4 Christmas Wishes for Serie A Giants Juventus

With Serie A on its traditional winter break, the players are taking some much-needed time off. There are no matches scheduled until January 7, meaning the Juventus squad have all headed home, enjoying the chance to visit families before returning to action in the new year.

Before that they were in Qatar on Friday, losing to AC Milan on penalties in the Supercoppa Italiana. As that game approached, Massimiliano Allegri was clearly aware of the difficulty in retaining focus over this period, as the Juve boss explained to reporters at his pre-match press conference:

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Our preparations are going well, even if it should be noted that it’s never easy going into the final match before the Christmas break.

That’s also the case for the first game back after the festive period, which this time around is against Bologna on 8 January. Along with the first match of the season, these three fixtures are the hardest and we’ll need to work that bit more to make sure we’re in the right state of mind for tomorrow night.

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With that in mind, what follows is a look at four things Allegri and Juventus supporters will hope to see in 2017, breaking down four Christmas wishes for the grand Old Lady of Italian football.

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Gigi Buffon's Continued Good Health

The Supercoppa Italiana marked Gigi Buffon’s 600th Juventus appearance, an achievement which stands as testimony to the longevity and durability of the Bianconeri skipper.

Indeed, since making his debut for Parma back in 1995, the 38-year-old has made at least 25 appearances every year except one.

That came in the 2010/11 campaign when he was blighted by back problems, but he has since been in great physical and mental shape, as he explained to the media in Doha last week.

"I'm glad someone is counting for me," Buffon said when asked about his latest impressive milestone at a press conference. "I'm definitely happy, I don’t think it'll be my last and it won't be my last."

It is with that in mind that the first hope for Juventus is the continued good health of their captain, with Buffon's presence in goal continuing to be hugely important to the club's hopes of success.

He has conceded 13 goals in 15 Serie A outings, adding four clean sheets to the three he collected in Europe. He was beaten just twice in five Champions League appearances as both Sevilla and Olympique Lyonnais scored past the Italy captain.

An Argentinian Tango

So far this season, both Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala have shone individually, but Juventus will hope that the new year sees the Argentina internationals click as a partnership in attack.

Higuain has begun brightly since his summer switch from Napoli, bagging 10 league goals and a further three in the Champions League. In Juve’s last league outing before Christmas he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over AS Roma, subsequently laughing off suggestions he has something to prove.

"I do not know, I play only to help the team and win," Higuain told La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia). "The opinions are yours, I respect them, but I am always quiet. Even when I do not score."

Meanwhile, Dybala missed over a month with a thigh injury and, as a result, has made just 11 starts in those competitions, weighing in with four goals and two assists thus far.

The Higuain-Mario Mandzukic pairing was somewhat blunt while Dybala was sidelined, so Allegri will hope to see what must be his first-choice duo find some chemistry when the team returns to action next month.

Some European Silverware

Over 20 years have passed since the Bianconeri were crowned champions of Europe, defeating Ajax to claim the 1996 Champions League trophy. Since that wonderful night in Rome, Juventus have lost four more finals, been relegated to Serie B and fought their way back to the summit.

Now, they are once again regarded as one of the best on the continent, but they need silverware to back up such a claim. However, Juve vice-president Pavel Nedved admits that will not be easy.

"Everyone's saying we're the favorites, but in the Champions League there aren't any favourites," he told Tuttomercatoweb (h/t Football Italia) after the last-16 draw. "Going all the way will be really complicated, it's a difficult and complicated competition, nothing's easy and all the games are complicated."

New Blood in Midfield

The midfield has been a serious problem for Juventus so far this season. The three obvious members of the starting XI—Claudio Marchisio, Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic—have done well individually, but collectively they have struggled for cohesion and balance.

Perhaps that is best summed up in the performances of the latter. Pjanic has done well when Allegri has used him behind the strikers in a 4-3-1-2 formation, but in a midfield three he has struggled to make an impact.

There is an inescapable feeling the team lacks one more player in this department in order to make them a complete side—that must become a priority when the winter transfer window opens.

They are certainly not short of targets, with director general Beppe Marotta discussing a number of them at length in a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia):

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Axel Witsel? It’s currently stalled, his contract expires in June and we've got five months to play until then. So the assessment is €1m per month or so. As for Steven Nzonzi, there’s a good relationship with Sevilla and there are certain surveys that it’s right to do.

Mahmoud Dahoud or Julian Draxler? For the first I can say that there are a lot of players we're paying attention to. It's impossible for the second to come to Juve, because he caused us a lot of trouble with his rejection [in 2015].

If you reject us once, well, Juve start looking elsewhere.

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It seems as if the club official has done just that, with Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez now reportedly a target as the January transfer window approaches and that move for Witsel grows more distant.

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"It will depend how our transfer campaign is, the financial balance must always be respected, but Juve want to be among the best clubs in the world," Marotta responded when asked about the Colombia international in the same interview. "That is and always will be our ambitious goal."

Signing such a player would be a huge statement of intent by the Bianconeri and, allied to good health for Buffon and a blossoming strike partnership, his arrival could spur Juventus to some long-overdue continental success.

"Winning the sixth Scudetto is our primary objective this season, as well as having a good Champions League campaign," Allegri said in a pre-season interview with the club's official website. "And when I say a good Champions League campaign, I mean our objective needs to be to go as far as possible and win it."

Now there's something to wish for.