ALBERTO'S WEEKLY COLUMN: WEEK 9

Here we are Juventini, discussing an unbeaten week for our beloved Old Lady and typically this would mean we are happy but with the tricky away fixture against Verona ending in a draw. The ability to remain positive and keep hope alive for that tenth straight scudetto has been fading for most fans and quickly might I add. The draw saw Juve end up with a 10 point deficit to Inter albeit with a game in hand and awaiting a verdict in regard to some possible Covid result tampering from Lazio which if both went in our favour would mean we could swing six points to the good and only sit 4 points out. All is not lost yet. Our faith as fans though is and will be tested.This past decade has been an incredible one for Juventini no doubt. Perhaps fueling this incredible entitlement to winning the scudetto. However, now with the title in jeopardy and Juventus having the worst season in terms of points won in the past decade, questions are being asked of the board, of Pirlo and of the players. Are we good enough? Is Pirlo good enough? Let's break this past week down a bit.

Let's start with the league in general. The league and quality of it, has made a big step up in recent years. As much as it may pain us to say our bitter rivals in black and blue have done a great job being lead by not only our former director but the manager who started our cycle in 2011-12. The league is much stronger now and even the lower sides are proving to pose a respectable threat to the top teams. This match against Verona was always going to be tough. If you had thought this was going to be a wide open match with many opportunities then I would question if you have been paying attention to this season and whether or not you respect the opposition because they are a well managed, pesky side who can create matchup issues asnd find ways to hurt opponents.

Then we have a situation we are no strangers to, especially this time of year and that's injuries. I have never seen an injury report that could be mistaken for a team list. This would leave the best of managers in a tough spot let alone a first time manager like Pirlo. We have seen big clubs in europe struggle with a smaller list of absentees. To have doubts and be able to make a call on Pirlo at this point and say he should be relieved of his duties, in my opinion is a bit harsh due to this, as well as many other reasons, and I would remind everyone when we were almost at full strength, again almost full strength, as we were still missing key players throughout all periods of the season so far, he went through a make or break month of January almost flawlessly only dropping points in one match. We were waiting on only Paulo Dybala three weeks ago and now find ourselves in a scenario where we are playing matches with only one main roster player on the bench and 3 -4 players on the pitch who are not even at 100%. Asking for a U-23 player to come in and make a difference and be an answer is a tall task yet this is the shout being made. Pirlo faced criticism for not having Fagioli in the match against Verona. It was later determined that even he was ill and not feeling well. So, even our first time managers subs are not up to it. The draw is not the worst of results really and I said it earlier it isn't a really upssetting result when you factor in the opponent and the fact it was away from home, the frustration for me would still lie in the dropped points early in the season where scenarios were mismanaged and players who were part of your spine weren't getting the job done. This one is the least of the worries in my opinion and it wasn't a complete blackout like we saw against Fiorentina and the first match against Inter and that makes me hopeful that we have at least dialed into something especially factoring in how many players have been missing.

The key for this home stretch of the season will be getting this team healthy. With faith for most in question we moved onto our midweek match against Spezia and in a situation that was so frustrating you could only laugh, yet another injury was reported, this one before the match even took place and to our stud Centre-Back Matthijs De Ligt.