Juventus Roundtable: Is the Crisis Over in Turin after Four Straight Wins?

Oh, how things have changed in just a few short weeks.

After a disappointing 2-1 loss to Napoli on Sept. 18 and less-than stellar results in the Champions League so far, the Juventus Roundtable feared that the season may be in serious trouble.

However, with four wins in just over a week’s time, Juve are now flying high and enter Wednesday’s return leg of their heavyweight battle with Real Madrid overflowing with confidence.

So, with these results, the roundtable discusses whether the crisis is actually over.


Daniel Penza

It seemed as though the Real Madrid win was the perfect medicine for the struggling Bianconeri as they have now taken the confidence from that win and translated it into Serie A.

As Zahi Sahli will go into greater detail about in his section, I think that part of the crisis had to do with the not only the media’s expectations, but also those of the fans. Juve’s squad is obviously not the strongest in Serie A, but because they are the most successful team in the history of Italian football, they are expected to be the best every year.

But with the team and manager Claudio Ranieri on the rumored hot seat, Alessandro Del Piero, who has not had the season people had hoped for after last year’s scoring festival, has stepped up and led Juve out of the so-called crisis and the bigger the game, the bigger the mark left on the game by the inspirational 33-year-old captain.

However, while one crisis may be coming to an end, there is still the large number of regulars out injured, but getting close to being back to normal.

Ranieri said himself after Saturday's 2-0 win over Roma that he is "starting to see some rays of sunshine."

Obviously Gianluigi Buffon is still out for another month, but Alexander Manninger has done a formidable job filling in for Juve’s regular No. 1 keeper. Striker David Trezeguet is still out until the New Year, but with Amauri amongst the leading scorers in Serie A, how many people have thought about what it will be like when the Frenchman returns?

"It will finally be real daylight only when I get all my players back from injury," Ranieri said.

And he is exactly right. When Buffon and Trezeguet return to the Stadio Olimpico field in  December and January, respectively, things will officially be back to normal.

So now Juve head into the return match in Madrid against Real seeking a spot in the knockout rounds. However, things don't get any easier in Serie A, with the Nov. 22 match against Inter Milan just a few weeks from now.

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