We’ve been through this before.
A glimmer of optimism during the summer as new transfers arrive, (some) deadweight is offloaded, and, the coach who has recently arrived has a full preseason to work on the team and get some/most of the players he wants for the system he wants to implement.
The first few weeks are encouraging. But then the fixture list piles up, injuries accumulate, and the overall style of play and, crucially, results are basically the same as they have been the last few years.
Meanwhile,
other teams in Italy progress and Juventus slowly falls further behind the leading teams in the country.
And with that cheerful intro, let’s review the month of October.
Bottomless Pit
We opened the month with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Cagliari which was, at the time, the best defense in Serie A. We started the game well but Cagliari opened the scoring against the run of play. Daniel Maldini and Paul Mendy exchanged passes and, through a lucky deflection, Maldini got a 1-on-1 with Guglielmo Vicario and toe-poked the ball into goal. After the goal, the pattern of the game never changed: Juventus dominated everything from possession to shots but couldn’t get through a Cagliari team who defended well and had zero intention to attack.
We finally got the breakthrough a few minutes before the final whistle through the much-maligned Randal Kolo Muani. The Frenchman powered in a header from a great Kerim Alajbegovic cross to equalize and almost completed the comeback when he hit the crossbar in the dying minutes of the match.
The Bianconeri had to fight from behind again just a few days later in a Europa League match against Celta de Vigo. The Spanish team took the lead when a well-worked attack from right to left shifted our defense out of place and Hugo Álvarez finished easily past Vicario.
The game followed almost the same pattern as the one against Cagliari, except that the Spaniards showed a bit more desire to attack. Thankfully, this time it didn’t take as long for us to equalize. Marcos Alonso committed a critical error when he completely miscontrolled a cross and ended up assisting Nick Woltemade, who finished easily.
Kolo Muani completed the smash-and-grab in the 92nd minute when Andrea Cambiaso (!!!) crossed into the box for the Frenchman to score his second headed goal in a few days: a hard-fought 2-1 victory!
The Bianconeri crashed to a humiliating 3-0 defeat at home against title-contenders Lazio in one of the most efficient attacking displays you’ll see in a while. The visitors had essentially the same number of shots (seven for us, nine for them) and on-target (two for us, three for them) but scored three while keeping a clean sheet. Oliver Provstgaard scored with a header after a Mattia Zacagni free kick delivery caused problems for the defense and his Danish teammate Gustav Isaksen scored after a great switch of play from Nuno Tavares opened up space for the winger to dribble and score.
Lazio faced little attacking threat from Juventus but also had little incentive to continue attacking as their defense held firm for the remainder of the match. They scored the third and final goal of the game a few minutes before the end when Fisayo Dele-Bashiru scored on (another!) ruthless counterattack: 3-0.
We followed that match with a 2-2 draw against Stade Rennais in the Europa League. Woltemade definitely enjoys this competition because for the first goal, he gave a perfect through ball assist to Zeki Celik in the fifth minute who scored his second goal of the competition. Rennes equalized ten minutes later after a nice attack resulted in a headed goal from Musa Al-Taamari and the comeback was complete after a bizarre penalty shortly before halftime.
Douglas Luiz, while in the penalty area, was in the process of standing up from a tackle when a stray shot hit his hand. The referee somehow judged it to be a deliberate handball and Boulaye Dia, on loan from Lazio, scored from the spot. Rennes dominated most of the first half and had several chances to score more but thankfully Vicario kept us in the game.
A Rennes defender then handled the ball in the area and Bob’s Burgers Woltemade scored the subsequent penalty. A brief moment of chaos ensued in the dying moments of the match when Lucumí scored after a scramble in the box from a corner, but the referee judged that the Colombian returned from an offside position just before shooting into goal. A chaotic game ends 2-2.
Next on the calendar was a tricky away fixture against Lecce. Weston McKennie put us in the lead early in the game after scoring from a clever free kick routine and cross from Douglas Luiz. The Brazilian, playing one of his best games in Bianconeri colors, scored with a powerful side-footed effort to double our lead before the break. Even though the lead was comfortable, the second half was not. We proceeded to take our foot significantly off the gas to the point that Lecce probably should have scored at least one goal. But thankfully, it’s Lecce and their attack was even worse than ours so poor that they failed to take advantage of their dominance: 2-0.
We ended October with the worst and most demoralizing Juventus performance you’ll see in a long time. Kingsley Ehizibue hit a pretty harmless shot to the near post that Cambiaso deflected into goal with a panicked swipe that wrongfooted Vicario. Genoa’s second goal was even more comical as Kalulu essentially repeated the same error that Marcos Alonso did for Celta Vigo earlier in the month and chested a clearance to Vitinha. The ball eventually came to Tommaso Baldanzi whose shot also deflected off a Juventus player — Bremer, this time — on its way to goal.
