There are no kind words to say. There is no silver lining. Nothing can soften the blow of what we saw unfold before us over the course of 90 minutes. Juventus, in their own stadium, were embarrassed by their rivals. They were humiliated in a top-four race. And they curled up into a ball and lost, 3-0, meek and ineffectual in attack yet again.
Milan had their way with Juve, scoring emphatic goals and suffering no worries defensively. Even Juve’s best players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Federico Chiesa, looked powerless. Juventus were dominated in a match they needed to win, and there is no more damning indictment of Andrea Pirlo’s lackluster management than what took place on Serie A’s Matchday 35.
Here are three takeaways.
Juventus were out of ideas
I have said this before, following the 1-0 defeat to Atalanta. But this performance against another top-four Serie A side was even more disastrous. You know it’s a horrible game when Juan Cuadrado attempts 19 crosses, per WhoScored.com. He unsurprisingly completed just three of them, given Milan knew exactly what was coming from the “Cross and Inshallah” desperate Juventus.
Andrea Pirlo has brought very little to the table tactically. His philosophies are not well-thought-out, and his lack of experience shows against competent managers like Gian Piero Gasperini and Stefano Pioli. These managers know what they are doing. Pirlo, meanwhile, has his team set up to pass the ball around aimlessly in the middle of the park while making “use” of inverted wide midfielders in a 4-4-2.
Cristiano Ronaldo is Juve’s best player. He had no shots on target. Federico Chiesa is the second-best player on Juventus. He had the lowest number of touches among the starters.
And why did Pirlo only make two changes in the second half? Yes the game was still 1-0 before the second change with Paulo Dybala coming in, but why not be more proactive? Anyone could see it was only a matter of time before Milan pulled away.
A clueless performance from Pirlo, who is one step closer to the door. And it is deserved. I can defend him no longer. He can be great in the future, but his inexperience is costly.