Champions League loss for Juventus signals changing of the Serie A guard as Napoli and AC Milan cruise

Wednesday saw three Italian sides in action; Napoli, AC Milan, and Juventus. Two of those teams picked up commanding wins and the other is Juventus where pressure on Max Allegri is growing. In Serie A play, Napoli and AC Milan are level atop the league alongside Atalanta with 14 points while Juventus are in eighth despite an unbeaten start to the season due to only winning two matches and drawing the other four. In Champions League, things haven’t been much better as losing to Benfica has seen Juventus fall six points behind PSG and the Portuguese side for qualifying out of group H.

Even with Maccabi Haifa in the group, that’s a lot of points to make up and we could see a situation where Juventus doesn’t even drop to Europa League. Meanwhile, Napoli withstood Allan McGregor’s saving a penalty, and then saving it again when it was ordered retaken,to score three goals past Rangers. Behind Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Gli Azzurri are becoming one of the most fun squads in the world as power shifts further in Serie A. 

Not to be upstaged, AC Milan want to defend their Scudetto in the league, but did what Chelsea couldn’t on matchday one, sweeping aside Dynamo Zagreb. Mislav Orsic may have gotten his goal but Milan wouldn’t let that get in the way of a 3-1 victory to stand atop Group E. 

While shrewd transfers have helped keep Napoli and Milan fresh, Juventus has lagged behind. Some of this is due to injuries to Paul Pogba and Federico Chiesa but for a club of Juventus’ stature, depth is an expectation. Napoli has been without Victor Osimhen and new signing Giovanni Simeone has been able to do enough to keep the rest of the squad afloat around him. AC Milan added Charles De Ketelaere, Divock Origi, and Sergiño Dest to ensure that they had depth even in areas that it may not have been needed to withstand injuries during the season.

But without a direction, Juventus are falling behind. Allegri doesn’t know what his best XI or midfield are and he doesn’t have many choices to try and refresh the team either. Against PSG, Fabio Miretti and Adrien Rabiot weren’t up to the challenge so they were withdrawn for Weston McKennie and Manuel Locatelli. But then, Locatelli and Rabiot weren’t available against Benfica causing Miretti to return to the starting XI as depth concerns have proven to be costly.

Loaning Denis Zakaria to Chelsea highlights that as he was a midfielder that brought a different look than the core group. Already knowing that Pogba would be out through the World Cup, it would’ve been a time to get in cover but instead, Juventus let a midfielder walk without a replacement after only six months at the club. A mark of a well run club is keeping a lengthy list of transfer targets to prepare for any situation that may arise like Dest with Milan.

The shrewdness of other Italian clubs is making Juventus’ nine year run atop the league seem like a thing of the past. The team has been lucky to qualify for Champions League in the previous two seasons but they haven’t gotten out of the round of 16 in three straight seasons. If Napoli are able to build on this strong start to the season, its highly plausible that Juventus could become the fifth most important club in Italy behind Atalanta, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Napoli. As Gli Azzurri haven’t won the Serie A since 1990, that’s an impressive rise. But for a team to rise, someone has to fall and in this case, it’s the Old Lady paying the price.