January’s Monthly Juventus Thoughts: Keeping Up

It was one more relentless month of fixtures for Juventus, with a staggering 9 video games in 27 days that means that the Bianconeri performed a aggressive fixture each three days. As I’ve repeatedly acknowledged prior to now, such a excessive frequency of video games doesn’t grant gamers the minimal of 5 days of restoration time as is recommended by medical professionals, however such are the instances, sadly.

We’ve talked about earlier, each on the podcast and in articles, that January was going to be an important month for Juventus. All issues thought of, I’m relieved to say that we acquired by it fairly efficiently, with eight victories out of 9 video games. Not too shabby.

Juventus opened the brand new 12 months with a 4-1 victory over Udinese. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring within the thirtieth minute earlier than Federico Chiesa added a second shortly after halftime. Ronaldo grabbed his second of the sport within the seventieth minute and whereas Udinese’s purpose within the ultimate minute of the sport tarnished the crew’s oh-so-sacred clear sheet, Paulo Dybala restored Juve’s three-goal lead with a right-footed (!) purpose within the 93rd minute. A tidy 4-1 victory for Andrea Pirlo’s males.

Then got here the primary large sport of the month: away at Milan. And it positive was a cracker of a sport as each groups got here out with an actual dedication to play optimistic, attacking soccer. Chiesa opened the scoring after operating onto an beautiful Dybala backheel and ending previous goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, however Milan equalized in controversial style quickly afterwards. Hakan Calhanoglu clearly fouled Adrien Rabiot within the buildup to Davide Calabria’s equalizing purpose, however the referee was having none of it.

However, Chiesa was clearly the star of the present as he performed his greatest sport for Juve thus far. He scored his and Juve’s impeccable second purpose of the day when he discovered a picometer of house previous the bamboozled Theo Hernandez to bury his shot into the again of the web. The in-form Weston McKennie then sealed the victory with Juve’s third purpose after an amazing run and help by Dejan Kulusevski: 3-1!

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Subsequent up was a difficult dwelling sport in opposition to the always-impressive Sassuolo. Regardless of going a person down simply earlier than half-time after Pedro Obiang’s harmful sort out on Chiesa (a sort out which, in my view, appeared similar to the one which acquired Chiesa despatched off in opposition to Crotone), Sassuolo made an actual nuisance of themselves. Danilo opened the scoring after his piledriver of a shot flew previous Andrea Consigli, however Sassuolo hit again nearly instantly as Gregoire Defrel very impressively turned and fired within the equalizer within the 58th minute.

Remarkably, the guests then dominated proceedings regardless of taking part in with 10 males. Fortunately, Aaron Ramsey scored his first purpose of the season to rescue Juventus within the 82nd minute and Ronaldo scored the crew’s third purpose in stoppage time to safe a flattering 3-1 scoreline and victory.

In case you forgot, we’re additionally nonetheless energetic within the Coppa Italia, which implies that Juventus welcomed Genoa for a Spherical of 16 fixture within the competitors. As is customized for the sooner phases of the Coppa, Pirlo closely rotated his facet for this sport. It resulted in a rollercoaster match, with objectives from Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata giving the Bianconeri a cushty 2-0 lead, solely to see Genoa struggle again to degree the rating at 2-2. To additional time we went, and youth participant Hamza Rafia scored his first senior purpose for Juventus within the 104th minute to present us the 3-2 victory. On to the subsequent spherical!

Earlier than that, although, Pirlo’s males traveled to Milan to face bitter rivals Inter Milan within the much-anticipated Derby D’Italia. It was an enormous take a look at of each side’ title credentials however sadly, just one crew confirmed that it was critical about successful the Scudetto this season. Inter fully outplayed the Bianconeri, who merely failed to indicate up for this large encounter, and secured a cushty 2-0 victory because of objectives from Arturo Vidal and Nicolo Barella. The one thriller is that/how they didn’t rating greater than two objectives…

Fortunately, Juventus bounced again from the chastening loss in opposition to Inter with a formidable 2-0 victory over Napoli within the Supercoppa Italiana ultimate. In what was a cagey match, Ronaldo broke the impasse within the sixty fourth minute after pouncing onto a flick-on from a nook and firing previous David Ospina. As Napoli threw males ahead in determined search of an equalizer, they have been punished by a counter-attacking purpose deep into stoppage time. Morata tucked away Juan Cuadrado’s layoff to safe the 2-0 victory and Pirlo’s first trophy as a supervisor!

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The Bianconeri adopted up this morale-boosting victory with a cushty 2-0 win over Bologna. Arthur’s deflected strike, his first purpose for Juventus, and McKennie’s header within the 71st minute have been sufficient for us to cruise previous Siniša Mihajlović’s facet.

