Juventus this year decided to play one half per game, not two like all their opponents. Sometimes time is the first. Sometimes, like at the Artemio Franchi in Florence, it is the latter. The bianconeri have almost never played both, something that could also have been there when they dominated the championship far and wide. The reasons are incomprehensible, but the point is that when they don’t play it it’s a low-ranking team, when they play it they are in the first places. Considering the opponents, the average is the miserable current situation, miserable when compared with the previous nine years, that is, fighting for the qualification to the Champions League.
In Florence the responsibility was clearer than on other occasions: six days from the end, Andrea Pirlo decided to field the team for the first time with a pure 352, with the result that the bianconeri almost never crossed the half-field. Little by little Fiorentina took the lead, shot on goal, nearly took the lead with a deflected shot from a Juventus player on the post and then took the lead with a penalty awarded by the Var.
The disadvantage did not shake the Italian champions still in office for a few weeks. Paulo Dybala is the shadow of the formidable player admired three or four years ago. At one point he showed up and Juventus built an action that Aaron Ramsey, the biggest disappointment in recent years, failed face to face with the Fiorentina goalkeeper.
In the second half, Juventus played football, abandoning the unprecedented 352 and replacing the dull Dybala. After a minute, the Argentine’s replacement, the Spaniard Alváro Morata, did what Dybala never did, namely a sprint forward, thanks to which he received the ball on the right which he then put at the opposite intersection, let’s say to the Dybala. One by one, then the final result.
Unleashed, Morata immediately tried to double his head and has always put his opponents in apprehension, for the simple fact that he did not stand still waiting for balls that never arrived.
On the right axis with Cuadrado and Kulusevski, the latter taking over from Bonucci, Juventus has created several hypotheses of scoring chances. The young Kulusevski had at least a couple of times the opportunity to score, but he didn’t succeed. At one point, Kulusevski put the ball on the head of the best scorer of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo, but Cristiano Ronaldo clicked it as a rookie, exactly as he had a few weeks ago against Napoli. Cristiano is a problem for Juventus at the moment. He does not score anymore and very often he is the worst on the field. CR7 would need to rest, of course. But every time Juventus loses or draws, also because they have no alternatives in attack this year. In short, a complicated ranking, a future in the balance and a difficult team to fix.