TIME UP FOR ALLEGRI?

First of all, a brief report on what happened during tonight's game with Atletico Madrid. As expected the game initially resembled a battle rather than a game of football, as Atletico pressed forward in harassing Juventus, as well as the referee too and enjoying doing so. It was an opening 45 minutes that presented few clear cut chances for either side but there were moments when either side could have taken a lead, as well as a VAR decison to award a free kick rather than an Atletico Madrid penalty, replays showed that it was indeed the correct decison, as De Sciglio (who had a performance to forget) made contact with Diego Costa outside of the box. 

The second half however was a completely different story. With only 4 minutes of the second half played Atletico had their first opportunity to take the lead, Chiellini losing possession in midfield which allowed Diego Costa a run on goal for a 1 v 1 effort on Szczesny, somehow the striker missed the target completely and Chiellini blushes were spared. Juventus were soon on the receiving end of another Atletico attack, and would have found themselves behind from a Griezmann chipped shot, had it not been for Szczesny making the slightest of touches to push the ball onto the crossbar. You would think this would be a wake up call, and it was. . . For Atletico. Sensing an opportunity to grab the game by the throat, Diego Simeone decided to change his side up by bringing on both Alvaro Morata & Lemar within minutes of each other. Allegri did nothing. Simeone again made another substitution by bringing on the attacking Angel Correa in place of Spanish midfielder Koke, Allegri still did nothing, and this all happened within the space of ten minutes. From then on Atletico proceeded to relentlessly batter Juventus, and it didn’t take long for Atletico to finally hit the back of the net. During the build up to tonights game, Alvaro Morata was asked if he would celebrate scoring a goal against Juventus, he answered yes and did just that by scoring with a great header to put Atletico 1-0 ahead, or so he thought. After consulting VAR the referee disallowed the goal for Morata pushing Chiellini prior to the goal being scored, once again, Juventus blushes were spared. As the game approached the final 10 minutes Juventus finally paid for tempting fate one too many times, failing to defend Atletico’s corner and conceding in scrappy form, the defending was poor and the goal had been coming for some time. Within 5 minutes Atletico once again scored to double their lead, and yet again it was scored from a corner kick, 2-0. The worst part is that there can be no arguments about the result, the better team won and Juventus deservedly lost.

And that's how the game ended, no away goal that Allegri had been talking about prior to the game and worst of all a 2-0 defeat to try and somehow overturn back in Turin. So where exactly does this leave Juventus? To put it bluntly, not in a good position, not at all. This result means that in all likely hood Juventus will end the season lifting one trophy, not even the consolation of achieving yet another domestic double to patch up their wounds from European Elimination. This simply is not good enough, not for a club that openly stated their objective to win the Champions League, not for a club that brought in Mr Champions League himself Cristiano Ronaldo to do just that. As for the match itself, you have to wonder why it took Allegri so long to make changes when his side was clearly on the back foot during the second half, even more baffling is why it took so long for Allegri to finally bring on Cancelo, waiting until 84 minutes had been played despite De Sciglio largely having a horror performance throughout the night.

Which brings up the old debate that constantly comes into conversation with every passing season, is it time to say goodbye to Massimiliano Allegri? This fan thinks that it is, and its been on the cards for some time now. Unattractive style of play, consistently coming out second best in tactical battles on the big stage, taking far too long to react to opponents that adapt to Juventus during a game, these are all incidents that have happened throughout the current season, as well as the previous season. An early 2-0 lead against Tottenham at this stage of the champions league last season, quickly turned into Tottenham domination and a 2-2 draw, was Allegri to blame for his tactical approach? Not according to the man himself who said later that night “I didn’t ask the team to go deep, more than anything else we were pushed back by Tottenham. After that 25-minute spell when they pinned us back, we couldn’t get back out.” fast forward a year later, and Allegri is deflecting criticism once again after another poor result in Europe, “Atletico Madrid force you to play badly, with a slow tempo. We moved the ball quicker in the first half, but not in the second. We got the approach wrong in the second half. It’s that simple” surely if an opponent is pushing you back into your own half, as manager it is your responsibility to change your tactics & approach to combat this? Surely, if you your opponent if forcing you to "play badly, with a slow tempo" then as manager you should be trying to combat this from the sidelines, rather than simply stand by and watch events unfold?

During Allegri's time as manager Juventus have enjoyed unprecedented success domestically, but on the European stage its been a different story. The warning signs were flashing for all to see last season, and are still on display now. Some could even argue that had it not been for a late collapse by Napoli in the Scudetto race, Juventus would not be the current champions of Italy. Even a failing manager such as Jose Mourinho who couldn't last the season at Manchester United was able to tactically get the better of Allegri. Tonight was not only defeat for Juventus, but a clear case of one manager getting the better of his rival.