Can Juventus Win It All This Season?

Juventus showed under the 2012-13 Serie A season that they are a long way ahead of their domestic rivals. Now it is up to Antonio Conte and his renewed squad to set their sights a little higher. 

But with clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich firmly settled at the top both financially and in terms of playing staff, do the Old Lady have what it takes to move from a dominant domestic force to a team that can seriously challenge for European and world honours over the next 12 months? 

Fans of the Turin giants will be encouraged by what they saw last season. The year had every chance of going wrong. The lack of a coach at the start of the year, due to Conte's lengthy suspension for involvement in the Scommessopoli betting scandal, was a particularly poor omen. 

But the club rode out the storm and finished the Serie A campaign in imperious fashion. Juve harvested 87 points over the course of the season, losing just five times and ending the league nine points clear of closest challengers Napoli. And the good news for supporters of the Bianconeri is that their side should be even stronger in 2013-14. 

In goal, Gianluigi Buffon has proved time and again that he is still a top-quality goalkeeper at 35 years of age. The captain is an undisputed starter in Juve's full strength lineup, but deputy Marco Storari proved that he is more than capable of filling in for Gigi when the veteran needs a rest.

In front of Buffon, the defence is another unit that has a formidable look to it. Conte is one of the few coaches in top-class teams to use a three-man defence, and this risky manoeuvre is made more secure by the fact that the trio who comprise the back line are a machine working perfectly in tandem.

Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini enjoy an almost telepathic understanding, and their talents were reflected in the 24 goals Juventus conceded across the whole Serie A season, the lowest of any team by far. 

The man between the posts and those in front, then, do not need tinkering. The midfield is fine too, with the ageless Andrea Pirlo, the tireless duo of Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal and the budding talent of Paul Pogba providing quality in the middle of the park.

The big issue for Juventus last season was getting the most out of an at-times misfiring forward line. A 1-0 or 2-1 scoreline was the norm last year in Juventus Stadium, and it was largely thanks to the aforementioned impenetrable defence that the club won the league so comfortably with, averaging a stingy 1.87 goals—compare to 3.3 for Barcelona, 2.88 for Bayern Munich and 2.71 for Real Madrid—per game.

Sebastian Giovinco and Mirko Vucinic had their moments, although the former suffered with recurring injuries and the latter went through inexplicable drops in form.

In any case, no Juve man made the top 16 scorers in Serie A; and the less we say about the likes of the calamitous Alessandro Matri the better, perhaps. 

Conte has responded by focusing preseason spending on the attack. In come Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente, two strikers of the highest calibre accustomed to scoring goals in high-pressure situations. It remains to be seen, of course, how the pair settle in to life at Juventus Stadium, but great things are expected both of the new boys and of the Old Lady. 

Tevez and Llorente are the big new names in the dressing room, but aside from that, Juve have done admirably up to this point to conserve the squad that lifted the title in 2012-13, and indeed make it stronger.

It will not be easy for any new team to lift the Champions League come May 2014, but Conte's men in black and white have as much of a chance as anyone participating.