Serie A League:  Allegri, Juventus struggle to survive

What's so terrible about Juventus FC that everyone is calling it a loser?

And what's so bad about being able to hang on to 4th in a field of 20 in the 2021/22 Serie A-League Championship of Italy?

Well, it's both dire and bad when you've been a consistent champion for ages – like Juventus –  and then suddenly your fans see you struggling for form, unable to summon enough will to win games for at least a top-three ranking.  

Good is not Great

Perhaps, that's the price of being consistently great. Being good is simply not great, winning games against teams outside the Magic 3 is boring, and losing against the top three is a disaster.  

If that's the fans' mindset, then Juventus is a bad team, a loser, even after an incredible late rally of a 16-game unbeaten run.  There were hardly any accolades during the run and critics were quick to ridicule the team after the streak was snapped by Inter-Milan. 

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At 4th place means it qualifies for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League next season.  At 6th, it still qualifies for the Europa League group stage.  Not really bad for any team; but bad for a team that has won nine Serie A titles from 2011 to 2020.  

As in recent Serie A seasons, Juventus is still a favoured team most of the time. If you would like to read more about the Serie A competition format, the Thai sportsbook site bettingnews88 covered the basics.  

Clamour for Change

Juventus has yet to top the ranking after 32 games, with Milan, Internazionale (Inter Milan), and Napoli taking turns at the top spot.  Juve's ranking swung between 18^th in the early stages, and 4^th in the latter part, after the longest winning run of the 2021/22 Serie A season.   

Fans are clamouring for one big change, specifically a replacement for Juventus coach Max Allegri, who led and waged a "miserable campaign."   He left Juventus at the end of the 2018/19 season to spend more time with his family, after winning five titles in a row in Serie A, collecting four Italian Cups, and reaching the Champions League finals twice.   

But none of these mattered to them.  The losses were not even about Cristiano Ronaldo's hamstring injury throughout the first half of the season and other team woes that sent Allegri into perpetual reshuffling and losing games in the process.  

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Back in Business?

Finally, it's not also about his long absence without a team despite offers from top clubs Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Real Madrid, which he turned down to return to Juventus.

It's just Allegri and his old-fashioned style of coaching that has to go, to stop Juve's haemorrhage, according to a football pundit.  

But wait.  After almost a full season of finding the right combination in an uphill battle for survival, the Juve appears to be back in their old groove, ready to hoist another crown in Allegri's first season as a returning team manager.  

It might not be a Serie A title yet, but what is certain is that Allegri and his team have made it into the Coppa Italia finals and there's a strong possibility that he and his Juventus team are back in the business of winning and hoisting trophies.