A SHEARED STRUGGLE AMONG EUROPE'S ELITE TEAMS.

Once again this season Juventus lost easy points; this time vs Benevento, on the road, where Alvaro Morata’s goal was far from enough of securing an away victory for Andrea Pirlo side.

The draw vs Benevento marks the 5th draw of the season for the Bianconeri so far. Juventus are experiencing their worst start to a season since 15/16 with 17 points from 9 games and if they don’t wake up on time, they might lose the scudetto this time, after 9 years of winning it in a row.

The struggle of Juve is real but it seems Juve isn’t the only giant in Europe struggling. A brief look at the table of other league’s shows that most of the other big teams are not on their honeymoon either.

The reigning champions of Premier League, Liverpool, have 21 points from 10 games, as they have lost 9 points with a disappointing 7-2 defeat vs Aston Villa among others. Liverpool’s main rivals in the recent years, Manchester City, are on an even worse form as the side of Pep Guardiola have picked only 15 points with 9 games played.

In Spain, the reigning champions, Real Madrid, are on a 3 games winless streak. Getting 17 points from 10 games and sitting in 4th place has put Zidane’s job in jeopardy. The other giant of Spain, Barcelona, are not doing any better than Los Blancos as they have 14 points from 9 games.

In Germany, Bayern Munich is doing fine. The Bavarians are arguably the only big team in Europe that have remained as powerful as they have been last season. Lewandowski and friends have 23 points from 27 possible.

Unlike the Bundesliga, the monopole of Ligue 1, PSG, have lost a bit too many points. The Parisians have lost 11 points in12th games, 5 of them being in the last two games vs Monaco & Bordeaux.

The situation in Italy itself is the same as other leagues. All other teams of the last season’s top 4 haven’t done much better. Antonio Conte’s Inter currently have 1 point more than Juve, with 18 points in 9 games they’ve played so far. The most beautiful team of last season, the mesmerizing Atalanta of Mister Gasperini, this season are yet to look like what they have been last season with losing too many points in "easy" games. La Dea have only 14 points from 9 games. Like Atalanta, Lazio have only 14 points too.

Juventus are struggling, they lack harmony, personality and consistency and the quality is not at the required level at some positions too. It should be noted that unlike the other mentioned teams, Juve have changed their coach, without being able to have a summer camp and a good pre-season, which made Pirlo be obliged to test his ideas during the season, costing Juve points. There is no doubt that Juve should work very hard on these issues, but considering the situation of other clubs, it seems the main reason behind these mediocre performances is something else, and whatever it is, it is related to the tight schedule of in the Covid era and the physical conditions of the players.