A week is a long time in football, David Schiavone asks has the international break come at the worst possible time for Juventus?
I take back everything that was said last week.
It was asked whether Massimiliano Allegri should leave his post as Juventus coach following a string of relatively disappointing results overall.
Then the Bianconeri go and come from 1-0 down to win 3-1 away to Empoli after securing an important point in the Champions League against Borussia Monchengladbach in midweek.
Let’s not forget the brilliant last-minute victory in the Derby della Mole before that.
At this point, an honourable mention should go to Stephan Lichtsteiner, who has amazingly recovered from a potential career-ending illness that he contracted about a month ago.
Upon his return to the squad in the match against Monchengladbach, he scored Juventus’ only goal of the game and it’s great to see him back in action.
Focusing on the rest of the club in general, it appears that the early season slump has finally been overcome, and with 18 points and a place at seventh spot in the Serie A league table, things are looking up for the reigning champions.
It’s not like it was just an easy set of fixtures, either. The Champions League is the best of the best, while Torino have been in good form themselves so far this term.
The only downside to this good set of results is the fact that an international break is upon us.
If there were a few more league games before all squad members went their separate ways for a week, then it could be, quite plausibly, said that Juventus would be back at the summit of the table in no time.
An international break, however, runs the risk of injury to key players, such as goal-scorers Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado.
Furthermore, the point in the season at which the break has come is one that I’m sure every fan of La Vecchia Signora is worried about.
The first game back is a huge clash at home to AC Milan who have been going through a successful run themselves; they sit sixth with two more points than Juventus.
A game with the Milanese side will be a massive test for Allegri’s squad to see whether the international break has halted their improvement somewhat.
Should the Bianconeri gain a positive result, preferably three points, out of the meeting at the Juventus Stadium then we can be pretty certain that Juve are back.
If a game similar to the loss to Sassuolo or the draw with Frosinone takes place, however, then there might be a real cause for concern.
Thankfully, the dip in form came right at the very beginning of the season, so it is a bit too early to talk of the possibility that their league title hopes have been dashed.
On the other hand, the other clubs at the top of the table have been unstoppable so far, so maybe the history-chasing side will have to give in to Fiorentina, Napoli, Inter or Roma this year.
Either way, without wanting to sound too dramatic, the clash with Milan will be a turning point in the season.
the match against milan is surely our biggest test to see whether we are back on the right track or not and also a vital game. but what i’ve seen in the last 3 games is quite the opposite to what the writer has, i guess. The win against torino was a hardly fought battle that literally came down to the last minute and in the past it would have been nowhere close to as hard, we drew gladbach which UCL or not should have been a rather straightforward win. and we did well against empoli.Hardly stuff of dreams or that calls for all this optimism.