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If you were to take the temperature of what our first podcast recording of the 2021-22 season would be like after 45 minutes, there would have been so many happy things said. Like, a lot. Because Juve were playing well and they were on their way to a relatively solid win over a side that was doing next to nothing in that first half.
Then it all came crumbling down.
Juventus’ season opener and Max Allegri’s return to wearing fancy suits on the sidelines saw a quality first-half performance turn into a second-half implosion. You can blame Wojciech Szczesny — and it would be deserved. You can point to some of Allegri’s decisions after the break — and it would be deserved, too. You can blame some other folks and it would be worth it as well.
But no matter how they got there, Juventus dropped points in its 2021-22 season opener, and there’s a whole lot that went into it.
That means we’re back to talking games. The summer is over. The preseason is over. Welcome back, Serie A. And welcome back to this podcast analyzing what Juventus did the day before.
On this week’s episode of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, we discuss:
- Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t start against Udinese, and the reasons as to why he was on the bench come kickoff differ depending on who you believe (either Max Allegri or the Italian press).
- Thoughts on the 2-2 draw against Udinese to open the 2021-22 season.
- Where did Max Allegri go wrong — especially in the second half? — against Udinese?
- What the hell is up with Wojciech Szczesny?
- Twitter questions involving Juve’s new third kits, Weston McKennie transfer rumors, Aaron Ramsey’s performance vs. Udinese and just how interested we think Juventus was in signing Gianluigi Donnarumma earlier this summer.
You can listen to Episode 61 of The Old Lady Speaks here:
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