Juventus 0-1 Milan was the final score from last nights heavyweight Serie A clash as the 27 time Scudetto winners crashed to defeat again in Serie A. After defeating European champions Inter almost a month ago it looked as if Juve had turned a corner, but defeats to Lecce and then Bologna plunged Juve into crisis and a pretty average performance against Milan last night, who were comfortable right from the word go, looks to have all but ended Juve's attempts to qualify for next seasons champions league, especially after Lazio, now in fourth, extended their lead over them to ten points with just ten games to go. And, with a rejuvenated Cesena up next for Juve things may even get worse.
The question now is how long can Del Neri, and his ridgid 4-4-2 tactic, hang on. Marotta has acknowledged that Del Neri is the future of Juve and if that pans out to be true all the Juventini out there can probably look forward to more trophy less seasons to come. One doubts if Del Neri's time of the Juve bench will last much longer however. Injuries have played their part in a disappointing season but strange substitutions, such as not bringing on more offensive options last night in light of needed three points down, will no doubt have infuriated the Juve faithful especially as Milan as well did not look at their most fluid and could have been exposed if put under more offensive pressure. Instead Juve kept things tight without showing any adventure going forward. This is not what chairman Andrea Agnelli would have expected especially given the huge amount of investment in the squad over the last few seasons.
For Juve fans out there it looks as if it will end in disappointment once again this season and the now yearly calls of an overhaul in the summer will be ringing around all mercato web sites come the end of May. To a degree this is merited but there is quailty in this Juve squad especially in midfield. They simply need some new forwards and a world class coach to harness this.
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