Seven out of nine ain’t bad.
You usually take seven out of nine points — this is good. Keep telling yourself that while we try to forget one of the most frustrating matches we have seen recently that kept Juventus from getting a perfect nine out of nine in [an awful draw against relegation battler Lecce this past weekend](/previews-reviews/35213/juventus-lecce-2026-serie-a-matchday-18-final-score-result-match-recap-analysis).
Still, move past that and you will find a team that is playing consistently good football and [just steamrolled Sassuolo by a 3-0 scoreline](/previews-reviews/35294/sassuolo-juventus-2026-serie-a-matchday-19-final-score-result-match-recap-analysis) in a game that is on the shortlist in terms of better played games this year. I’m far from throwing a parade for a team that had a good string of games against a trio of squads no higher than 10th on the Serie A table at the time Juve played them. But it’s evident that with more time under their belt the Luciano Spalletti led Juventus is starting to look like a sharper, more structured, more disciplined team.
Considering the last couple of years, that’s not nothing.
It’s January, so you know what that means: Juventus getting loosely linked with a bunch of players to fill out space in blogs and Italian newspapers.
Approximately 85% of what is mentioned during this period amounts no nothing, but there is one rumor that is at the very least worth discussing:
Well, well, well … if it’s not old friend Fred Church who is now rumored to potentially make a comeback. While I wouldn’t necessarily put winger as one of the more pressing needs for this team, a Chiesa comeback is not completely without merit.
_(I’d enjoy having more than 1.5 natural fullbacks in the squad for one example, but I digress.)_
While Chiesa is a natural winger, he has shown flexibility to play in other attacking spots. He could be a decent depth piece to pick up some of the Kenan Yildiz minutes — especially as European competition starts back up and there is a crunch of games. While Francisco Conceicao and Edon Zhegrova seem to have the right wing covered, Zhegrova’s fitness is still all over the place and Conceicao is prone to boom-or-bust form, so Chiesa works in that scenario as well.
It’s a shame how Chiesa’s career has gone after his knee injury in 2022. After a stellar Euro 2020(1) performance it was looking like he was finally taking the next step as the best player in the team. Unfortunately, he’s been but a shadow of the player he once was ever since coming back with Juventus and after being transferred out, and his time at Liverpool hasn’t been anything to write home about, either. While the storybook narrative of Chiesa coming back to Juventus and being a big part of a second-half push for the club is enticing, we also have to be realistic about who Chiesa is right now as a player.
This is little more than a flier on a once-talented player who is currently underperforming. If you can get Chiesa in a favorable loan with an option then by all means go for it, but I would hope current Juventus management doesn’t dedicate too many resources into a reunion that makes more sense from the emotional side than the actual impact to the squad.
Speaking of redemptions on the actual pitch for Juventus … how about Jonathan David’s quick turnaround?
It’s fair to say that David’s stint with Juve has been a general disappointment thus far. David has scored all of four goals in 25 appearances in all competitions along with some legitimately terrible performances. Even grading on a lower curve considering he came on as a free transfer, it has been shockingly mediocre performance from someone consistently posting double digit goals every season in his previous stops .
A great example of the season David has been having was his disasterclass in the aforementioned Lecce game. Not only did he fail to score in a number of clear-cut chances but he then topped off his day with one of the worst penalty kicks you will see. I understand trying to get your struggling striker going with a PK, but the minute he took that ball you could see him in real time lose his final shred of confidence as he dropped the two points almost single handedly.
You would have been right to be as low as possible on David when the game against Sassuolo started, but to his credit he turned the page immediately and had one of his better games in black and white. A goal, an assist and the player of the game trophy will look good on the stat sheet, but he was all over the place contributing for the team in the myriad little ways that had us all really excited when he first signed on for the team. He also seems to be a pretty great locker room presence considering how the entire team ran out to celebrate his goal to wrap up the win on Tuesday.
The two-headed attack led by David and Loïs Openda has been hit or miss since Dusan Vlahovic went down with an injury, but if Juventus has any hope to make the second half of the season remotely interesting they are going to need at least one of those guys to start performing more consistently. Let’s hope David’s Tuesday showcase was a taste of what’s to come.
Quietly, Juventus are building some consistency both in their results and style of play recently. This has been a really weak part of the schedule, so again, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here. But it seems that the choppy waters of the last year and change have steadied for a bit at least.
They currently sit in fourth place, but could fall down to fifth depending on Como’s pending matchup. While that position seems comfortable Juventus trails league leaders Inter Milan — ugh — by six points with the _Nerazzurri_ having a game on hand to boot. In fact, all the teams ahead of them in the standings have a game on hand on Juventus so despite right now looking like they could be in the thick of things, everything could change in a hurry.
_(Don’t look now but old pal Max Allegri and AC Milan are three points off the league lead with the same amount of games played as their cross-town rivals. They boast the third-best defense and the second-best offense which sure, what the hell. Say what you will about the man, he remains an exceedingly competent manager and if push comes to shove I’d much rather him get a title than freakin’ Inter.)_
I know in this new era of Juventus, asking for this team to compete for the Serie A title has been deemed to harsh, but if results go their opponents way to be looking at a potentially 9 point hole in early 2026 is going to feel pretty damn hard to climb out of. If nothing changes, seems like its another year of talking ourselves into the top four being the only thing to look forward too. Good times.