What next for Juventus and Paulo Dybala: Where do they go from here?
Clearly, that has not happened. An Ajax side that Juve will cast keen glances on were the deserved winners in the quarter-final of the Champions League. It has given everyone an impression that instead of going a step ahead, Juventus have taken a step back. That is true to a large extent.
With rumors suggesting that Antonio Conte could be back at the club in the summer, many Old Lady faithfuls are wanting Massimiliano Allegri out. Its felt that Allegri is not the man to take the club forward anymore. Even with Ronaldo in the side, Juve could not come close to winning the Champions League. With a very defensive and dour brand of football, its felt that Juventus need a fresh approach to life.
And perhaps, that is true. Allegri isn't a man who is out of his depth though. He's just in an era where teams that play a different brand of football succeed more than the defensive ones. All the four Champions League semi-finalists are not as defensive a side as Juve. Agreed, Barcelona can be a defensive team under Ernesto Valverde but their main focus is not defending. They just have the know how of playing in the UEFA Champions League.
While Tottenham have not been at their flying best this season, they still show glimpses of playing attacking football despite not having their best players at disposal. Liverpool are defined by playing 'hard-metal football' and have now acquired the maturity of digging games out.
Ajax play brilliant football and we're yet to see whether they can play a pragmatic way or not. But its attacking football that is at their forefront.
Juve though, are miles different from that. Despite having Cristiano Ronaldo in the side, they don't play a brand of football that is enticing. Paulo Dybala, a player who can help a side play attacking football, is kept on the bench and Mario Mandzukic is preferred. That approach screams of overt pragmatism.
That approach costed Juve a lot in the first leg against Atletico Madrid- a side that barely bothered attacking in the second leg. But Ajax are all about attacking and taking the game by its horns. Instead of sitting back to defend, the Dutch side went all guns blazing and before Juve could unleash the spirit of Ronaldo, Erik ten Hag's men dominated them.
And if Atletico would have attacked, Juve could have been eliminated in the Round of 16 itself.
But can the touted replacement provide what Allegri doesn't? He probably can. The way Conte's Juventus and Chelsea side played shone the tactical nous that a manager like Zinedine Zidane had at Real Madrid. It wasn't as flexible, but it had attacking as much in the forefront as the defending.
The emphasis at both clubs was at having an extra defender at the back in a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3 shape, but the focus was also on the attacking freedom players like Paul Pogba and Eden Hazard got in their respective positions. And there was an attacking plan. An attacking plan is what Juve need.
Arguments can be made about Juve in the need for midfield recruitment and for selling players like Alex Sandro, but a lot of performances this season from the bianconeri say that Allegri's system isn't the bringing the best out of players anymore. Its tiresome and rigid. Fans have grown exhausted of seeing it.
As for Paulo Dybala, its decision time for him. Juventus can't have a player of his level on the bench and having to play him in a system that does no good to improve him. Staying at the club under Allegri makes little sense to him, even when the same seemed the case a season after Gonzalo Higuain had joined from Napoli.
But at that point, Juve weren't as dour as they are now. And Cristiano Ronaldo isn't Gonzalo Higuain. But Dybala is Dybala- he needs the play to be formed around him for him to flourish. If there's anyone who can do it, that's Conte himself.
The system relies on handing the key players the freedom to move about and pull the strings. When handed the freedom, a player like Dybala from the right-flank can wreck similar sort of damage to the opposition as Hazard did at Chelsea from the left flank.
But can the structure of a possible Conte's Juve favor Dybala? It can and it can't too depending on how much it revolves around Ronaldo. The Ronaldo of this season has been unlike the Ronaldo of the last three seasons at Real. He's more involved in the build-up than he should be. And that's not helping a player like Dybala, who can win games at will.
But with Juve already preparing for life with Allegri by having signed Aaron Ramsey already and being after the likes of Federico Chiesa and Nicolo Zaniolo, it speaks volumes of how much Dybala is valued by the Turin side.
Times for both parties are critical and intertwined. Dybala won't have problems settling into a system that gives him the freedom from day one. There will be doubts about whether Conte can hand him that if he ever comes in, because Allegri clearly can't.