Juve ended the month with arguably the best run of type we’ve seen this season. The Coppa Italia quarter-final match in opposition to SPAL was a stroll within the park — a 4-0 victory with objectives from Morata (penalty), a stunner from Gianluca Frabotta, Kulusevski, and Chiesa — and the league encounter with Sampdoria, whereas somewhat trickier, resulted in a well-deserved 2-0 victory. Chiesa continued his wealthy vein of (goalscoring) type with one more purpose whereas Ramsey sealed the victory in stoppage time together with his second purpose of the season from Cuadrado’s eleventh help in all competitions.

4 consecutive victories and 4 consecutive clear sheets to shut off the month. Are we lastly seeing the actual Pirlo’s Juve take form simply as we enter an important stage of the season?

It was additionally a relentless month of soccer for Juventus Ladies. They began with an enormous 2-1 victory in opposition to Roma within the semifinals of the Tremendous Cup, though it undoubtedly wasn’t simple. Roma most likely ought to have taken the lead early within the sport, however midfielder Andressa struck the crossbar from her Seventeenth-minute penalty. Juve punished this wastefulness by scoring simply 5 minutes later by Barbara Bonansea, though Roma equalized early within the second half because of a tidy Allyson Swaby strike.

Simply earlier than the sport went to extra-time, Roma goalkeeper Ceasar was despatched off for dealing with the ball outdoors the field and stopping Maria Alves’ tried lob, which absolutely would have resulted within the successful purpose, within the course of. Fortunately, Cristiana Girelli headed within the successful purpose within the 116th minute to ship Juventus by to the Tremendous Cup ultimate in opposition to Fiorentina!

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It was one other troublesome sport for the Bianconere, however they handed the problem with flying colours. A improbable Bonansea double secured a 2-0 victory over Fiorentina and, identical to the boys’s crew, a well-deserved Tremendous Cup victory!

From one cup to the subsequent then, as Juve traveled to Serie B league leaders Pomigliano for a Coppa Italia group stage match. Objectives from Valentina Cernoia, Andrea Staskova, Dalila Ippolito, and Maria Alves put Rita Guarino’s facet 4-0 up. Pomigliano grabbed a comfort purpose within the eighty fifth minute, however Staskova grabbed her second and Juve’s fifth of the sport within the final minute to safe a routine 5-1 victory.

The Bianconere lastly returned to the acquainted sights of the Serie A to play Inter within the Derby D’Italia scheduled on Jan. 17. Fortunately, they fared significantly better than the boys’s crew did later within the day as they secured a formidable 3-0 victory away from dwelling because of objectives from Girelli (penalty), Aurora Galli, and Sofie Pedersen. Juventus continued its relentless successful streak by then comprehensively beating Hellas Verona 5-0 at dwelling within the subsequent encounter. Lina Hurtig, Pedersen, Girelli, Bonansea, and Annahita Zamanian have been the purpose scorers.

The final, and undoubtedly most entertaining sport of the month, was the Coppa Italia fixture with fourth-placed Empoli. Benedetta Glionna, a particularly proficient 21-year-old striker on mortgage from Juventus, opened the scoring for Empoli within the thirty seventh minute, though Lisa Boattin equalized for Juventus a couple of minutes later. Glionna then scored two quickfire objectives to finish her hat trick — all on free kicks, too — and put Empoli 3-1 forward. Zamanian put the Bianconere again within the sport with a purpose within the 68th minute, however Empoli put one more purpose into the again of the web by Dutch striker Chanté-Mary Dompig.

Someway, Juve acquired the final snicker on this totally outstanding fixture after a loopy 10-minute interval on the finish of the sport. Objectives from Staskova, Girelli, and Cecilia Salvai turned the sport on its head and gave Juventus a rare 5-4 victory within the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarterfinals! What an finish to the month!

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I battle to recollect a time in the previous couple of seasons when the midfield was not a subject of frustration and anguish. We’ve talked about it on the podcast and lamented the days of future past after we had arguably one of the best midfields on the planet.

During Episode 34 of the podcast, I argued that, in distinction with final season, the issues in midfield are completely not on account of an absence of expertise. In the intervening time, evidently it’s largely on account of an absence of type and partly on account of one more change in system that comes from having our third coach in three seasons. (Though, I’ll admit that our midfield regarded excellent in direction of the tip of January).

To deal with the primary subject, the vast majority of our midfielders have been worryingly off form for a lot of the season. Arthur has struggled to efficiently combine into the Juventus squad, though he confirmed a promising enchancment on the finish of the month. As Hunter talked about prior to now, Rodrigo Bentancur appears to nonetheless be caught within the class of potential famous person slightly than realized expertise.

In the meantime, Adrien Rabiot has failed to take care of his nice finish to the 2019-20 season and Aaron Ramsey, effectively, barely exists. I actually imagine that if all our midfielders have been in type (or not less than not taking part in as poorly as somebody like Ramsey is), our midfield woes could be solved. Straightforward, proper? If solely …

Fortunately, we now have this man to assist us out. The participant that Aaron Ramsey was imagined to be however by no means was:

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