The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 83: Juve’s silent night at the San Siro

Juventus has officially finished its January slate of games.

How are we feeling about it all? Are we happy? Are we frustrated? Are we just naturally grumpy considering what state the world is in as we get ready to begin the second month of 2022? Do Max Allegri’s tactics make you want to bash your head against the sometimes? Maybe most of the time? What about all of the time?

OK, enough questions.

But what we saw to close out January was ... not great. Knowing that Juventus needed points — not one point! — and had the chance to jump up into fourth place following Atalanta’s scoreless draw against Lazio 24 hours earlier, Allegri’s squad went out and ... played their own scoreless draw against AC Milan. It was not a great game. it was probably one of those games (and results) where, in a lot of other seasons, this result would have been a pretty OK situation to just take the point, head back to Turin and be done with it.

This season, however, is not like a lot of those previous seasons. Juventus needed to take advantage of the situation and try to strike against a shorthanded Milan side — especially in defense — and that ... didn’t happen.

Rather than going into the international break a point ahead of Atalanta in fourth place, Juventus is still in fifth, a point behind Atalanta, which still has a very crucial game in hand.

I think you know what we focused on during this podcast episode.

On this week’s episode of the Old Lady Speaks, we discuss:

• Takeaways from the week that was, including Juventus’ misfiring attack, the rediscovering of form for some former outcasts and if a certain Dusan Vlahovic would have actually helped against AC Milan based on how the team played.
• A much, much deeper dive into the scoreless draw against Milan from Sunday night, where Juve’s inconsistent attack barely created much of anything against a second-string defense.
• No, seriously. Juve’s attack was not good at all against Milan.
• Some talk about the story reported by Tuttosport earlier in the week that stated Juventus’ front office is going to try and convince the club’s six soon-to-be free agents to take paycuts of 15% each. The most notable free agent to be, Paulo Dybala, is in the midst of a long-standing negotiation with Juventus that has him seeking out the highest salary at the club.
• Twitter questions about: Federico Chiesa’s recovery from major knee surgery, Daniele Rugani suddenly being thrust into action and just how much confidence this season has given us for Max Allegri and the future.

You can listen to Episode 83 of The Old Lady Speaks here:

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