Andrea Pirlo has come under criticism for his role in Juventus’ poor season but he has also had supporters, including Andrea Agnelli who took the risk in hiring him as the club’s latest manager.
The gamble has not really paid off and Agnelli would have had more luck at a kaszinó than putting the destiny of Juve in the hands of a rookie manager.
The former midfielder is in his first job as a head coach and some Juve fans will hate to admit it, but he is using their team to learn about management.
The club wanted to change things around and have been targeting younger players in recent transfer windows.
Therefore, to some degree, it did make sense that Juve made Pirlo their latest manager since he is also young for a coach.
Before he joined, Juventus had won the last nine league titles and most of the players at the club have won at least two consecutive titles.
But under him, Juve risks not qualifying for next season’s Champions League, which is an unthinkable scenario for the club to be in with just a single game remaining.
Some pundits have said the club’s players haven’t been good enough and some have used the fact that even Paulo Dybala hasn’t played enough matches for the club this season as reasons why the team is struggling.
It is also clear that for a large part of the season the club has been far too reliant on Ronaldo, however, the buck always stops with the manager.
It is his responsibility to motivate his players to deliver their best performances, just as it is on him to find the tactics and strategy for the players to execute.
Juventus lost Leonardo Bonucci in the 2017/2018 season after he fell out with Max Allegri and joined AC Milan.
Yet the former Juve manager delivered the league title at the end of that season.
Apart from losing Bonucci (who has since returned to Turin), Juve faced incredibly tough opposition from Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli, who spent 21 matchdays at the top of the league table.
Yet Juventus emerged as the league champions at the end of the season.
If it was Pirlo who was at the helm in that campaign, I reckon that his team would have lacked the steel to stay in the race with Napoli blazing the trail.
Even Sarri faced serious competition from Inter Milan as the boss of Juve last season, but his team won the league.
Pirlo probably has a very bright future as a manager and he would forever be grateful to Juventus after they let him learn the ropes with their team.
However, we must accept the truth that his lack of experience is the reason why Juve hasn’t just lost their league title, but could even fail to reach the Champions League next season.
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