Juventus Have Reached Their Nadir Under Max Allegri

SportsMoney Juventus Have Reached Their Nadir Under Max Allegri Emmet Gates Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover European soccer. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Oct 26, 2022, 09:01am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin LISBON, PORTUGAL – 2022/10/25: Juventus FC team pose for a group photo during the UEFA Champions . . .

[+] League Group H football match between SL Benfica and Juventus FC at Estadio do SL Benfica. Final score: SL Benfica 4:3 Juventus FC. (Photo by Bruno de Carvalho/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images There was almost an inevitability about it, a sense that Juventus wouldn’t get the win against Benfica that was required.

One of Europe’s grandest clubs were on the brink of a first group stage exit for nine years after what’s been an appalling start to the season. Losses to Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica and Maccabi Haifa had left Max Allegri’s side with at most an outside chance of making it through to the round of 16. Yet Juve’s away form hadn’t given much hope of leaving Lisbon with anything other than defeat.

They’ve won only once on the road this season and lost to the likes of Monza. By half time, Juve were 3-1 down and any sliver of hope that existed before a ball had been kicked was extinguished after a 45 minutes in which they defended like a Serie C side who somehow happened to find themselves playing in Europe’s elite competition. The ease in which Benfica carved Allegri’s side open was frightening, gaps the size of double decker buses appearing through the middle of the defence.

By the end, the 4-3 score line didn’t really reflect just how dominant Benfica had been, as it really could’ve been much more. Four defeats from five games, in a group that isn’t that overly competitive, speaks volumes of where Juventus are at right now. They haven’t produced this bad a record in the group stage since the 2000-01 and 2013-14 seasons, when they finished both on six points and were eliminated.

Even then, they only lost twice in those group stages, and didn’t suffer a humiliation like they did in Israel two weeks ago. This Champions League campaign is unquestionably the nadir of Allegri’s second stint back in charge, and the pressure is now on the Tuscan to pull Juve out of the depths and restore some semblance of improvement to what is the worst Juve side of the last decade. MORE FOR YOU Juan Soto Contract Rejection Could Make Orioles A Better Buy Than Nationals Schmidt Futures Will Invest Additional $148 Million In Artificial Intelligence Research How Tech Leaders Can Seize The Day In Tough Economic Times The Scudetto, or even challenging for it, has long since passed.

What remains now is to try and break into the top four and perhaps a deep run in the Coppa Italia, yet the truth is there are four or five sides in Italy who are better than Juve, and even those minimal objectives may not be reached. Napoli, Milan and Inter will likely take three of the four Champions League spots. Then you have one spot for Lazio, Atalanta, Roma and Juve and, as of now, you can’t see Juve leapfrogging any of them.

Lazio are growing under Maurizio Sarri, who Juve sacked after just winning a Scudetto in 2020, and Atalanta are on the upward trajectory again after a disappointing 2021/22. Injuries have no doubt hampered Allegri and the vision he had for the team at the onset of the season, but relative to the quality of the squad he has at his disposal, injuries or not, the results and performances have been reminiscent of the Gigi Delneri days, but with the added insult of Juve being far richer in 2022 than they were in 2010. Then, indifferent results could be accepted given Juve’s place on the totem pole, but now? The loss of Paul Pogba, Angel Di Maria and Federico Chiesa have been devastating for Allegri this season, the gamble on signing Di Maria hasn’t paid off so far.

He’s played a sum total of 333 minutes in all competitions since arriving, amounting to 32%. His quality on the pitch is evident, and he’s by far Juve’s best player when fit, but he’s hardly been that, picking up one injury after another either side of a red card against Monza. The losses of Pogba and Chiesa weren’t sprung on Allegri, either.

Pogba has been out of action since July and Chiesa even further back, but Allegri has struggled to implement a plan B, with most believing he intended to play a 4-3-3 this season to make the most of the pair, plus Di Maria, and to provide Dusan Vlahovic with the service he needs. Andrea Agnelli has vowed to stick with Allegri no matter what happens this season, but that’s only due to Allegri’s enormous salary — €9m-per-season — and the fact that Agnelli cannot afford to sack him at this point. With Juve posting the single biggest financial loss in Italian football history in 2021/22, some €254m, the last thing Agnelli can do is to sack him with two-and-a-half years left on his deal.

Whether the club likes it or not they are, through their own decision-making, stuck with Allegri for the foreseeable future. Major criticism around Allegri has been in his communication with players and how training sessions are reportedly very light. Paulo Dybala and Dejan Kulusevski have both spoken of Allegri’s somewhat aloofness in dealing with them, while Matthijs de Ligt and Kulusevski have both publicly spoken of how much harder training is at their respective new clubs after leaving Turin in the last year.

This has been borne out by the fact that Juve players looked gassed in most matches, with players only putting their foot to the floor for periods of matches before slowing down. Moreover, some of Allegri’s choices have been remarkably odd, such as playing youngster Federico Gatti from the start against Benfica, despite Gatti not playing since the defeat to Monza over a month ago. Gatti was, and understandably so, terrible, with Gazzetta dello Sport awarding him a 4.

5/10 for a performance punctuated with mistakes. His insistence on using Manuel Locatelli as a regista, despite it being glaringly obvious at this point that he lacks the characteristics to interpret the role, has continually scratched heads. Juventus now look further away than ever to being the club they so desire to be, and Allegri’s reign has been such a disaster that supporters are almost yearning for the Andrea Pirlo and Sarri seasons, when at least the club won trophies.

The one bright spot was the energetic cameo of Samuel Iling-Junior, the 19-year-old who entered the game in the 70 th minute and played a starring role in Juve’s late resurgence. Iling-Junior showed the kind of dynamism and directness that’s been absent since Chiesa suffered a torn ACL against Roma at the turn of the year, and the club are now in the process of extending the youngster’s contract in the aftermath of his 20-minute display. Juventus will look a better side once Pogba and Chiesa return in 2023, but one wonders how far Juve will fall in the meantime, even with the timing of the 2022 World Cup doing Allegri a favour.

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