The 2016/2017 Calcio Saga

Playing Bonaventura further forward and not Niang also was noticeable and added more dimensions to Milan's attack.

If Milan realizes the fragility of Inter/Napoli/Roma's current situations and invests the money of the speculated Bacca exit on a strong CM (not sure who tho) they should be able to secure a second place with some gap between them and their pursuers, and obviously some gap between Juve and them. A distant second if you will.

So we have Pescara today and a chance to regain second in the table. Very beatable team on paper of course and we're at home so all signs point to a Roma win.

However, the fractured psyche of a Romanista is such that even seemingly sure-win fixtures like this give us anxiety. The pressure on the team from the table will be a factor today and I've said before, this team don't really do pressure well. Even something as trivial as beating relegation fodder to maintain your place behind the 1st place team. We have literally bottled games like this in the past. And that's enough to give me less confidence today than perhaps I should've have.

I hope I'm 100% wrong today. We don't need to smash Pescara, just beat them ffs.

Genoa 3-0

lmfao wtf is this juve team

had to do a double take when I checked scores

'The best mercato ever'

brb playing Alves RCB, Cuadrado striker and Hernanes still starting in 2016

People wouldn't listen when I downgraded our summer from like a 9/10 to a 6 at best.


Selling Pogba, getting no midfield players in after. Giving Khedira the Pogba role on the other side of the pitch


Hope we get smashed 7-0 we need the biggest kick in the nuts we've had in a decade. Far too complacent and somehow we're top of the (shit) league and CL group despite playing quite frankly the worst football I've seen from Juve in a very long time. Offensively worse at times than our 2008 and 2009 teams

It always feels weird to see Tom post seriously.

There is a reason I can't watch Juve this season unless Dybala plays. This team is something that Zaccheroni would have played lmao.

Atalanta wrapping up their 6th consecutive win

Someone needs to stop them ffs

Nah it's actually nice teams like Atalanta and Torino are doing so well. A

ES wrote:Atalanta wrapping up their 6th consecutive win

Someone needs to stop them ffs

It is so sad that we are playing against them and with this performance I can see us getting smashed.

On a side note, Cholito Simeone has been impressive for Genoa so far. Is he ready for a reunion with the father, maybe at Inter?

salmano9 wrote:

ES wrote:Atalanta wrapping up their 6th consecutive win

Someone needs to stop them ffs

It is so sad that we are playing against them and with this performance I can see us getting smashed.

Yep. Gonna be hard as hell. Probably a draw I think.

The story of Juventus' season as per usual: the midfield

Khedira, Pjanic and Hernanes

Can anyone think of a midfield trio with less defensive work rate, speed and energy? Not in terms of individuals but in terms of a combination

Pjanic covers about half the ground of Pirlo, which makes sense because he's at best, half as good as Pirlo

The defense was frail, Bonucci's back heel leading directly to a Genoa goal is signs that his ego has grown to Kanye heights, what an absolute idiot

We should have had a penalty in the first half, clear one on Mandzukic but whatever and then Khedira missed an absolute sitter in the second half (because what would a Juve game be without Khedira missing at least one sure goal).

Bonucci and Dani Alves both left injured, if I'm not mistaken we've had the most injuries in Italy and among the major teams in Europe.

Genoa away was never going to be an easy game but being down 3-0 in thirty minutes to some pretty atrocious defending is deplorable.

Not even mad though

I think it's becoming a bit apparent that Pjanic at his best, is a very good player but still a downgrade from the previous Juventus' players who played in his role. I am not sure he is a game changer or affects game. Roma did quite decent after he left and barely missed him.

Not saying he is bad but he has been underwhelming.

Also don't get the obsession over starting Cuadrado uptop. It's like anything goes wrong and the first thing Allegri does is to put Cuadrado up somewhere.

Cuadrado up top is more from necessity

Pjaca is hurt, Dybala is hurt, Higuain missed the Sevilla game injured and was not fit enough to start today either

I believe Pjanic is a very good player but not in this system

I don't think is fair to dispatch Pjanic too quickly. I agree that the midfield has downgraded compared to last seasons and is the biggest problem of Juve rn, but it was this way even when it was Khedira-Asamoah-Lemina earlier in the season. That's the reason Allegri started to play play Pjanic in almost every game without any rest resulting him in being off-form. Plus, they don't have Dybala who is the player who linked the midfield to the attack, and Allegri's teams are notoriously bad in the first months/half of the season.

Agree. As good as it was to see Juve be human for once, they typically bounce back viciously on their next match. I expect that from them.

What will be telling is if that happens again after this Genoa loss. Another bad result and I think that's where the worry should probably start.

Dzeko puts us 1-0 up.

11 goals in 14 games.

Hot fire.

2-0 Dzeko again.

Just stat padding now.

Roma's complacency will be the death of them

I don't understand it. We literally stopped playing after the 2nd goal. The tempo dropped dramatically. We stopped pushing the ball forward into Pescara's third, we stopped making incisive passes, we stopped cutting their passing lanes and covering space for each other. We just stopped functioning as a unit. This wasn't even auto pilot because at least on a mode like that, you do the normal things defensively.

To be worthy of winning anything, we need to have the same focus and intensity we had the 1st 10 minutes for the other 80. It's that simple.

This doesn't feel like a win to me. We won in spite of ourselves. We didn't beat Pescara. We survived them. That's pathetic. I honestly feel bad for Pescara, who did really well. Lotta ex-Roma players with points to prove and they did that.

Important win, but the shabby performance in the second half cannot be overlooked especially with our next  fixtures coming up (Derby, Milan,and Juve). I think it's about time we address this new play-maker role Spalletti is trying SO HARD to shove down Nainggolan's throat and all of us. Nainggolan is not made for this role and will never be!! He is strictly a box-to-box midfielder his efforts and attributes on the pitch are mainly physical, he will cut through balls, make tackles, and create key passes very similar to the role Brighi played with Spalletti. I understand Spalletti want's his players to be versatile, but his stubbornness is ultimately costing us a lot this season in creating another weak link in the squad (as if our defense isn't bad enough).

Secondly, this whole issue with form and unsuitability has Spalletti written all over it, with the constant change of formation and players week in and week out, even his press conference statements change just as much. One week he'll applaud the squad and the next week he's their toughest critic. I'm just not surprised to see the indecisiveness of Spalletti reflect directly on the team's performance. Which is truly upsetting because on paper this squad is very strong. However, when you rotate players constantly and don't utilize an excellent player like Nainggolan, whom you barely held on to this past meracto, efficiently. Same with Bruno Peres whom Spalletti had playing as a left back earlier this season this is the type of result we'll see.

Dani Alves out for 3 months and Bonucci out for 2. Added to Barzagli (2 months), Dybala, Pjaca, Mandragora...

Higuain, Benatia and Chiellini are just recovering too.

We just keep getting wrecked with injuries. Its looking likely that we won't be top of the league by the winter break. In this month we have Atalanta, Zagreb, Roma, Tornio and Milan (supercoppa). Probably playing the 4 most in form Serie A teams all in a row and during our lowest point. Congrats to the winter champions Roma.

The break can't come soon enough for Juve.

Insigne's decision making ability seems as poor as it was 3 years ago

All Napoli so far as expected.