Former Juventus Coach Marcello Lippi has offered his thoughts on the Bianconeri’s current woes, attributing part of the problem to Max Allegri’s ‘changes of direction.’
Lippi was speaking at a press conference to discuss his current role as Coach of the Chinese national team.
“I do not know why Juventus are struggling to play in all three competitions, but it makes for hard work, so to speak.” Lippi told the press conference.
“My impression is that not only Juve but also Roma and Napoli should be working to lubricate the mechanisms.
“Sarri was of course unfortunate to lose Higuain and then Milik through injury.”
Lippi then reflected on his time at Juve which included some notable victories in England.
“At Juve I had fantastic years, the current problems are due to changes of direction by Allegri because he has switched so much, also in midfield. The integration of great champions is not natural.”
“I can’t say why Juventus are, so to speak, struggling to handle their commitments in the Champions League and Serie A.
“It isn’t set in stone when you buy great players that they adapt quickly to their new environment.
“They are changes to be managed with great difficulty for a Coach.
“Pjanic and Higuain? The arrival of great champions isn’t a given [for success]. They have to get to know their new teammates and settle first.”
Lippi lamented the loss of Juve’s key midfield players over the years, notably the departures of players Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal – Three players who formed the cornerstone of much of Juve’s success under Antonio Conte and current Coach Max Allegri.
“After that, a very important player in Pogba left the club. Two years ago, the midfield was Pirlo-Vidal-Pogba.
“Last season, they played Lemina and Sturaro, with all due respect to them both.”
Thanks god, finally somebody with such a prestige and experience says the same thing: Juventus is on gradual but continuous decay. We are not dominant anymore, even when we win. Almost all worthy rivals outplayed us ( Milan, Inter, Napoli, Lyon, Sevilla), even those who lost against us.
Juventus results are ok, but the gameplay is a disaster! Our wins and points are mainly due to two parameters:
1- Moments of brilliance from our star players ( Buffon, Bonucci, Dybala, Higuain, …)
2- Juventus winning mentality which comes from club’s tradition and our old guard!
The problem is you can’t continue playing bad and keep winning! You finally get exposed as against Genoa, Milan and Inter. The injures are not helping neither, but the main problem is decay of our midfield, lack of tactical alternatives and the overall fighting attitude, which is also missing. Allegri better try to solve the problems before business end of the season. I personally think with ageing BBC, we should switch to back four and add one or two worthy midfielders ASAP. At the end of the season we can evaluate the possibility of moving to 4-3-1-2 or 4-3-3 and act according to that in mercato!
Forza Juve!
I get the point, but I wouldn’t call it decay! I think we all agree that performances need to improve, but so far we managed to win ugly – which is better than not winning at all!
The team so far has not been able to synchronize with each other, partially due to the large quantity of (recurring) injuries.
We managed to do well with what we have though: top of the table, likely group leaders in CL and possible a Supercoppa trophy. Things will only get better after January, as all the negative influences (or a lot of it) should be remedied by then.
For now, buckle up and let’s face the rough storm, I’m confident there is a golden future at hand.
(If you are new here, welcome to our community! If not, a late welcome from me anyway!)
Thanks man! I have been here for a while but mostly a silent reader! 🙂
I started out as a silent reader too! Glad to see you join the ranks of typers, haha!
I’m still a silent reader 😀
No you’re not anymore! 😛
Welcome to you as well! Keep posting or I will hunt you down! xD
I don’t think anyone can fix Juventus’s problems in the near term. At this point all we can realistically do is hope the team can grind out results and maintain the top seed with a little luck. In January we will get midfield reinforcements with betancur and probably Witsel but now the defense is a separate issue. I highly doubt you can find an adequate replacement for barzagli and bonnuci since they are the worlds best. All we can do is hope that the midfield turns it on in second half and we don’t get exposed too often at the back. If barzagli and bonnuci don’t make it back in time for the knockout stages of champions league I can’t see us progressing past the first round. Lots to absorb, beppe and co haven’t disappointed yet so let’s see what they can pull off in January.
