It was not meant to go in this manner. Juventus are now on the verge of missing out on the next season’s UEFA Champions League football. On Sunday evening, the Andrea Pirlo-managed side took a massive dent in their aspirations of playing in the Champions League next season, having lost 3-0, quite deservedly, to AC Milan.
The defeat has now provoked questions over the future of Andrea Pirlo and the ones making the decision of keeping faith in him for the remaining part of the season. Should the run of poor results continue, Juventus will finish outside the top 4. Missing out on the top 4 would bring in another massive hit at the club’s finances.
Can you imagine a UCL season without Juventus in it? At this time, they were the champions of Italy for the ninth time last year. And now, they are only Juventus, nowadays marked as clueless by fans and pundits around the world.
Over the course of the season, the downfall has been immense, as depicted in Juve’s defeat at the hands of AC Milan. However, some of the decisions made by Andrea Pirlo were bizarre as well. Many believe that his inexperience and naivety cost Juve the three points on Sunday. Is that so? What were those “bizarre” decisions? Well, we have picked the top three from an array of choices that Pirlo should have avoided in a significant game against AC Milan.
The complicated case of Federico Chiesa
Juventus enthusiasts were delighted at the prospect of Federico Chiesa making his return to action from a thigh injury. They had a broad smile when watching Chiesa lining up with others against the reds of Milan. Though, that smile kept on fading as the match progressed. It was Chiesa’s one of the worst performances in the Juve shirt, if not the worst. But does he deserve the criticism? Yes, a bit but Pirlo needs to take a firm look at himself for putting him in that position.
Back in January when AC Milan hosted Juventus, Chiesa scored a brace. In fact, it has been Chiesa’s one of the best performances for the Bianconeri to date, if not the best. Do you know why he did perform so well? It was because he was up against Milan’s high-flying left-back, Theo Hernández.
Hernández, as elaborated in our pre-match piece here, always likes to make ambitious runs, leaving his designated left-back spot unprotected. A pacey candidate in Chiesa took his chances against him in San Siro that time, and he came up as the conquerer. The situation was completely different on Sunday, as the 23-year-old individual was lined up against Davide Calabria, who kept close tabs on his compatriot.
As shown in the data taken from WhoScored.com, Chiesa completed just one dribble in the whole game and had the least number of touches among the Juve players who made the starting eleven. Pirlo should have put Chiesa on the right-wing. But now, it doesn’t matter because we cannot run the time back and make any difference.