The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 114: Juve goes all Jekyll & Hyde vs. Roma

Everybody was curious to see just what Juventus team was going to show up Saturday night against Roma. Considering the last time we saw the Bianconeri play it was a total mess, the importance of Juventus playing well in their first big match of the season was undeniable.

And, we got Good Juventus.

For at least one half. The majority of the other half? Well ...

Juventus’ first-half performance against Roma was the kind of effort that a lot of us around here have been begging for over the last 16 months since Max Allegri marked his return to the club. Yet, seeing it happen has actually been few and far between. Until the first half of Juventus’ 1-1 draw with Roma. It unfortunately was a draw because Juventus couldn’t sustain the effort it put forward in the first 50-55 minutes.

And because of said draw, Juve heads into the first busy part of the schedule still very much a work in progress and one that needs to start banking points rather than a single point every time they take the field.

So, as you can imagine, Juve’s good first half and not-so-good second half is where the discussion on this week’s podcast centers around.

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

• Our takeaways from the week that was — including Juve showing a heartbeat after last Monday’s crapfast against Sampdoria, how Juve might have a guy who can actually be a threat from a free kick again, and how Fabio Miretti’s emergence might mean the end for one or two midfielders currently on the Juventus roster.
• Thoughts on Juventus’ 1-1 draw with Roma from over the weekend.
• The good, the bad, the questionable from Juve’s performance against Roma, a game in which Juventus probably dropped two points more than deserved a draw.
• How weird it was to see Paulo Dybala playing against Juventus for the first time since his days at Palermo.
• We bask in the glory of Fabio Miretti’s first start of the 2022-23 season and hope that Max Allegri allows us to see more of such in the immediate future.
• Thoughts on Juventus’ Champions League group, one that includes Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica and Maccabi Haifa.
• Twitter questions — including if Juventus has a chance for a top four finish if Paul Pogba and Angel Di Maria are injured on a consistent basis, will Fabio Miretti’s star performance against Roma translate into Max Allegri giving him more playing time, and why Filip Kostic hasn’t been all that great to begin his Juve career.

To listen to Episode 114 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, listen here:

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