How Juventus Have Rebuilt Under Allegri

Juventus re-signed Massimiliano Allegri as head coach for the second reign in the summer of 2021 after the two previous managers in Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo fell short of what is expected of a massive club such as Juventus FC.

Due to Allegri being the Juventus manager with the highest win percentage since the birth of the club, Juve decided to employ the Italian to hopefully reinvigorate and inspire the team to achieve what it has in recent years.

In the summer of 2021 Juventus were pretty conservative with their spending as they only brought in two players. The first being Manuel Locatelli on a loan transfer deal from Sassuolo after an outstanding display for Italy in the European Championships.

Former AC Milan player, Locatelli, be classed as on loan until the end of this season when the ‘obligation to buy’ clause in the contract is triggered and the Italian Giants will have to play £31.50m for the silky midfielder.

The other player Juve brought in was a midfield counterpart in Weston Mckennie who had been on loan at the club for the season prior from Schalke 04 in the German Bundesliga; suggesting that the American international had impressed previously and was in Allegri’s plans to pursue success this season.

However, the real interest was generated in the January transfer window with the Italian Giants splashing £73.44m on the highly-rated 22-year-old forward Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorentina who had bagged 17 goals in 21 games in the Italian first division before going to Juventus and has now scored 4 more.

Juventus are looking for Serbian international, Vlahovic, to be a talisman for them over the next decade. The club also brought in another young talent in Denis Zakaria from Borussia Monchengladbach for a low fee of £7.74m due to his contract with the German club running out at the end of the season; with these new additions, Juventus look to stabilise their position as a consistent title challenger in Italy.

There were some significant departures, however, with attackers such as Dejan Kulusevski a young talented Swede and a global star in Cristiano Ronaldo, who some felt despite his goals was creating an unbalance amongst the players at the club.

Juve also let go of a good centre back in Cristian Romero and a young midfielder by the name of Rodrigo Bentancur, however with the new fresh signings Juventus seem like a more balanced side across the pitch and are learning to work together as a cohesive unit.

The 2021-2022 season began poorly for Juve as they were placed ninth in December, however, due to the new January signings as well as the new additions learning how to play with one another whilst learning a new style of play they are now only eight points off the top and are in contention for the title and the Champions League qualification places.

What epitomised Juve’s poor start, was the fact that manager Allegri forced his players to do an internal training camp earlier on in the campaign partway through the season to purely focus on football.

Since the Old Lady’s 1-0 home defeat to Atalanta on 27th November, Juve have lost just once in Serie A, which came last weekend at the Juventus Stadium to Inter Milan by a 1-0 scoreline. This run saw Allegri’s men pick up 38 points from a possible of 48 prior to last Sunday’s match, hence why they are outsiders for the title race with seven games to go.

This run of form should inspire Juve, who have also been missing the extremely talented Federico Chiesa following an ACL injury. If Juve keeps up their run of form, they will likely miss out on the Serie A title by a couple of points as there is only seven matches remaining, however, they have put themselves in great stead for next season, especially if they invest in the right areas once again.