The Bianconeri barely mustered a challenge for the remainder of the game. Teun Koopmeiners hit a powerful shot that, as was the theme of the game, took a slight deflection before cannoning off the bottom of the crossbar and back out into play. In the final play of the game, goalkeeper Justin Bijlow saved a header from Woltemade out of the top corner but that was all she wrote: 2-0.
Juventus Women
Juventus Women had one of the worst months in their history in October. We first lost 2-1 against AC Milan in an away league fixture. After a goalless 80 minutes, all goals came in the final phase of the game. Captain Martina Lenzini captain fired home the first goal to put Juventus ahead but Milan equalized in the 86th minute through Thea Kyvag on the counterattack. Cecilia Salvai then deflected Monica Renzotti’s shot into goal to give Milan a late 2-1 victory.
We suffered another league loss in the next game against Como. Giuseppina Moraca gave Como the lead in the 12th minute but Alba Redondo capitalized on a mistake in the Como defense to equalize. Tessa Wullaert restored Como’s lead with a thunderous shot in the 61st minute and ex-Juventina Agnese Bonfantini came off the bench to score two goals in quick succession. Remina Chiba took advantage of another Como mistake to score; this time it was a misjudged attempt by goalkeeper Francesca Durante to come off her line: 4-2.
The month went from bad to worse with a 5-2 home loss against Roma in the league. The Romans stormed to a barely-believable 4-0 lead by halftime thanks to goals from Manuela Giugliano, Giada Pellegrino, Alice Corelli, and a penalty from Giugliano after a handball in the box by Tatiana Pinto.
Redondo scored a consolation goal in the second half and turned provider to Matilde Pavan to make the score 4-2 and give hope of a comeback. But another ex-Juventina killed that hope a few minutes before the end. Valentina Bergamaschi scored in the 89th minute to give Roma a 5-2 victory.
Thankfully, we ended the month on a high note with a 4-1 Champions League victory over Austria Vienna. Pavan scored her first Champions League goal in the 19th minute with a great right-footed shot and Redondo doubled the lead from the penalty spot in the second half after goalkeeper Jasmin Pal fouled Estela Carbonell in the box.
Lotta Cordes scored a header from a corner in the 78th minute to make the end of the game a little nervy but Kysha Sylla restored our two-goal lead a few minutes later. Julia Bartel scored the game’s final goal in stoppage time with a wonderful chip from the edge of the box to end the game in style: 4-1!
Drought
We have to thank Jérémie Boga.
Why?
If the Ivorian had not scored the second goal against Napoli on Nov. 1, Juventus would have had the stunning honor of ending Matchday 10 with exactly half the number of goals scored as the mighty Frosinone. Thanks to Boga’s goal, the match isn’t quite as tidy (52.16% recurring of Frosinone’s goals doesn’t quite roll off the tongue).
Jokes aside, the Bianconeri attack is in dire condition at the moment. Despite the significant price tags of our forwards, our top scorers in all competitions are currently Kolo Muani and Woltemade with three goals each. Only one of these goals has come in the league (Kolo Muani versus Cagliari).
I truly have no idea why we’re struggling so much in attack. While I have many complaints with Kolo Muani, he is more than capable enough to have more goals than he currently has. Woltemade is honestly a decent footballer but is more of a facilitator than a goalscorer. The issue is with players like Conceição (just 1 goal and 1 assist), and a critical injury to Kenan Yildiz, and a lack of creativity from midfield.
Douglas Luiz has recovered well from his horror start to his Juventus career two years ago under Thiago Motta and is playing well, but the problem is that there is no player with that “fantasia” in (advanced) central midfield. Ideally, someone like Koopmeiners when he was in top form for Atalanta or Nico González would be players to provide that type of spark. We all know the issues with Koopmeiners, while González has faded after a bright start to the season (and now is injured).
But I think we also suffered from McKennie’s early season absence due to injury and then taking a while to get to full fitness.
Tactically, it seems like playing Woltemade and Kolo Muani together has improved the attacking flow a little bit, but it’s risky to play two out of three strikers when one of them (Jeff Ekhator) is just coming back from an extended injury absence — especially missing so much of preseason on top of it.
Whatever the reason, it’s clear that our attack rather than our defense is holding us back so far this season. We better find our shooting boots soon because the backline cannot carry the weight of of this team forever.
