The two big stops from Fiorentina and Lazio – After the national break they will have to run so as not to remain irremediably detached from the Champions League zone.
Juventus and Napoli enter the break without a win. It’s not bad news in itself, given that they were playing very treacherous matches in Florence and with Napoli, but it’s the end of the long segment of the season leading up to the November break which leaves a legacy of some bad thoughts and many problems to solve. The Champions League zone remains far away for both: 6 points for the Bianconeri and even 9 for the Neapolitans.
It’s true that those in front are running at double speed, just think that the projection for fourth place is currently at 83 points (unrealistic), but the current ranking is a merciless snapshot of the limitations of two projects that were born crippled and which cannot be corrected until January. Therefore, Luciano Spalletti and Max Allegri have to do with what they have which is not much, but not so little as to justify the difficulties of this poor first third of the championship.
Spalletti, Juventus are struggling too much to score
In Florence against the Viola who were in great form, except for their defensive gifts, Juventus played out the usual script of the season. Great amount of work and play to give birth to the little mouse of two goals, born above all from other people’s mistakes. There is a sensational fact to start from: only six teams (Lecce, Udinese, Genoa, Cagliari, Parma and Venezia) have scored fewer goals than the Old Lady who are stuck at 15, of which 4 have been scored in the last two matches. Too little not to reflect on, also because the defense is the fourth best of the lot and holds up.
It is a defect that is repeated and already in the spring it cost them qualification for the Champions League which is the origin of the summer’s woes in a market with no money to invest and with many past mistakes to fix. Being satisfied with the performance has become sterile, Juventus needs a string of positive results achieved in any way. The camp said that Kolo Muani only works as an external attacker, for example, there is no point in going back to different formulas.
Naples back against the wall (but what a reaction)
Allegri welcomed the draw with Lazio by trying to spread serenity and optimism in the environment. He claims to be in the running for all his seasonal goals, including the chase for a place in the next Champions League, and that even those in front can lose 8-9 points like he lost them last year on the Milan bench. In theory he is not wrong, in reality the path is very narrow because the Neapolitans are in mid-table and after three months they do not have a defined identity: they are not entrenched in defence, in fact they earn a lot, and they do not have enough offensive strength.
The good news for the coach and for De Laurentiis, who has no intention of proceeding with the choice of a new manager on the bench, is that the match that Napoli played against the league leaders is not the match of a team that has dumped its coach. Coming out of the post-Porto chaos was not a given. After the break, some of the injured players will begin to return (it will also happen to Spalletti with Juve) and it will be the moment of truth. Arriving at Christmas so far from the Champions League zone would resemble a sentence.
