night. For as good of a shot Filip Kostic unleashed on the goal right before halftime that put Juve up 1-0, there wasn’t much else that Spalletti’s squad did that had us thinking they were going to be capable of scoring more than that. Juventus outshot Fiorentina by a comfortable 17-11 margin, but so many of those shots were either blocked out just completely off target.
That’s where Spalletti has so much work to do — and one wonders just what he actually can do to improve it.
So here we are, entering the final week of December and with another crucial Champions League fixture on deck, wondering just when Juventus’ new manager might have things looking noticeably different than the guy he replaced. Juve’s still using the same kind of formation, their doing some of the same stupid things that lead to the opposition scoring and they’re still just dropping points left and right no matter who they’re playing.
Spalletti took this job knowing full well the issues that are present at Juventus. You’re just now wondering how hard that reality is hitting him since he’s seen it up close and personal the last month.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- At some point, Fiorentina supporters will stop hurling racist remarks toward Vlahovic. The problem is, I feel like that day will be when Vlahovic retires and never has to step foot in the Franchi again.
- I mean, when your club captain is basically walking over to the curva and begging you to stop saying racist insults toward a player who hasn’t worn a Fiorentina jersey for nearly four years now, that’s not good — at all. This is happening every single time Vlahovic comes back to the Franchi.
- It’s just gotta stop, man. I know it won’t because it keeps happening, but it’s gotta stop.
- Again, I want to say this: VAR is idiotic for overturning that penalty Vlahovic earned. He made Pablo Mari looked absolutely stupid, Mari got caught trying to scramble and recover, and hauled Vlahovic down in the process. Was there contact from Vlahovic, too? Yeah, but come on … that’s a PK.
- That being said, Dusan … just shoot the ball before the guy charging toward you on a breakaway actually makes contact with you. More dribbling just makes the angle tougher to finish.
- One could say, though, that the highest paid player in Serie A should finish that regardless. And you know what? That’s fair!
- Juventus academy products starting for Juventus against Fiorentina: 1.
- Juventus academy products starting for Fiorentina against Juventus: 2.
- Paolo Vanoli knew the assignment and pulled off that cardigan sweater look on the sideline quite well. When you’re giving Spalletti a run for his money fashion-wise, you know you’re doing something right.
- Moise Kean had Teun Koopmeiners in an absolute blender on the counterattack and there’s no way around it. That is one of the downsides of having Koopmeiners in defense as part of the back three — he just doesn’t have the foot speed to keep up with somebody like Kean. And Moise knew it, too.
- Kenan Yildiz had 18 touches in the first half.
- Kenan Yildiz finished with 41 touches against Fiorentina.
- Both of those two numbers are just not good enough for a player like Yildiz who has become such an important part of the Juventus attack and general level of success.
- Hey, if Kostic wants to do that more often, then that’s fine.
- Seriously, though … that was one hell of a shot — and especially from distance. As I saw the replays of it, I kept thinking of how it was kinda like an outswinging corner kick with the movement on the ball. As much as de Gea made a dive for it, the ball was both moving away from him because Kostic hit it with his left foot but also destined for the far corner. Just well-hit ball that was perfectly placed.
- Because Kostic played, here’s a mention of his crossing: 1-for-6.
- I still don’t understand what Khephren Thuram was doing on the header that immediately resulted in Fiorentina scoring. Like, how can you be so lax on the ball — especially in a crowd like he was? I really like Thuram, but these are the things he really needs to improve on if he wants to take his game up a level.
- What do you mean a preventable mistake led to Juventus allowing a goal?????? Those things never happen lately!! (Ha, ha, ha. Let’s all laugh at the sarcasm.)
- Spalletti waiting until the 88th minute to bring on both Loïs Openda and Jonathan David sure was a choice. And I don’t know what the point of it was other than taking off a clearly exhausted Yildiz and Vlahovic. With stoppage time, they had six minutes max to try and do something to get the lead back — and that’s just not much time at all to even really get on the ball at all.
- Don’t look at Andrea Cambiaso’s stats, folks. They’re not pretty at all.
- Good to see Fabio Miretti have a positive impact off the bench. Now if only we could see that continue into the future and he gets some more playing time.
- Juan Cabal, my friend, maybe don’t go into tackles so crazily when you’re on a yellow. The dude hadn’t played in nearly two months and he looked determined to try and make up for lost time.
- Tuesday night in the always warm late-November climate of Norway should be fun, right? RIGHT?! RIGHT?!?!?! Oh god, I don’t even know what to think. Except …
- I don’t have work tomorrow, so go ahead and pour a big old glass of that bourbon.
