The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 93: Juve plays well, still somehow lose Derby d’Italia

Sunday night was something we hadn’t seen from Max Allegri and Juventus in a little while. The Bianconeri, with their most-hated rivals in town, fielded a very attack-minded lineup, with all of Allegri’s best attacking options starting from the opening kickoff. The energy was high, the press just as high and lots of good things happened that it was the kind of turn for the better we had been waiting for all season.

Except, Juventus never scored.

Not in that really good first half. Not in the second half. Not at all Sunday night.

Juventus lost Sunday’s Derby d’Italia to Inter Milan 1-0, with a first-half penalty being the difference between the two sides. It was possibly Juve’s last chance to jump up ahead of their rivals from Milan, with there now being a four-point gap between the two sides and Inter still to play its game in hand. It was a missed opportunity for Allegri’s squad knowing just how well they came out of the gates — and that’s even with refereeing calls being all over the place (and then some) for much of the night.

So, yeah.

This week we talk nothing but the Derby d’Italia.

It wouldn’t be any other way.

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

• Takeaways from the week that was that might as well have been takeaways from Sunday night’s loss. They include: How well Juventus played compared to Inter; maybe how there’s a little too much positivity about how Juventus played against Inter and how it was rather ironic that Juve played one of their more energetic and more lively games in a losing effort.
• Expanded thoughts on Sunday’s loss to Inter because that is the elephant in the room.
• Like, really, what else did you expect us to talk about knowing we’re just out of an international break?
• Sidebar to the main bar: Thoughts on Paulo Dybala’s performance against Inter knowing full well this is the beginning to his final two months as a Juventus player.
• Even though he will be around for a short period of time, is the 4-2-3-1 the way to go as long as Dybala stays healthy the rest of the season? Or, at least when he is available?
• Twitter questions — including two very important questions about why we think Juve can’t score as well as how much shooting practice should be in the works coming up in training after Sunday night’s less-than-stellar performance in front of goal; and if not renewing Dybala’s contract is really the best thing this team needs knowing its issues.

You can listen to Episode 93 of The Old Lady Speaks here:

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