Juventus, under coach Spalletti, continues to struggle to find its footing this season, winning no more than two games in a row and ranking as the thirteenth-best attack in Serie A. Six points away from the Champions League zone, and unable to benefit from big matches like Napoli-Lazio and Inter-Como to narrow the gaps in the standings, the situation is worrying. Despite the coach’s jokes before the match about the pressure from the environment (“You all say we have to win the Scudetto”), the Bianconeri face a start to the Serie A season that has only two worse precedents in the 20-team league.
These precedents include Allegri’s Juventus in the 2015-16 season, which nevertheless achieved a dramatic comeback for the title thanks to 15 consecutive wins and 26 positive results, and Allegri’s in the 2021-22 season, which finished fourth after starting four points behind in the eleventh week. Indeed, even in the worst years of the last two decades, under Ferrara-Zaccheroni and Delneri, the start of the championship had been better than the current one, with 21 points in the first case and 19 in the second.
One year ago, after the first two weeks of Spalletti’s management, “The Old Lady” had collected 19 points, just one more than today, which was worth a position higher in the standings (sixth place instead of the current seventh). But the overall picture was completely different: the Champions zone was only 3 points away, while the top spot was only 5 away. Now, not even the most daring Juventus fan can dream of catching Lazio at the top, which is 11 points ahead. Only in Allegri’s first year (2016) was the leader further out of reach than today.
Another aspect that should worry the black-and-white environment is that Juventus is currently averaging 1.64 points after 11 weeks, which, projected to the end of the season, would be worth around 62/63 points. Such a performance over the last 6 seasons would have secured at most a place in the Conference League, no more. Of course, the returns of Conceição, Nico Gonzalez and Yildiz after the break and until mid-December, as well as the positive situation in the Europa League with qualification to the round of 16, may allow Spalletti to focus more on the league. However, the schedule does not help, as in the remaining 8 weeks of the first phase, Juventus will face Como, Roma, Bologna and Inter away. The time for a turnaround is running out.
Taken from La Gazzetta dello Sport