The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 174: Juventus look to be regressing to the mean

The good thing about this past week is that Juventus played twice and didn’t lose.

The bad thing about this past week is some old habits appear to be returning to Max Allegri’s tactical plans just when it looked like things might be turning for the more proactive.

The two performances this past looked a lot like what we’ve seen the last two years from Allegri and Allegri’s squad as a whole. The win over Lecce was nothing special. The draw with Atalanta — albeit without two of your top strikers — was nothing special. It was a regression to the mean, and the high press and high-energy approach appears to be put away in the closet for the time being with no return date in sight.

Good times, folks. Good times.

On Episode 174 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, we discuss:

• Takeaways from the week that was — including how this was a week and a pair of games where Juventus regressed back to the mean and how Max Allegri’s response on a tactical basis to the Sassuolo loss has been the very predictable one, which means going back to how things looked the last couple of years.
• The win over Lecce and the draw with Atalanta had very common themes even though they were different results.
• We are worried that Max Allegri is going back to his old ways, everybody.
• So what does that mean for Juventus going forward knowing that corto muso hasn’t gone all that well the last couple of years on the whole?
• How much did not having Dusan Vlahovic and Arek Milik play into Allegri’s decision to play for a draw rather than push for a win as Sunday’s game went on?
• Twitter questions — including patience with young players, the potential for Nicolo Fagioli and Fabio Miretti actually playing at the same time, and how Juventus’ manager and management have tried to tamper expectations regarding any potential Scudetto push.

You can listen to Episode 174 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast on your preferred podcasting platform or through the podcast player below:

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