Juventus vs. Benevento: 3 takeaways from a nightmare defeat

If you are a Juventus fan who is upset with what you saw on Sunday afternoon between the Bianconeri and Benevento, then you are hardly alone. This match was simply embarrassing to watch, and it highlights so much of what is wrong about the club this season.

Juve were sloppy, could barely string passes together, and were basically hoping Cristiano Ronaldo would carry them to a win. Arthur Melo gifted Benevento a goal with an absolutely abysmal pass across his own penalty box, and Benevento showed more clinical finishing on their goal, courtesy of loanee Adolfo Gaich, than any single Bianconero.

Let’s look at the takeaways from this woeful 1-0 loss at the Juventus Stadium.

Alvaro Morata disappoints the most

Alvaro Morata is an important player to Juventus. In general, the team is much better off when he plays, and they’d probably be in serious trouble this season if they did not reunite with him on loan from Atletico Madrid.

But in this game, he was a disaster. Morata messed up so many easy chances, and his positioning was dreadful in other cases, failing to make himself available for a passing angle in the box. Against a team crowding their own box in Benevento, you’d expect Morata to be the one to work to find space and free up his teammates.

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Morata should have scored in this game. That Juventus finished with no goals against Benevento is partially on him.

No width

Juventus had major issues with getting real width in their play. A lot of that stems from the way Andrea Pirlo selects the lineup. Dejan Kulusevski was on the right and Federico Chiesa on the left, so Juve had two inverted wingers with Federico Bernardeschi and Danilo behind them. Danilo is never going to offer much in the attack, and Bernardeschi is not a real left back, nor is he much of an attacking threat himself due to his inconsistent technique.

So the result was a lot of poor crosses and a congested pitch in the attack against Benevento, who were content with not having the ball. Juve must find a way to get more width in their play, otherwise they are going to task their top two with having to dribble around five guys every time.

Arthur Melo shows where he needs to improve

Arthur had some great dribbles in this game and was a handful for Benevento to deal with in the first half, causing issues on the ball in transition and drawing plenty of fouls. The young Brazilian midfielder also cost the team in the end with one of the worst individual mistakes in recent weeks, passing the ball across his own penalty box to no particular teammate.

But beyond the goal he gifted to Benevento, Arthur made so many other poor passes in the attack. His passing accuracy into the penalty area or even 20 yards down the field were poor. It seemed like he didn’t understand what his teammates were doing off the ball or where they wanted the ball to be played. Ronaldo was visibly frustrated with one terrible cross which was yards in front of him, when he could have easily scored.

Arthur has a lot of potential. He is Juve’s best midfielder in terms of raw talent. But he is nowhere near a top midfielder in Serie A because of these inconsistencies and troubles with his forward passing. He played a lot like he did against Barcelona in their first Champions League meet-up this season. That is to say, he was quite poor.