I agree with what some have to say as Milan being the strongest team in Europe at the moment.
In relation to the players in the squad, not much has changed since last year. But in terms of performance, our players have "depreciated" drastically over a season. Last year, our players: Thuram, Montero, Ferrara; were performing with the likes of Nesta & Maldini. Our players have "rusted" over a season, while Milan continue to perform like last year.
Another observation is that Milan seem to be enjoying their football while we have seemed to struggle to get decent performances in the 2nd half of this season. This is probably due to the atmosphere in the field when these teams play.
Milan have been playing attravtively. And in the instance that they get to play one off-game, they continue their good form on the next, not letting their previous performance affect them psychologically.
Though one strength we have over Milan is, as always, our DETERMINATION. We never give up 'till the last whistle. But sadly, this determination hasn't saved us in a lot of games this season. We have managed to fight back from games that we find ourselves trailing, but our fightback sometimes never seems enough. Unlike last year when we would at least almost always get a result, even a point. This is the case in the last Derby d' Italia.
I think that even the speculations regarding Lippi's future with Juve rattles the atmosphere in TUrin and it will only do us no good. I hope they keep those stories off the press and concentrate on other matters.
Frankly, I dont mind to finish lower than 2nd place as we will get to play more games in the preliminary rounds of the CL. Some may argue that more games means more risk for Juve. But I have known for a fact that Juve always needs a few games to get the ball rolling. I hope that the preliminaries will allow us to get our "football" started even before we get to the group stage so we can carry it on until the finals.
My only hope is for Juve to find back that spark and change the atmosphere once again at the Delle Alpi. I hope that we can ENJOY playing our football and not let the pressure get the better of us. In fact, JUVENTUS have not much to prove because we've proven to be successfull already. It is just a bad patch, next year will defintely be our year.