It’s the first time i post on this site and I m from Malta. I have been following Juventus for the last 35 years. This year in my opinion is the worst showing from the conte allegri era. We are playing like a machine no flair no inventive midfield no ideas. No doubt we miss Dybala. I have thought and re thought what formation should we field to see some football. The best 11 in my humble opinion we have currently are buffon back 4 alves rugani/barza bonucci alex sandro midfiled with two marchisio khedira/pjanic both att wingers with pjaca and cuadrado att players dybala manzu or higuan with the latter getting most starts. We could field att 3 with all strikers in. It will give us the much needed injection of inventive striking options. The first option would give us flair and dribbling power on both flanks adding dybala. Injuries are hampering us unfortunately this season. We need playera to return to form as from March there is no going back.
So many of you are dissapointed in the way the team is playing. Im not saying im right, but i dont understand, at all. What do you guys expect? Tiki taka style of play? Our defense is solid, midfield still rusty due to a new face, injury of one of our main pillars and the fact that our midfield havent spent a whole season together. Dybala and Higuain are still yet to click fully as well. A team is a body, all pieces need to be in sync
I also dont get the context of which lippi is speaking. Because the results speak for themselves and the results say we are successful on both serie a AND Cl. If hes speaking of injuries, well im not sure whats with all the injuries. But to blame it all on allegri is STUPID, plain and simple. We ve struggled with injuries for as long as ive been a Juve supporter. Alves injury was unlucky, bonucci was amongst those that accumulated the most mins last year PLUS the euro 2016. i feel some of you all suffer with short term memory loss or cant at all see and feel through the perspective of a footballer.
I ASSUME this lippi interview was nit done in english and perhaps words were mistranslated, but again, i could be wrong, but a lot of you sound spoiled. Apologies for such unfilitered form of speaking, but the results are great and the performances have not been all too tbad either. I dont know what you guys expect from Juve. We defeated a tough sevilla side that have won the europa league three times in a row. Yea we lost to milan and that other shit club, but unlike they, we have a difficult calender and yet we re first place in all fronts. Take a breathe, the world isnt ending and Juve are doing great despite being plagued by injury.
Come on John, the team is definitely playing worse than last year. Players and staff acknowledge that too. No Juventino would expect tiki-taka (and if they do, they better switch to Barca) but Juve has been grinding out average performances. Last year and especially the year before that, Juve dominated pretty much anyone and anything. Now we get by, but only with the skin of our teeth.
I don’t even mean the losses to the Milano teams or to Genoa recently, even the victories were often hard laboured. But the results are damn good anyway, so I do agree that the complaining from some is over the top.
Blaming Allegri is uncalled for and I also feel annoyed when people can’t think of anything better than to call for his head. Allegri-managed teams usually do a whole lot better in the second half of the season and I am very confident Juve will perform a lot better after January, maybe February.
We re getting consistent reaults tho, in all comps. We just changed the squad again. Players have been injured.
The team has little to no chemistry. It takes time.
Yes, so they are not performing up to standard as of now 😛 due to those exact reasons. The good thing is that even while playing below par, we still have good results. Once everything is functioning as it should, Juve will be a true force to reckon with. But as you say, it does take time
Exactly. It’s pretty good to get a good result against Sevilla while playing not so good. That’s the positive you can get out of it.
We will never play tiki taka, it’s not the Juventus style. I agree people are overreacting lately, but we really need to step it up. It might all be because of the injuries, but we aint gonna beat Barca, Bayern or Real with this. People want the CL trophy and they see us failing for it again. Maybe that’s why they’re mad. Currently we are doing well.
What happened to Bonucci? I keep hearing he’s injured too..
We play to our opponents. The better the opponent, the better we play.
The only reason we lost to bayern is because of physcality reasons. Serie a is more competitive than bundesliga and we had to catch up. Took a physical toll and it showed, but we can very well keep up with the big dogs. They just have to believe
True. Only thats when we’re at full strength. With all these injuries i’m not so sure if we can keep up with them.
Yes, I agree. They are not playing well. However we’re first in both competitions. Max is the best coach in Italy and one of the best in the world.
Forza Juve!!
I love Lippi. He did however lose 3 Champions League finals…