sport news Sacking Massimiliano Allegri will be expensive, but may be best for Juventus trends now
What happened to the coach capable of making smart choices and improving the players? Allegri is no longer the man who twice led Juventus to the Champions League final.
Little hair on his head, few ideas on the pitch: Massimiliano Allegri spent a lot of time touching his forehead and neck without being able to bring out the best in his players on Wednesday night against Benfica. Just 34,015 spectators at the Allianz Stadium attended one of the worst matches in recent years.
In the second week of September, the Bianconeri are in an identity crisis. Allegri has always preached to the media that he wants to be judged only on the basis of the results: with this algorithm the judgment on his work would be catastrophic.
Massimiliano Allegri didn't know how to turn the game in Juventus' favour against Benfica
Juventus' attitude is like that of Don Abbondio in Alessandro Manzoni's novel 'Promessi Sposi': it is a fearful team that is afraid of its shadow, it hides its limits so as not to face reality.
Juventus are a team that has elected Danilo as their charismatic leader, a normal player who has failed to upgrade to Real Madrid and Manchester City.
The feeling is that Juventus has squandered the wealth of charisma accumulated in 10 years by returning to being a normal team. This side is worse than the one coached by Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo, and Allegri does not seem to have the courage and intuition to be able to improve his seasonal fortunes.
It is no longer possible to wait, it is no longer possible to hope to fix things with caution. The feeling is that something must be done to shake a team that is asleep and does not want to wake up.
Juventus needs an emotional shock to recover and Allegri, the man who yells at everyone for 90 minutes to stay calm, should distribute coffee and not chamomile tea to his players.
Allegri is not getting the best out of Dusan Vlahovic, who arrived as a hot prospect in January
It is difficult to hypothesise an immobile club in the face of the destruction of the team's seasonal path and changing coaches could be the simplest and quickest solution to restore energy to the squad.
Dusan Vlahovic desperately requires guidance and Allegri is not the right man to improve the Serbian striker's talent.
The Bianconeri is afraid, plays with fear and shyness and they do not provide physical and mental resistance to any opponent.
Seeing a technical and economic heritage like that of Vlahovic squandered is causing a lot of irritation to the club and the fans who are clinging to the hope that he can try to get them out of this very negative moment.
The team is not physically prepared
In times of difficulty, the Old Lady has no key players who can manage the game.
After 25 minutes it was as if the players had pulled the plug from the electrical socket as Benfica ran at double the speed of their opponents, who seemed to be playing without oxygen due to poor physical preparation.
Allegri observed paralysed and frightened players and it seems that the moment of a shock has come to be able to awaken this tangle of boys who have not understood what it means to play at Juventus.
Claudio Marchisio spoke to Amazon Prime about the difficult physical moment of the team: 'I can't think of a physical problem after 30 days of football, in mid-September, but Benfica ran much more than Juventus and this worries me a lot.'
A lucid analysis that reveals that one of the biggest problems of the team is linked to the poor physical condition of the players trained by the athletic trainer Simone Folletti. Every match Juventus has at least two players out due to a muscle injury and this unpleasant situation has become a habit.
Juventus looked tired against Benfica, and their physical fitness has become a major issue
Allegri is a disaster
His famous phrase in front of the Sky Sports microphones after the criticisms received for Juventus' lack of entertainment in 2018 became the perfect synthesis of his football: 'To go and have fun there is the circus. I want to win, I always want to do it'.
After 14 months Allegri has not yet found a suitable tactical system for the quality of the team and its players. 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, he has tried all the formations without ever managing to find a tactical balance.
