Horncastle: The Max-Factor: 5 reasons why Juventus won Serie A
When you look back through this cycle at Juventus, it’s possible to identify one player with each Scudetto. Andrea Pirlo was instrumental in the first. Arturo Vidal stepped up for the second. Carlos Tevez got much of the credit for his role in the third and fourth. This year it’s hard to look beyond Gigi Buffon. I would even argue that he is this season’s MVP in Serie A. When you consider the standards Buffon has set down the years, it’s astonishing to think that, at 38, this has been one of his best campaigns. People have forgotten about his save from Bostjan Cesar against Chievo in September. The reaction time was 0.3 seconds and had he not made it Juventus would have lost their opening three games. If he doesn’t stop Kamil Glik in the Turin derby in November, the comeback never begins. The double save from Mario Balotelli against Milan and Sunday night's penalty heroics leave me in little doubt that he actually had a better season from a performance standpoint even than Manuel Neuer and David de Gea. He broke a 22-year record, going 16 hours and 13 minutes without conceding a goal. On its own, all of this would be enough to make his candidacy for Juventus’ Player of the Year compelling. But the leadership Buffon showed at the darkest, most delicate moments of Juventus’ season make it indisputable. Cast your mind back to him going behind the goal to tell the fans to stop whistling and to get behind the team at half-time against Chievo. Then, more famously, the ‘Sassuolo Address’ when he spoke out and shook the team to its senses, which is widely regarded as the turning point in this campaign. Without Buffon, Juventus do not win this Scudetto. You might argue that their season would have drifted like Chelsea's.
The Coach
“If you can keep your head when all all you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…” Is their a better crisis manager in football than Massimiliano Allegri? This season was reminiscent, in some respects, with his last one at Milan, except the experience made him better for it. Instead of losing Thiago Silva, Zlatan and a number of veterans, Allegri had to move on without Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez and bring through a new generation. They got off to an awful start. Injuries decimated them. Milan lost five of their opening 10 games in 2012. Juventus had only 12 points at the same stage this season. Amid all the hysteria, Allegri never allowed it to get contagious. He kept everybody calm and sent all the right messages. His Twitter feed from those days makes an interesting read. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. In order to learn how to swim you’ve got to put your head under water. Serie A is a marathon, not a 100m sprint. People need to be patient. The sermon he preached was a simple one. Rather than allow yourself to be fazed by the enormity of the task ahead, particularly when Juventus were 11 points off the top going into November, climb the mountain one step at a time. Don’t look at the table. Never look beyond the next game. Allegri radiated calm. There was no sense of panic or urgency. Patience was the virtue. Milan lost only once after Christmas and qualified for the Champions League for the last time in 2012. Juventus won 24 of their next 25 games and clinched a fifth straight Scudetto with three to spare. He integrated Paulo Dybala, Alex Sandro and Daniele Rugani as and when he believed they were ready. Bad results and pressure from fans and the media did not change his duty of care to their development. In the long-run, he was completely vindicated. His macro and micro management, team selections and particularly his use of the bench was remarkable.
The Club
A decade after Calciopoli, Juventus are healthier than ever and that should not be taken for granted. When a team is so dominant for so long, there is a tendency to forget what state they were in before this cycle began. Eight years without a Scudetto, it was the longest drought since the late 80s and early 90s. The scale of the challenge facing the club wasn’t lost on the current regime when, in it’s first year in control, it could not improve upon the seventh place finish that it had inherited. They got the wrong manager [Gigi Delneri] and wasted €27m on Milos Krasic and Jorge Martinez. A 2-0 defeat to Lecce springs to mind. The players didn’t need a shower afterwards. They hadn’t worked up a sweat. Their attitude stunk. A change of culture was needed. Andrea Agnelli’s presidency was the first in a series of steps towards Juventus rediscovering their identity. The appointment of Juventus’ former captain Antonio Conte and move into the new stadium was next. Recruitment did the rest. Pirlo, Pogba, Llorente, Coman, Evra and Khedira were all brought to the club for free. Barzagli cost €300k. They signed Vidal and Lichtsteiner for €10.5m each. Tevez for €9m. For a while, it was said Juventus’ didn’t spend well at the top end of the market. Memories of Krasic and Martinez were still fresh but the deals they have done for Morata [€20m], Alex Sandro [€25m] and Dybala [€32m] put paid to that notion. The strength of a club is revealed in stress tests and Juventus have passed with flying colours. It's enough to think of how they reacted to Conte’s late, shock resignation and to Tevez, Pirlo and Vidal deciding to seek a new challenge. Their appointment of Allegri, heavily criticised at the time, has shown itself to be spot on. They stood by him when Juventus were 14th this season and didn’t give into the temptation that so many of their peers do of rushing to judgement and pulling the trigger. The decision to not make the same mistake as Inter and rest on their laurels after the 2010 Champions League final, pushing on instead and affecting a transition from one generation to another after Berlin, was indicative of the forward thinking that’s behind Juventus staying ahead of the curve. A fifth straight Scudetto is not the end of a cycle but the beginning of a new one. Win next year’s and they’ll be borrowing Totti’s Sei Unica T-Shirt.
The Competition
A lot has been said in the last few hours about what Juventus’ comeback says about the standard of Serie A. For me, the difference this year was made by mentality. Juventus have been there and done it before and when times were hard, they could draw on that experience. They stayed cool when the pressure heated up and once they got in front, they know how to lead. The others don’t and either got vertigo, went through crises of confidence and neither have the depth on the bench, nor the support structure in the boardroom to go the distance. We shouldn’t forget that until February we were talking about this season in Serie A as being just as exciting as the Premier League. Inter made their best start since 1966 winning their opening five games. They were the kings of the 1-0. Fiorentina went top for the first time since 1999. Roma were 11 points clear of Juventus in November and Napoli were crowned winter champions for the first time since 1990. A record equalling five different teams spent time on their own at the top and Juventus didn’t take pole position until round 25 of a 38-round season. All the top six have improved. Juventus have five more points than a year ago. Napoli are 13 points better off. Roma are +4, Inter +12 and Fiorentina +4. Even Milan are +7. The standard is actually better which only makes Juventus’ achievement all the more remarkable.
The Champions League
Last year's return to the final for the first time since 2003 definitively restored Juventus' reputation as members of Europe's elite. Their second leg performance against Bayern only served to underline it. There will be some regrets tonight watching Man City play Real Madrid in the semis. Juventus beat the former home and away this season and knocked the latter out at the same stage a year ago. Losing to Sevilla on the final day of the group stages is perhaps the one thing the Old Lady wishes she could go back in time and change. This group genuinely believes it can challenge next year. Juventus' competitiveness in the Champions League and the potential within this squad is one of the reasons why the club is confident Pogba will not leave. They are able to match his ambition. His bro-mance with Dybala is the axis on which Juventus want their world to spin. Pogba has shown himself worthy of the No.10 shirt. Dybala quickly made people forget Tevez. Both generate excitement. The appeal of playing for Juventus is back to what it was in the 90s.
James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle)
