Juventus today is a shadow of its recent past. From chaining nine consecutive Serie A titles between 2011 and 2020 to two fourth places in a row in 2021 and 2022, the latter light years away from the top three. Qualifying for the Champions League was not something that worried the old lady, who from the beginning of each season took her presence in the highest European competition the following year for granted. Now he suffers to get there. Milan and Inter are back at the highest level, the most consistent with their history; Naples continues to reinvent itself to stay in the top three and has started the campaign like a shot; and others like Roma, Atalanta or Lazio threaten from behind. Juve is eighth in Serie A and suffered its second consecutive defeat in the Champions League on Wednesday. No trace of his hegemony.
Never before had the Turin club started its career in the Champions League with two lost games. Losing against Paris Saint-Germain sounds understandable and perfectly doable, as they are one of the leading teams in Europe. A second immediate setback against Benfica is less conceivable, aggravated by the fact that in Serie A they have drawn two in the last two games, against Fiorentina and Salernitana (this one with arbitration controversy). In the stands of the Juventus Stadium banners begin to be seen that say Allegri out, although the coach is not yet seen off the bench. "Me, at risk? No, tough times are part of the game," he said confidently after the loss. Let's see how far Andrea Agnelli's patience goes.
Since his last Serie A title, the decisions regarding the incorporations have not been too successful. Cristian Romero is being one of the most prominent center-backs in the Premier League and Juventus did nothing but give him up. Arthur Melo passed without penalty or glory, Federico Chiesa has problems with injuries, while Álvaro Morata and Dejan Kulusevski have not been able to keep them and young bets like Weston McKennie, Denis Zakaria (now on loan at Chelsea) or Manuel Locatelli have not given the quality jump necessary to the template.
Bleeding is the case of Dusan Vlahovic, perhaps the most similar player (by physique and style) on the planet to Erling Haaland, but for whom that comparison and the more than 80 million that have been paid for him are getting too big. After the illusion generated by scoring a few seconds after his Champions League debut against Villarreal, he has deflated and has only scored one goal in the first six league games this year.
This summer more than 100 million euros have been left in additions to try to reverse the situation and overcome the loss of Matthijs De Ligt (another unprofitable investment at the sporting level) and Paulo Dybala. Gleison Bremer, Filip Kostic, Leandro Paredes, Paul Pogba, Arkadiusz Milik or Ángel Di María have arrived. Every project requires time to assemble the pieces, but football goes very fast and the performance of Milan, Inter and Napoli, in addition to the poor results in the Champions League, leave Allegri up to his neck in water.
Lacking talent in midfield, without bite up front and suffering behind, without a clear idea of the game, Juventus will face the next matches as litmus tests. They will have two opportunities to gain confidence, against Monza and Bologna, before a key week for their aspirations: the two Champions League games against Maccabi Haifa and a game against Milan in between. His future in Serie A and in the top continental competition, as well as Allegri's future on the Juventus Stadium bench, could be at stake in that first week of October.
