As things played out Sunday night, Juventus became the latest team to find out first-hand what has gone into Lazio having their best start to a Serie A season in club history.
Unfortunately for us, that also involved Juventus playing like complete garbage.
There was no post-Europa League success for the second consecutive outing this season. Instead, there was only massive reminders of how far this club has fallen over the last few years. Lazio didn’t have a complex game plan that involved total football or anything close to it — rather, it felt just like a carbon copy of what so many teams have done against Juventus so far this season. A Juve team that allowed three goals on three shots on goal and looked absolutely toothless in attack was handed a heavy 3-0 defeat on their home turf by this same Lazio side that has surprised pretty much everybody with how well they’ve started the season.
Lazio were compact, they were efficient on the ball and they just looked like a complete team from one end of the field to the other.
Juventus, meanwhile, looked like a club that is completely out of sorts and there’s no solution in sight. Or, maybe, this is just who they are right now — and that might be the most disappointing part of it all.
Yes, there are big-name injuries. I get it. That doesn’t help. But the lineup that Luciano Spalletti (from tribuna) fielded on Sunday night was almost as close as he could get to full-strength with who he has available. There weren’t all of these potential lineup questions outside of if Spalletti was going to go with a two-man attack with Nick Woltemade and Randal Kolo Muani. Instead, it was more of the same in terms of formation and tactics.
The end result when it comes to the level of the team domestically was a lot like we’ve seen for much of the season so far.
Juventus are in eighth place after this game. Eighth. It’s the middle of October. Juventus being in that bad of a position in the table, even seven games in and with 31 to go, is not good. Not one bit. They’ve gotten 11 points out of their first seven games. They had their first home fixture in over a month and completely laid an egg.
Or maybe it was closer to a dud because watching eggs being laid would have been more exciting than that.
Juventus’ attack continues to misfire and be totally out of sorts. It doesn’t matter who they run out there right now, you feel more comfortable thinking they will struggle to score rather than hit you for three goals like Lazio did on Sunday. Lazio goalkeeper Christos Mandas didn’t even have to make a save in this game. Instead, he watched shots go wide, go over the crossbar, or in the case of Nico González in the first half, go off a knee.
Were Juventus better in the second half than the first 45 minutes? Yeah, sure. OK, you got me there. But it’s not like it could have gotten much worse than how this team played in the first half — and the whistles as they walked off the field and back into the locker room were the latest confirmation of that.
(They returned multiple times throughout the second half and then after Lazio extended their lead.)
This just felt like a total encapsulation of how these two teams have played this season. Lazio have been good, have totally out-performed expectations and are completely deserving of being up there right along the defending champions (who shall not be named on a day like today). Juventus, on the other hand, did not look any better than they did last weekend against Cagliari when Kolo Muani’s header was the only thing that prevented this from being a second straight domestic loss out of the international break.
Any sort of positive signals from before the international break — and, admittedly, there weren’t a ton! — that this team might be showing signs of improvement look to be out the window now. Juventus are a ship adrift and there’s no sign of them being rescued in the immediate future.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Another wonderful way to spend a Sunday when the sun is outside. Nice job to everybody involved because you have put us all in a great mood. Continue to do the same for the next seven months.
- Dear God, please don’t. I want to actually enjoy watching this team again. Just a little bit. That’s all I ask.
- You see, the thing with asking “Is this rock bottom?” when it comes to Juventus the last three or four years is that they always find a way to find another rock bottom. Therefore, rock bottom has not been achieved yet. There is always the case for more.
- General thought after 45 minutes: Lazio look like a real team, Juventus didn’t.
- And there goes another wayward pass.
- Three goals on three shots on goal. We used to pray for times like these from a Juventus attack.
- Hell, in this game, I would have liked JUST ONE shot on goal. Instead, we got ZILCH.
- Even when Lazio had all of one shot total late in the first half this felt like the kind of game state in which Juve were just trying to hang on rather than really put their opponent under threat. Lazio really should have done more in the first half. There’s only so long you can play a highwire act like Juve did — and then the dam broke and Lazio made them pay in the second half.
- Then again, it’s not like Juve were putting anything on frame no matter how much better they looked — and not by much! — in the second half when Woltemade came on to play alongside Kolo Muani. If this team can’t consistently score goals, then it doesn’t matter what this defense does because anything less than perfect will result in dropped points.
- And after this game, a perfect defense ain’t happen.
- This wasn’t a good one for Gleison Bremer.
- This wasn’t a good one for Jhon Lucumí, either.
- As much as I’ve liked Zeki Çelik so far as a Juve player, his defending on Lazio’s second goal was … lacking.
- Also didn’t help that Juve’s double pivot of Douglas Luiz and Pape Sarr were not good at all.
- Just drop the possession-heavy game plan and play more on the counter. It’s not that hard to see that this is what this squad is more effective at rather than just passing the ball for the sake of passing it and having absolutely nobody make dangerous runs forward. Things are just so sterile right now.
- I miss the Weston McKennie of last season.
- It appears as though Nico has come back to earth after his hot start. Oh well.
- Couldn’t help but think about the thoughts going through Kenan Yildiz’s head as he watched all of that play out as he sat in the stands. It would certainly make for some interesting commentary!
- At least he looked good in that suit of his. Probably the only good thing about Juventus on this day.
- With how they played in this game, I can’t wait to see what Juventus do on my birthday against Rennes! I’m filled with so much optimism, but you’ve probably figured that out by now.
- Bourbon? Nah, just it’s better if we just forget that this game ever happened. If only it was that simple.
- Eleven points in seven games. That is just bad news, man. Setting up an ugly situation come the winter and spring if you don’t figure something out in a hurry.
- Juventus winless this season under the direction of Marco Domenichini and his track suit. Ah well.
- Spalletti said after the game that Juventus were a team that lacked ideas. And who’s on the hook for that?
- I’ll stop there. It feels like a good end point. Time to go outside and do something productive rather than whatever it is I just spent the last couple of hours watching.