The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 110: Juventus ends its U.S. tour on a down note

How will you remember Juventus’ summer tour of 2022?

For some of us, it will be because some youngsters impressed. For others, it will be the fact that Alex Sandro is still starting at left back for Juventus even though he’s been a shell of himself for the last couple of seasons. And for the rest, it’s just ... a few games in July and that’s pretty much all that needs to be said about that.

No matter how you look at it, Juve’s tour through the United States is now a thing of the past. The squad has made its way back to Italy, and the final stretch of preparations are now about to begin ahead of the Monday, Aug. 15, Serie A season opener against Sassuolo at Allianz Stadium.

So what do we make of the U.S. tour? And what do we think of some of the things that happened during Juventus’ week-and-a-half in the United States?

While there was some things that will make you worry, there were also some good things to happen. They might not have necessarily come against Real Madrid this past weekend, but overall it’s not like this tour — no matter how bad the last friendly was — was a total wash.

Hopefully. Maybe we’ll know for sure a couple of weeks from today.

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

• Rather than takeaways from the week that was, we have some takeaways from Juventus’ summer tour in the United States now that it has come to an end.
• Some thoughts on Juventus’ 2-0 loss to Real Madrid to close out the U.S. tour. (Don’t worry, they’re not much simply because Juve didn’t show all that much against the reigning European champions.)
• This might be hard to believe, but there’s a gulf in quality between Real Madrid and Juventus right now and Saturday night’s friendly only confirmed that.
• Injuries! Injuries are here!
• It’s not just Paul Pogba now, but Weston McKennie looks set to miss a month after separating his shoulder in training the morning of the Real Madrid friendly. Wojciech Szczesny also didn’t play against Real Madrid, although it’s unclear just how serious his muscle injury is.
• Twitter questions — including positives and negatives from the U.S. tour, who Max Allegri’s Swiss Army knife could be this coming season, what players or tactics could help Juventus with its struggles of playing out of the back, what Juve’s midfield could look like if there are no more additions this summer, and can we actually expect an improved Juve under Allegri this year.

You can listen to Episode 110 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast here:

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