That's the biggest load of bull$#@! I've read on this forum in a while. Especially with the rise of the superclubs (Barca, Madrid and Bayern) - winning the CL has never been more difficult.
Two things:
a) In 2014-2015, we WERE a "superclub". Those teams didn't have anything on us, we were toe-to-toe with them.
b) "Never been more difficult", yet Atletico Madrid managed to reach the final last year. Try your hardest to explain this one for me without using the words "Diego" and "Simeone".
When a manager is given a world class squad, like the one we had between 2013-2015, questions need to be asked of him when he doesn't deliver the Champions League.
Questions such as "Would managers like Guardiola, Mourinho, Klopp, Ancelotti, or Simeone been able to do better than getting knocked out by losing 2-1 on aggregate to Benfica?"
Especially damning in Allegri's case is that more so than any other team in Europe's big leagues, Juventus can afford to put a lot of focus on Champions League with the assurance that the domestic title is in the bag. You all think and act like this era is everlasting, you have normalized it in your minds and taken it for granted, but football always finds ways to restore equilibrium. Inter are spending a lot of money. Milan have been bought by the Chinese. These kinds of things create new eras.
When judging Allegri, one must also ask: how has he capitalized on our period of domestic dominance? How much did he capitalize on the fact that we
had a squad capable of standing toe-to-toe with Europe's elite, whilst our domestic competitors couldn't string two wins together against mid-table teams without stumbling over their own feet?
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Explain please. How can you say we should have atleast one CL single over the past 4 years, but this year it's out of the question? I'm not even saying we have a big chance this year.
We had (and still have) one of the best defensive lines in Europe.
We had (and still have) one of the finest goalkeepers.
We had (no longer have) one of the best and most balanced midfields when we had Vidal, Pirlo, Pogba, and Marchisio.
We had (no longer have) one of the best center forwards in the world in Tevez.
We had a squad that was so world-class that it essentially managed itself. This squad here, so severely degraded, needs a manager that instills his vision and strategy into it. It needs a manager that makes you go "Ha, who would've thought [Team X] could outplay Barcelona so thoroughly."
We don't have a manager like that. When he had the type of team he needed, he didn't deliver. How could you expect him to now? It's almost unfair, really.
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Honestly, I don't think it's entirely EuroMax's fault. He doesn't have the appropriate personnel, Beppe's done a great job getting him a WC striker in Higuain and by finding solid alternatives to Barzagli/Chiellini in Benatia, and he's also got him a promising young talent in Pjaca.
However one thing Beppe neglected was reinforcing the midfield, Pjanic is Pogba's replacement and that's cool, but what we needed last year is the same thing that we are missing this year, a Vidal replacement. In my opinion Beppe $#@!ed up by not pushing harder for Kante or a player of a similar ilk.
Allegri is working with what he has, and he has a thin and feeble midfield to work with, Marchisio is the only reliable midfielder and we are one injury away from ending our European season, as for the league we got this.
For this winter, Beppe has serious work, he needs to bulk up our midfield.
Help me reconcile some things here.
You said "Pjanic is Pogba's replacement, and that's cool" ("cool" he says
) and then, in a classic example of a moment of
accidental honesty, you went on to say that "Marchisio is the only reliable midfielder [we have]". Can you please explain to me how "it's cool" that we replaced Pogba with a midfielder that
you yourself don't think of as "reliable"?
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