The Juventus Hot Take Thermometer

I used to have a very annoying friend.

His heart was, at least most of the time, in the right place. But the poor SOB couldn’t help himself — he was constantly making up stories on the fly and expecting us all to believe him even though they were painfully, excruciatingly, obviously phony. He bailed on a couple bar tabs here and there, flaking on pre-arranged plans at the last second, getting weirdly aggressive when he was drunk ... just the works.

Eventually, we did stop hanging out with him. But, while trying to justify his antics, we would often defend them as “quirks.” Because that’s what you do when someone you like does annoying, awful stuff, you call them “quirks.”

Well, Serie A has a whole bunch of dumb quirks. One of the particularly dumb ones is the fact that the season starts so late that only two weeks into the season we have an international break. We just had a bonkers, thrilling, absurd game last week and then they take it away for the thrills of … Italy vs. Armenia?

I hate it so much.

Anyway, since here at BWRAO we are married to the #ContentLife, our fearless group of writers will still pump out articles for your reading pleasure, despite the fact there is nothing really going on and I can already see the comment section for this piece being flooded with OT comments.

The life of a blogger is thankless.

So, now, it’s time for the long hollowed tradition of Big J journalists of yesteryear. Time to over react and speculate wildly to a very small sample size of games. It’s take o’ clock all up in this joint. Let’s go through some of the most written, talked and tweeted takes that we have seen in this here blog and Juventus Twitter at large and see whether or not they actually hold up or it’s just the heat of the moment.

The Take: “MATTHIJS DE LIGT IS A BUST, WUNDERKIND MY ASS, NOT WORTH A DIME OF WHAT WE PAID, BRING BACK MEDHI BENATIA”

I mean, no, right? Very clearly, no. It’s wild we have to even say it, but no.

After the whole hullabaloo of him being benched for the first game of the season, we ended up seeing de Ligt start quickly enough. Not in the ideal conditions, but a start he got.

I’m one of the biggest de Ligt fans out here in these internet streets and if you think I’m going to defend the indefensible and say his last 30 minutes on the pitch were not that bad, you better go right ahead and read another blog because I have something called journalistic integrity, thank you very much. A CR7 stan, I am not.

(Only cheap shot at CR7 fans on this piece, I swear. Or is it?!)

Anyway, yes, his last 30 minutes of the Napoli game was dreadful and he should be criticized for it. He was arguably at fault for two of Napoli’s three goals and looked quite rough on a couple of occasions throughout the match. With that being said, his first 60 minutes were awfully impressive.

Photo by Filippo Alfero - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images

You are talking about a young dude, making his first (home) start, taking the place of the captain and club legend Giorgio Chiellini against the deadliest attack in Italy other than Juventus. Those are dire conditions for anybody and for the majority of the game, de Ligt performed quite admirably. I’m confident he will be more like that de Ligt than whatever we saw in the second half for the rest of the season.

The Verdict: Flaming Hot Take

The Take: “DOUGLAS COSTA SZN BABY, BEST PLAYER IN THE SQUAD BY A MILE”

It doesn’t take the sharpest footballing mind in the world to look at what Costa has been doing this season and come to this conclusion. Guy has been without a doubt the MVP of both of Juventus wins, already notching two assists in as many games. It’s fair to say Flash is very much back.

Will he continue to be the MVP of the season? Hard to say, we’ve always known Costa is extremely talented when healthy, healthy being the key word here. If he can manage to avoid any injuries, Maurizio Sarri’s system seems to be tailor made for the speedy Brazilian and if what we have been seeing is any indication, the sky is the limit.

I would still like to see more of him and his ability to remain out of the J Medical facilities for longer before making any statements, but the future looks very promising for Costa.

The Verdict: Mildly Spicy

The Take: “THE BOARD SUCKS, SQUAD IS BLOATED, THE EMRE CAN SAGA WILL TEAR THE CLUB APART”

Not going to sugarcoat it: Having a player that was supposed to be a key part of the squad openly thrashing the management within two weeks of the season starting is, well, how to put it …

There is an argument to be made that the board messed up by having so many players left and were unable to trim the squad, especially since a good amount of movement could have been done with time to spare. Aaron Ramsey was announced months ago, Adrien Rabiot was not announced in January but I can’t imagine the whole deal came about in a couple of weeks. If you knew those guys were incoming, why not sell before announcing the new transfers? Instead of desperately flailing about at the last second, trying to find a buyer, losing all leverage and having players feeling unwanted?

Some stuff wasn’t as predictable, who would have guessed Gonzalo Higuain would refuse any sort of move and stay to fight for his place in the squad? Not only that, but him actually playing well and starting? Also, with Chiellini’s recent injury, suddenly what seemed like a bloated center b1ack group feels slightly thin, so good thing Daniele Rugani stuck around.

Who knows what happens later, maybe Juve has a rash of injuries. Sami Khedira is well known for his injury issues, Costa as well. More rotation in the squad when the calendar crunches might be a good thing.

Can already kind of backtracked some of his comments, so it might have been a spur of the moment thing. Let’s wait and see.

The Verdict: TBD

Missed any takes? Send yours at BWRAOmailbag@gmail.com or write them in the comments, to get featured.