Juventus

The loss of a player of Cristiano Ronaldo's abilities, even in the latter stages of his glittering career, was always going to leave Juventus scrambling ...

Ronaldo scored at a phenomenal rate throughout his time at Juventus, scoring 101 goals in 134 appearances over the course of his three seasons at the club. When a legend leaves a team it can have disastrous effects and can take years, perhaps decades, to return to the heights they reached previously. The loss of a player of Cristiano Ronaldo’s abilities, even in the latter stages of his glittering career, was always going to leave Juventus scrambling for goals.

A first-half goal from Alvaro Morata was enough to give fourth-placed Juventus a 1-0 victory at home to Spezia as they narrowed the gap on leaders Inter ...

Juventus striker finished from the edge of the box after a poor clearance from the goalkeeper Alvaro Morata scored the only goal in the 21st minute as Juventus beat Spezia on Sunday - Juventus striker finished from the edge of the box after a poor clearance

Juventus could already have a plan in place to replace Paulo Dybala amid strong links to Inter on a free transfer, with the Bianconeri considering.

Juve had to wait until midway through the first half to create a clear-cut ...

Dusan Vlahovic (RF) - 5/10 - Played a role in the build-up to Morata's goal. Gave away some needless late fouls and lost possession to put his side under pressure. Booked for a barge off the ball. The Pole was called into action again with a little over ten minutes to go, coming off his line to smother Kevin Agudelo's effort. Juve had to wait until midway through the first half to create a clear-cut opportunity, and it yielded the only goal of the game. Booked and subbed.

Juventus will look to build on two narrow but precious win in an apparently comfortable home fixture versus Spezia.

Compared to the first meeting between the two sides, their rhythm is significantly lower, and they are not as offensive-minded. They are both fullbacks, but the latter quickly adapted to playing in the midfield. The other forwards, Manaj and Emmanuel Gyasi, are not super clutch in the box, but they work very hard in the passive phase too. They did away with some blunders once Martin Erlic shook off his physical issues, the chemistry with Dimitrios Nikolaou improved, and Ivan Provedel unseated Jeroen Zoet between the sticks, furnishing a few spectacular performances. The roster is not particularly enticing, plus they went, only partly by choice, from one of the brightest gaffers in Italy, Vincenzo Italiano, to one that looked out of his depth in the early going, Thiago Motta. However, he turned things around, even resisting the pressure from part of the front office that would have quickly kicked him to the kerb. The absence of the Polish youngster is potentially more hurtful, as he single-handedly lifted their midfield by providing a ton of muscles, helping massively in keeping the team balanced. With no midweek fixture on the horizon, it would be better not to play with fire. Down to bare bones, the last two performances of Juventus have left a lot to be desired, but it is tough to fault the coach, and especially the players, this time out. In the meantime, the partnership between Arthur and Manuel Locatelli has gone swimmingly, freeing up the former to put his dynamism to good use in more areas. The midfielders have logged heavy minutes lately, and while the returns are not necessarily in that area, they could be beneficial with some rejiggering across the formation. Hopefully, it will not take a devastating loss for him to realize that continuing like this would be a disservice to the strikers. It looks like the only thing that could hold him back is the lack of feeds, so it will be up to the gaffer to prevent that from becoming an issue.

The teams are out for today's Serie A clash in Turin where the below Spezia side will take on Juventus. Spezia Calcio. @acspezia.