As much as we wanted to say that this was the start of a new-look Juventus side, it ended up being a situation where Max Allegri rolled out a starting lineup on Sunday that featured all of one brand new summer signing. There was still a different looking side than the last time Juventus played a game on Italian soil, but there were more projected starters out injured than there were new acquisitions from the past couple of months.
When it came to making a good first impression on the first day of the Serie A season ... anybody else want a do-over?
Juventus didn't look very good whatsoever in a 1-0 loss to Udinese at Juventus Stadium, the first time Juve have lost a season opener on their home turf. It has caused us to doubt whether hearing "Juventus lost Pirlo, Vidal and Tévez this summer" for 90 minutes was really worth it. (That's a brand new drinking game to take part in, by the way. If you participated in it, you would have been done for by halftime if you went through with it.) And, in turn, caused the collective masses to throw themselves down the stairs because Juventus won't be in first place from the start of the season to the final day of it.
See what you do to us, Juventus? DO YOU SEE IT?
Yes, I understand that Juve played like crap. They had 10,000 scoring chances and Udinese scored its first one late in the second half. One single defensive breakdown from Stephan Lichtsteiner and the chance to get one point at the very minimum went up in smoke.
Truth be told, though, it should have never gotten to that point. Juventus had plenty of chances to score the game's opening goal. As Udinese even struggled to get across midfield for a large portion of Saturday's proceedings, Juventus struggled to get anything in the back of the net. There were bright spots, surely, but the overall struggle to be effective on a team-wide view of things will be the theme that everybody will be talking about.
Here's what we know, in a nuts-and-bolts kind of fashion:
- Juventus lost 1-0 to Udinese.
- It's the first weekend of the 2015-16 season.
See where I'm going with this? Good, because it's important to remember while you're thinking about how to roll down the stairs. I'll be worried if this happens in December or January, not on the third Sunday in August.
.@OfficialAllegri: "It wasn’t an easy game but we did create plenty of chances. We should, however, have defended better for their goal."
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) August 23, 2015
Random thoughts and observations
- The value of Claudio Marchisio was even that much more magnified in Saturday's loss. This is more to do with what Marchisio brings to the table rather than Simone Padoin being used as a holding midfielder. We know Padoin's versatile yet has a limited skill set that is suited more for other spots in the midfield or as a fullback. I guess we shouldn't be surprised the step down from Marchisio is a big one seeing as how he's adapted to being a regista over the last 12 months.
Sure would have liked to see Stefano Sturaro play in front of the defense, though, Max. - Juventus are now 0-1 in games where Gigi Buffon wears an all-yellow keeper kit that is made by adidas. He should never wear it again.
- Apparently starting Kingsley Coman on Serie A opening day is a thing for Allegri to do. Maybe it wasn't the "OH MY GOD IT'S KINGSLEY COMAN!" kind of first game of the season like last year, Coman certainly showed some of that potential we all know he has. It's pretty funny that it came just a few minutes after reports emerged about him potentially going to Bayern Munich. Ironic, since if Coman was actually leaving, why would he be playing?
- I have pictures of Alex Sandro sitting on the bench in my photo tool. I hope there's pictures of Alex Sandro playing in games in my photo tool somewhat soon.
- Paul Pogba's first game as Juventus' No. 10 in front of the Juventus Stadium crowd was pretty much a dud. Maybe he felt like he had a little too much to do thanks to all the injuries, I dunno. But it just wasn't the classic Pogba game where he had the chance to take things over and then did exactly that.
- Allegri storming down the tunnel right as the halftime whistle blew pretty much summarized this game in a nutshell.
- Part of the good things to happen against Udinese: Roberto Pereyra was all over the place and Stephan Lichtsteiner was even more of threat down the right wing than he usually is.
- Start Paulo Dybala next weekend against Roma, Max.
- Have Paulo Dybala take corners and free kicks next weekend against Roma, Max.
- I guess we wait for Cuadrado Day now. Seems like it's soon, which will hopefully make us all forget about what just happened against Udinese.