Sir Alex Ferguson diminished Arsenal’s Invincibles of 2003-04, who went an entire Premier League season without defeat, by accusing them of “too many draws”. What, then, would he make of this year’s Juventus? They are the only unbeaten team in Serie A, yet they have won just six out of 16 games.
Saturday’s match at home to Venezia was expected to provide the seventh. Juventus had broken a run of four consecutive draws by beating Manchester City in the Champions League. Sure, Pep Guardiola’s team have been in a tailspin, but they are not the only ones. Venezia sat dead last in the Serie A table, without a win since October.
This was a chance for Juventus to build momentum. Instead, they almost found a way to lose, blowing a half-time lead and requiring a 95th-minute penalty from Dusan Vlahovic to rescue a draw. The Venezia manager Eusebio Di Francesco described the result at full-time as “two points dropped”.
They ought never to have been allowed a foothold in the game. Juventus took the lead after 19 minutes, Federico Gatti jabbing home from close range after Khéphren Thuram headed across goal at a corner. Boasting the highest average possession share of any team in the league, the Bianconeri seemed well-equipped to keep a lesser opponent at arm’s length.
Venezia, though, did not panic, keeping their shape and waiting for opportunities to attack. With just over an hour played, Gaetano Oristanio cut in from the right and played a smart pass through the channel to Magnus Andersen, taking out three defenders. The Dane laid the ball off to Francesco Zampano, who crossed for Mikael Ellertsson to head in at the back post.
It was a slick team move, lending strength to Di Francesco’s assertions that his team is playing better than their results suggest. Even so, it was one that Juventus ought to have avoided. Bad became worse, as Nicolussi Caviglia – a graduate of their own academy – delivered the assist for Jay Idzes to head Venezia in front 20 minutes later.
Injuries have played their part in weakening Juventus’s defence. Their best centre-back, Gleison Bremer, tore his cruciate ligament in October and summer signing Juan Cabal suffered the same injury soon after. Andrea Cambiaso, one of the club’s best performers playing at full-back on either side of the formation, was missing here as well.
Yet Juventus have been a perplexing side so far under Thiago Motta. A team that had become stultifying, slow and unadventurous under Massimiliano Allegri appeared to have been transformed after the Brazilian took charge this summer, scoring three goals in five of his first eight matches in charge. The Derby d’Italia against Inter in October finished as a 4-4 draw.
Even then, though, these Wild West shootouts were interspersed with a curiously high number of goalless stalemates. There were three in the month of September alone – the same number, coincidentally, as he had recorded over the same period of the previous season while in charge of Bologna.
Fans chose to see that as a good omen. Juventus were clearly not yet a finished article but there was a roadmap here to better times ahead. Bologna had wound up qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 1964 – back when it was still known as the European Cup and only accessible to domestic champions.
Perhaps even more importantly, they got there playing a distinct and creative brand of football. Juventus have been seeking to reinvent themselves since the end of Allegri’s previous tenure in 2019. Maurizio Sarri was appointed back then with the thought he could instil an identity that went beyond “just win”, a deliberate vision and tactical ideal to contrast with the bland pragmatism of his predecessor.
In the end, though, Sarri offered only continuity: delivering another Scudetto that failed to capture the imagination. His successor, Andrea Pirlo, finally did break the mould, but not in the way anybody wanted: finishing fourth and ending a run of nine consecutive league titles. That failure led the club back to Allegri.
His presence offered stability during a turbulent chapter that witnessed the entire board’s resignation in 2022 and a sustained effort to slash the wage bill after years of heavy losses on the club’s balance sheet. Yet the decision to part ways immediately after Allegri had delivered Juventus their first piece of silverware for three years by winning the Coppa Italia in May reflected the enduring desire for a fresh approach.
The expectation was never that Motta should take Juventus straight back to the top. Juventus spent more than €150m on transfer fees this summer, landing high-profile targets Douglas Luiz and Teun Koopmeiners, but they also brought in more than €100m through sales. With player salaries down to a reported 60% of what they were four years ago, this was less lavish an outlay than it might appear on the surface.
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There was understanding that it would take time for new arrivals to bed in, and for Motta to implement his vision. His Bologna stood out for their fluidity – the ease with which players swapped positions to create openings without leaving themselves exposed. Juventus’s players would naturally need time to adjust.
Still, there would always be minimum expectations. Securing Champions League football again next season is a must. Juventus are nine points worse off than they were at the corresponding stage under Allegri last year.
There is no sense the board is losing patience but supporters voiced their frustrations at full-time on Saturday, calling players under the Curva Sud at the Allianz Stadium and demanding greater effort. After Vlahovic appeared to object, making a dismissive gesture, he was showered with abusive chants. It has been reported that police are investigating one alleged death threat against him.
Vlahovic sought to cool tempers with a social media post acknowledging frustration about results and promising to continue giving everything for the shirt. He has scored 11 goals so far this season, on track to make it his best since joining the club in a €70m transfer from Fiorentina in 2022, but remains a lightning rod for criticism, accused of both missing easy chances and not working hard enough.
He might not have helped himself with remarks made on international duty last month, when he suggested that things were easier for him with the national team since he could leave some of the aerial duels to Aleksandar Mitrovic and did not get asked to do so much defending. It is certainly true, though, that a knee injury to Arkadiusz Milik has placed a greater burden on Vlahovic to always lead the line.
This is a young Juventus team, for whom the likes of Kenan Yildiz and Francisco Conceição have shown brilliantly in some games and less so in others. The win over City was a timely reminder of the potential that exists.
What is not yet clear is whether Motta has understood the best ways to nurture it. Juventus remain unbeaten for now, but they look nowhere close to Invincible.
