Although it may initially seem paradoxical, the winners of the latest iteration of the Derby d'Italia may, in the long run, wish they had lost instead.
In a chippy encounter on Serie A's penultimate matchday which saw both teams reduced to 10 men, Juventus beat newly-crowned league champions Inter Milan 3-2. Juan Cuadrado's two goals proved to be the difference between the two teams; the Colombian winger scored the Bianconeri's winning goal from the penalty spot in the 88th minute after he had been fouled by Ivan Perišić in the penalty area.
The victory kept Juve in contention for one of the four Champions League spots. It is for precisely that reason why I believe a Juve loss would have served them better over time.
If Juve leapfrog AC Milan or Napoli during the final matchday and qualify for next season's Champions League, the chances of head coach Andrea Pirlo remaining in the position next season exponentially increase. Such a scenario would be the exact opposite of what would be best for Juve due to the abject incompetence that Pirlo has shown to date.
At the end of last season, Juve fired Maurizio Sarri after a Champions League quarterfinal loss against Lyon. The selection of Pirlo as Sarri's replacement surprised many because of Pirlo's lack of coaching experience. Pirlo had been appointed as coach of Juve's reserve team just nine days prior. Results since then have confirmed the skeptics' concerns.
With Pirlo in the dugout, Juve have failed to win Serie A for the first time since the 2010-11 season. That season, Juve had a historically dismal campaign - their worst since either 1962 when they were 13th in the league but made the European Cup quarterfinals or 1957 when they only managed to finish ninth in the league. Not surprisingly, Luigi Delneri was fired as Juve head coach at the end of the season and replaced with Antonio Conte. Conte's arrival in Turin would go on to usher in the beginning of a remarkable run of nine consecutive league titles.
During this nine-year stretch featuring Conte, Massimiliano Allegri, and Sarri in the dugout, Juve not only won the league every year; they averaged a remarkable 90 points per season while doing so. They also won four Coppa Italia titles and reached the Champions League final in 2015 and 2017. This recent record has only served to highlight just how inept Pirlo has been thus far.
Pirlo has utterly failed to adapt his tactics to suit Juve's players. This can clearly be seen in their lack of invention and creativity in the final third of the pitch; a somewhat ironic fact given that as a player, Pirlo was one of the greatest playmakers of all time. Much of Juve's play in the sharp end of the field this season can be boiled down to "give Cristiano Ronaldo the ball and hope things work". As great as Ronaldo still is even at the age of 36, there's still only so much one player can do.
Pirlo has also shown that he is a coach stuck in the past; this is shown by his selection of the 4-4-2 formation. This is a formation which has seen the game pass it by; while teams of the past have seen success with it, we now know that the 4-4-2 formation is rigid, inflexible, and often not conducive to the creation of viable goalscoring opportunities. Pirlo's insistence on this formation is also further evidence of his failure to adapt to Juve's squad; players such as Adrien Rabiot and Rodrigo Bentancur should be deployed behind the opposition midfield as part of a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 formation. This setup would not only help Juve create more chances; it would also help them gain a larger share of possession and dictate the flow of the match.
When Juve played against Napoli last month, the consensus heading into the match was that Pirlo's job was on the line. He managed to spare himself from the axe as he led Juve to a 2-1 victory over their opponents from the south. However, as may have been the case with the Inter match, it may have been better for Juve to have lost in order to trigger the firing of Pirlo.
Regardless of Juve's final league position this season or their spot or lack thereof in next season's Champions League, Pirlo has to go as soon as this season ends. It is beyond obvious that he is completely out of his depth.
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