A season removed from their worst in team history, and a day after their two to nil victory over fellow perennial top-table finishers Roma, Juventus find themselves still tragically glued to the 7th spot in the Serie A table. While last season can only be explained as a total disaster, both on the field and in the board room, the re-tooled 2010/2011 edition of Juve are undefeated against the traditional “top 4” of Roma, Inter and Milan.
So, why is it Juve are a virtual lock to miss the Champions’ League again this season, and also in danger of no European football at all next season? In all likelihood, it will be their performances against the minnows of Italy that will doom this Juventus squad.
In England, it is commonly accepted that how you fair against the top teams decides your championship caliber. Perhaps this season aside, teams like Arsenal, United and Chelsea are expected to pocket full points against the likes of lower-tier teams like your Wigans and Wolves of the league with very few setbacks. It is how the eventual champion copes against the tops of the league that traditional decides the Premier League each season. “To be the best, you have to beat the best,” so the cliché goes. But to paraphrase Jose Mourinho in his time at Inter, Italy is different.
Essentially, Mourinho, even in his short time in Italy, pinpointed the subtle difference separating a Serie A champion from a Premier League champion. While it is important to take points off your closest rivals in Italy, in a league of tactical systems and tightly contested games week in and week out, it is how you fair against the lower teams that decides your Scudetto chances at the end of each season.
And where do a once proud champion and current 7th place team fit into all this? Unfortunately for Juve, this season they are experiencing Mourinho’s words the hard way.
With a mere seven games remaining in their season, Juventus has completed their games with all three other traditional powers in Italy, and of the 18 points possible, they have plundered 14 from their rivals. An impressive haul for any team in any league wouldn’t you say? But this is also a team that beat their fiercest rivals in Inter only to be humiliated in back to back weeks by Lecce and Bologna respectively. Not to mention losses to Bari and Parma this season as well. For Juve, each step forward seemly always precedes two steps back.
So, how will this Juventus team respond this time around? The win in Roma will go a long way to restore the confidence of the players, and possibly even some of the faith in manager Gigi Delneri. But with Juventus’ tendency to bottle games after big victories, Delneri will to have his side in a big game frame of mind against even lowly Genoa this coming match day at home. His job may even depend on it.
One thing is for sure, after another rollercoaster-like season, it won’t be Juventus’ record against the big boys of Italy that will doom them to the infamy of a season without European football next year. Sadly, when the bianconeri faithful survey the remains of their team at the end of this season, they’ll have to conclude the true demise of their team’s aspirations were the result of being eaten alive by minnows.
World Football Daily
