While the opening-round win in Udine made the fans dream of a more entertaining style of football, Juventus have surely regressed back to the same uninspiring brand of football that has been on display in recent years.
On Sunday, the Bianconeri seemed satisfied with a draw in what unfolded as a cagey and forgettable affair in Bergamo.
While Atalanta weren’t brilliant either, the hosts were the more dangerous side when it came to creating genuine chances, and a telling statistic reveals as much.
According to JuventusNews24, Max Allegri’s men registered an Expected Goals of just 0.19. On the other hand, Atalanta’s xG was 1.26.
This shocking statistic reveals that Juventus were never truly close to scoring a single goal. Moise Kean, Nicolo Fagioli and Federico Chiesa each had a shot on target, but none was particularly threatening, with Juan Musso comfortably dealing with all three.
Juve FC say
The source argues that this number highlights the importance of Dusan Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik who were both missing yesterday through injuries.
However, Juve’s barren play is more down to the collective rather than individuals, as the team rarely creates enough chances for the attackers.
So unless the team’s rhythm improves, we can expect our strikers to struggle for goals, regardless of their identities.
Octagon football at its finest
Michael – just say it – Juve’s sterile play is all down to Allegri and no-one else. Clearly he has sidelined Magnanelli because he was getting rave reviews for bringing a pressing game to Juventus, but Allegri won’t have anyone take credit so we have now gone back to boring, uninspiring and regressive Allegri football. We’ll be lucky to hold on to Chiesa and Dusan in January.