Juventus 2 – Torino 2: Initial reaction and random observations

And of their return from the ultimate worldwide break of the season, Juventus went out and regarded an entire hell of quite a bit just like the workforce that went into the worldwide break.

Translation: The whole lot sucks. And so does this Juventus workforce.

Simply because it was earlier than the worldwide break towards Benevento, Juventus was its personal worst enemy in Saturday’s Derby della Mole towards metropolis rival Torino. And similar to towards Benevento two weeks in the past, Juve’s self-inflicted wounds performed a significant position in how issues ended up going. This time, although, all the stupidity got here after Juventus went forward due to Federico Chiesa’s newest factor of magnificence. And if it wasn’t for a late Cristiano Ronaldo aim, Juventus would have suffered its second straight loss to one of many worst groups in Serie A somewhat than salvaging a 2-2 draw on the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.

Perhaps it was naive of me to suppose that issues would possibly prove OK after Chiesa’s aim since issues had been trying somewhat nicely.

However for each Chiesa aim today Juventus has a really unhealthy tried cross to a teammate that absolutely missed its supposed goal, this time with Dejan Kulusevski’s backpass to Matthis de Ligt (perhaps?) resulting in Torino taking the lead all of 13 seconds into the second half.

Yep, good occasions.

It’s simply extra of the identical from Juventus in the intervening time. Regardless of the opponent, regardless of the scenario that’s in entrance of them on the subject of the Serie A standings, this workforce is simply developing brief and needing method too many late-game heroics from the likes of Ronaldo or Chiesa to even be sure that they arrive away with the naked minimal. And sadly, the naked minimal today is getting one level somewhat than grinding out wins even and successful ugly like, say, an honest portion of final season.

It’s disappointing that Juventus couldn’t preserve the great occasions going after Chiesa’s opener, nevertheless it’s additionally fairly rattling predictable at this level figuring out how they’ve performed for a lot of the season and particularly the previous few months. In years previous, they might overcome the errors as a result of they had been merely higher than all people else and had been simply an absolute machine. This season, although, the errors are simply a lot extra magnified as a result of they proceed to drop factors and fail to beat adversity on a constant foundation.

That’s not good, nevertheless it’s nothing new. Saturday evening was one other reminder of simply how far off the lead Juventus really is beneath Andrea Pirlo’s watch, and now they’re stage on factors with Napoli getting into Wednesday’s showdown on the Allianz.

In order we as soon as once more deal with Juventus dropping factors towards a workforce that’s hanging out across the relegation zone — and, boy, am I sick of typing that this season — it’s arduous to not take into consideration how usually this has occurred. And, because of this, simply how a lot its impacted the place Juventus presently sits within the standings.

That’s … unhealthy. That’s actually, actually unhealthy. And for a membership coming off a two-week break the place variety of their gamers didn’t truly exit on worldwide obligation, the truth that they confirmed completely no indicators of enchancment exterior of the opening 25 minutes is fairly telling.

This workforce is struggling to do a lot of something proper on a constant foundation today and the outcomes present it. This, once more, was undoubtedly two factors dropped than one level earned.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• I used to be having much more enjoyable throughout this sport within the minutes following Federico Chiesa happening an superior run, telling Alvaro Morata to not contact a rattling factor after which nutmegging the opposing keeper. Good occasions, good occasions.
• I used to be actually trying ahead to creating Fred Church puns throughout Easter weekend if Juventus did find yourself successful. Thanks for ruining all of my enjoyable, guys.
• Not Wojciech Szczesny’s finest sport in a Juventus jersey.
• That first bullet level was written earlier than his two unbelievable saves to late within the second half to make sure that Juventus didn’t drop all the factors towards Torino. Simply a few of the factors.
• Not Alex Sandro’s finest sport in a Juventus jersey.
• Not Dejan Kulusevski’s finest sport in a Juventus jersey.
• There appears to be a pattern rising right here. Let’s discuss one thing else.
• Was Cristiano Ronaldo all that nice exterior of his late game-tying aim? I don’t know. However it’s by no means a nasty factor once you want a aim to at the very least get one level and also you’ve bought that man within the field. A minimum of VAR labored out to be our buddy for a couple of minutes on this sport.
• I don’t suppose the Danilo-as-a-midfielder experiment went in addition to it did the primary couple of occasions Pirlo tried it out this season. To be truthful, what do you count on from a man who just isn’t truly a midfielder?
• Federico Bernardeschi attempting to attract a penalty within the dying moments … yeah, that undoubtedly deserved a yellow card.
• Additionally a deserved card? Juan Cuadrado’s late deal with that solely bought a yellow. That basically might have been a purple, and if it was I wouldn’t have objected to it in any respect. That was a very unhealthy deal with that might have resulted in much more doom and gloom round right here.
• Cuadrado tried 22 crosses on this sport. Twenty-two!
• At this fee, is it truthful to say that Sandro is falling into the class of “He’s sure to be bought a yr too late somewhat than a yr too early”? The man has been a constant contributor on a title-winning workforce for half a decade now, however he’s actually not on the stage he was just a few years in the past. If Juve are to doubtlessly fetch an honest switch charge for him over the summer season, it will likely be extra on fame somewhat than how he’s truly performed in the course of the 2020-21 season (and the couple of seasons earlier than that).
• You recognize what would have been good to see on this sport? Juventus even have choices off the bench apart from Bernardeschi, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot. Juve was in determined want in some type of jolt of vitality and what we bought was … Ramsey.
• On Friday, Andrea Pirlo stated that Juventus’ method is to win all of their remaining video games. Properly, perhaps that’s going to kick in towards Napoli as a result of they actually didn’t method this sport to win regardless that they had been truly successful at one level. So it goes.