As I do pretty much every Saturday on my 30-minute drive home from work on Saturdays, I give my mom a call to help pass the time during a relatively boring trip down the interstate. I told her that Juventus were finally back this weekend after the longest international break of any of our collective lives, and that wasn’t exactly good news with some of their performances this season.
She was a little confused because, well, she’s accustomed to me talking about Juventus being good, not the version of them that we’ve watched for the majority of the last few years.
Well, mom, I’ve got some unfortunate news: It turns out my hunch that Sunday night’s trip to Sardinia might be a completely forgettable one was on the money.
Juventus returned from the international break not with a bang but a relative whimper. Cagliari, one of the biggest early success stories of this 2026-27 season in Serie A, looked to be well on their way to claiming yet another 1-0 win and doing something they’ve never done in club history — five victories in their first six games. And it’s not like Juve were doing a lot to truly prevent that from happening until Randal Kolo Muani got his first Serie A goal of the season to salvage a 1-1 draw in what was otherwise a totally maddening performance from Luciano Spalletti’s squad to begin a huge stretch of games over the next 29 days.
Rather than start strong, Juve did the opposite of that. No matter how much possession they had — and they had a lot of it! — it’s not like they did a ton with it. It wasn’t until the final stages of the second half which Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile was consistently tested. The bright start that Juve had on Sunday that involved lots of short and quick passing (yet no end product) was mostly replaced by the same that has hampered Juventus for years now — slow passing, horizontal passing and struggling to break down a low block that Spalletti very much knew that Cagliari were going to set up in.
And just as Spalletti figured would happen, it was on a counter in which Cagliari made Juve pay for the opening goal — which, shockingly, came on the first shot on target of the evening. (Except it’s not shocking at all.)
Juventus got things wrong against Cagliari without a doubt. Spalletti got it wrong. The players got it wrong when it came to execution, and they are pretty damn lucky to come away with a point.
Then again, the result was better than their last trip to Sardinia, so … progress?
OK, so that is said completely in jest. But the overwhelming worry after three weeks without a game is just how bad Juventus looked. It’s a different kind of game state than what we saw against Sassuolo when the defense completely fell apart and threw away a result in the closing seconds after a frantic final 10-15 minutes. This was a Juventus team that looked totally bereft of ideas when it came to cracking the Cagliari defense for much of the night — which, considering it was another instance of an opponent using a low block against them, isn’t any sort of surprise at this point. And with Cagliari doing what they doing and looking to hammer you on the counter, Juve’s high line ran the risk of being their secondary downfall if not for a couple of Guglielmo Vicario saves in the second half.
Ultimately, though, this was just the latest example of what this current version of Juventus is — nothing special.
For as good of a story as Cagliari is — and they could have gone to third place in the Serie A table if they held on for the win on Sunday night — Juventus are just not a very good team until proven otherwise. When they don’t face sub-par Dutch opposition this season they have struggled to score, and that means they are running the risk of one mistake at the back resulting in being a complete game changer as it looked like it would be against Cagliari.
What we saw Juve struggle with in this game is nothing new. It’s not breaking news that they couldn’t generate offense against an opposite that sits back and counters. The fact that the man who is calling the shots on the sidelines and this team as a whole still haven’t found some sort of way to fix it is the overlying worry in all of this.
Or maybe this is just who they will continue to be this season. We haven’t really been proven otherwise yet.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Juventus are back, and so is the fact they conceded a goal on the first shot on goal.
- Maybe, just maybe, they should have listened to their manager when it comes to how Cagliari plays — they will counter, and they will make you pay for it. Simple as that, folks.
- Cagliari in a Champions League spot entering mid-October. Just as we all predicted.
- Over 70% possession. Total of 22 shots. Yet one goal. Disgusting.
- Cagliari had four shots and got a point out of this game. Disgusting.
- That Cagliari goal was just bad defending from so many people wearing that lovely pink Juventus jersey.
- Speaking of which, Juventus’ last two instances of wearing said pink jersey have come in the loss against Sassuolo and now this draw with Cagliari. Maybe as lovely as it is now has some sort of jinx on things.
- That cross from Kerim Alajbegović on the Kolo Muani goal — pretty good!
- That finish from Kolo Muani on the cross from Alajbegović — also pretty good!
- The rest of Kolo Muani’s game was not very good at all. His decision making continues to leave a lot to be desired, his passing as a result sometimes leaves you wanting to slam the keyboard or type in all caps. He is very much not a true No. 9 trying to play as a long striker up front and gets isolated a good portion of the time (although not all of that is his fault). I don’t think it’s any surprise that Kolo Muani looked better once Nick Woltemade came on and he had a little more freedom to operate where there was a bit more space to run onto the ball. If only that happened more often, right?
- Another sign of how Woltemade helped Kolo Muani was on the goal itself. Woltemade drew bodies with him, Kolo Muani ran in behind and was able to finish with the header. When it works as it should it does make you happy.
- I think it’s safe to say that Pape Sarr should be starting much more often now that he’s healthy. That man broke up a whole lot of potential Cagliari counterattacks in this game. This was a really nice game from him.
- Three key passes and 97% pass completion from Sarr, too? Yeah, more of that.
- Edon Zhegrova is such a tough player to potentially rely on because he will look great for like 30 or 35 minutes like he did against Cagliari and then leave you wondering what the heck he’s doing for the next 10 or 15 minutes. This was a prime example of that.
- I miss when Pierre Kalulu was in the kind of form that had us thinking he was a total non-issue on this team. His form this season has been so far off what we’ve seen from him his first two years with Juventus.
- The return of Andrea Cambiaso to the field was about expected. There were a few moments in which he contributed to things going forward, but there were also so many giveaways and frustrating decisions. At least after one of those bad giveaways he hustled back and helped get the ball back, so there’s that, I guess.
- I really lost count of how many times Douglas Luiz had the ball at his feet, looked to his left, looked to his right, maybe stepped one direction and then went to the other, and things just were so slow in developing. That’s not always a Douglas Luiz issue and solely himself to blame, but it’s just a by-product of how Juve’s build-up against Cagliari really was so dang slow.
- Juventus’ defensive line was so high in this game that Gleison Bremer was basically the only player in pink that had an average position in his defensive half of the field. Everybody else was in the Cagliari half of the field and that tells you everything you need to know.
- On the other end of the spectrum, Daniel Maldini had the highest position of any Cagliari player and he’s basically at the halfway line.
- But hey, when it comes to which playing style and tactical setup was more effective on Sunday night, I feel safe in saying that Cagliari completely executed theirs as compared to whatever it was that Juventus tried to achieve.
- Just a big old sigh. It’s gonna be a long month (and season) if it stays like this.
- Not even Kolo Muani’s goal could change how I felt about this overall performance. Pass the rocks glass.