Juventus 0 - Fiorentina 3: Initial reaction and random observations

03/16/2025 03:30 PM

Somebody please wake us up from this nightmare.

In a way, there was a line of thinking that Juventus' blowout loss to Atalanta last weekend — the kind the club hasn't suffered since the late 1960s — was either rock bottom or something very, very close to it.

Little did we know Juve would go out and sink even lower seven days later.

Another Sunday, another blowout involving Thiago Motta and Juventus. But just like last Sunday, it wasn't the kind of blowout that many of us enjoyed the first couple weeks of the 2024-25 season. Instead, a week after Juventus went out and lost 4-0 to Atalanta at the Allianz Stadium, Motta's squad followed that one-sided result up with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of a Fiorentina squad that entered the day both on short rest thanks to the UEFA Conference League and very much in a bad spell of form domestically. Those struggles went by the wayside when La Viola took a 2-0 lead within the span of three minutes in the first half and never looked back as Motta and Juve looked just as bad an ineffective at the Franchi as they did on their home field a week earlier.

So now, with results earlier in the day, Juventus have Motta's former side, Bologna, ahead of them in the standings in fourth place after absolutely hammering Lazio 5-0 earlier in the day. That means Fiorentina's former manager, Vincenzo Italiano, has now guided Motta's old squad into a higher position in the table on the same day that Fiorentina claims just their second win over Juventus in their last 11 meetings in all competitions.

What were we saying about rock bottom?

But the same old problems that have haunted Motta and Juventus all season were on display once again on this night. Throw in a defense that looked totally out of sorts both before and after Fiorentina took the lead and you had the recipe for essentially a repeat of what happened against Atalanta.

And absolutely none of it was actually good.

Juve had 68% possession at the half — cool.

Twice as many passes completed as Fiorentina — great.

It doesn't matter at this point. I don't care what the numbers say because it's all painting a picture that isn't adding up to wins or even being competitive when they step onto the field. Juventus are currently a team that is fielding a starting lineup that has players out of position in attack and a defense that is about as patchwork as patchwork gets. The highest-paid player in Serie has been relegated to a bench role. One of the best young talents in Europe is seeing somebody like Nico Gonzalez get continuous starts even though he has been playing poorly for weeks, if not longer.

It's all bad — and things aren't showing that they are going to get better.

So, at some point, you need to ask yourself when is it enough.

Facing Atalanta and Fiorentina within the span of a week were two of the biggest games left on the schedule. In both of them, Juve completely looked out of sorts. That comes after the elimination from the Champions League. That comes after getting bounced from the Coppa Italia by an Empoli squad that fielded a host of reserves and primavera players.

Yet, the combined score of the last two games: Not Juventus 7, Juventus 0.

At this point, I don't know what rock bottom will actually be for this Juventus squad. That's because the last two weekends have proven that no matter how bad things are, they can always potentially get worse. What that means for Motta's job, who the heck knows. But, right now, I feel pretty safe in saying this is a club that needs some sort of jolt if they want any chance fo finishing in the top four. With the way they are playing now, the final nine games of the season are looking like they could be a pretty bad stretch no matter who's next up on the schedule.

At least the Italian media won't do any sort of speculating during the upcoming international break, right? (Don't answer that. We all know the answer.)

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Remember that five-game winning streak in Serie A? Yeah, that was cool. I miss that.
• So now it's not only Lazio as a competitor for the top four, but also Bologna and the giallorossi side of Rome? God, this is EXACTLY what Juventus needed on top of getting their tails whipped once again.
• I was so excited for this season. Some big signings, an upgraded midfield through said signings. A new coach with new ideas coming off a big season with the aforementioned Bologna last year. Things were looking up! And then ... splat. Juventus aren't just repeating their second-half slide from 12 months ago, they're very much trying to out do it. Not on purpose, but these results of the last two weeks and the way they've been knocked out of the Champions League and Coppa Italia aren't exactly adding anything of value.
• Do I think Thiago Motta is still Juventus' manager by the time the international break ends and they're taking the field against Genoa at the Allianz? I really have no idea at this point. At this point, you can't really look at Juve and think to yourself "Yeah, all good here."
• I didn't really understand Motta's starting lineup choices. I definitely didn't understand his substitution choices. You're in need of goals and don't bring on some of the attacking talent you have on the bench? OK, I guess.
• Pretty bad weekend for Exor, huh? Ferrari open the season with a P8 and P10 in Australia, then Juve go out and suffer a loss to Fiorentina in this kind of fashion. Brutal.
• This was the Nicolo Fagioli revenge game — and boy, did he play like it. If only Juventus had that kind of midfielder playing like Nicky Beans did on Sunday, right? Oh, right. I forgot about the fact that he is still technically a Juve player. This is dumb.
• But it's OK, folks. Juve's got Douglas Lu... nope, never mind.
• This was the 11th time Dusan Vlahovic has started from the bench in all competitions since the start of the new year. I don't know, but that's not a great sign when you're the highest paid player in Serie A.
• At final whistle, Dusan Vlahovic was a DNP-CD.
• At the final whistle, Kenan Yildiz was a DNP-CD.
• Randal Kolo Muani attempted two shots. One was off target, the other one was blocked.
• Based solely on how Andrea Cambiaso walked off the field, guessing it will be a few weeks even after the international break until we see him again. That ankle issue he had a few months ago is back and it doesn't look good this time.
• That Lloyd Kelly signing continues to be the gift that keeps on giving, doesn't it? Good times, folks. Really, really good times.
• Not exactly a great return from injury for Renato Veiga, huh? Boy oh boy was he slow to react to a Fiorentina player running right at him on the second and third goal.
• Then again, it's not like any other Juventus player did much of anything to prevent Fiorentina from scoring any of their three goals, so there's that.
• Teun Koopmeiners continues to be the mystery that keeps on mystifying. I have no idea what's happened to the Koopmeiners who was one of the best players in Serie A last season. He is a shell of himself right now, and it's all just a struggle to think about what needs to happen for him to start to even show signs of turning for the better.
• Same goes for Nico Gonzalez. I don't know why he's still in the starting lineup. I really don't.
• Then again, what were we supposed to think with Motta rolling out three center backs and four central midfielders in his 4-2-3-1? If anything, rumors of a potential 3-5-2 with those same players actually made some kind of sense. But whatever the heck Juve threw out there against Fiorenitna was bad — really, really bad.
• Hey but at least Weston McKennie recorded twice as many key passes as any Fiorentina player, right? So there's that.
• Pass the bourbon. Leave bottle. Or just give me a new one because it probably is running low after what Juventus did last weekend against Atalanta.