WHEN reigning European champions Juventus line out tomorrow night at the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin for their seasonal Champions League debut against Manchester United, they will, ironically, have almost as much to prove as their distinguished guests.
Absurd, you could object. Were not Juventus worthy winners of a tournament in which they had played some sparkling soccer (a 8-1 aggregate defeat of Glasgow Rangers makes the point)? Were not Juventus just about the only bright spot in a miserable Italian spring/summer when the national teams were ignominiously eliminated from the first rounds of both the European Championships and the Olympic Games?
Furthermore, is not the pressure on Manchester United? The English champions have been unquestionably the strongest premiership side of recent seasons but equally clearly spectacular flops in two of the last three Champions Cups.
United may indeed have something to prove in Europe, but the Juventus directors also have to prove the wisdom of midsummer transfer activity which saw the club off load famous names strikers Gianluca Vialii (Chelsea) and Fabrizio Ravaaelli (Middlesborough), midfielders Paulo Sousa (Borussia Dortmund) and Giancarlo Marocchi (Bologna) and defender Pietro Vierchowod (AC Milan).
Cliched soccer thinking says that you stick to a winning team. Yet, Juventus appear to have thrown that logic on its head. In particular, the departure of the Vialli Ravanelli strike force, scorers of 55 league goals between them over the last two seasons, seems like a colossal gamble.
For the time being, the two men most responsible for Juventus market strategy, president Roberto Bettega and coach Marcello Lippi, seem convinced of their choices, pointing to recent history and the need to balance the club books as explanations for their actions.
That recent history, of course, concerns the decision one year ago to off load Roberto Baggio, at the very moment that Juventus had won their first Italian league title in 10 seasons. On that occasion, however, the decision was easy since Juventus had, in Alessandro Del Piero, a ready made successor for Baggio.
This time, however, Croat Alen Boksic (Lazio), Christian Vieri (Atalanta) and Nicola Amoruso (Padova), the three men called in to strengthen the Juventus attack postVialli/Ravanelli, do not offer anything like the same guarantees as did Del Piero 12 months ago. Boksic is a player of immense talent, an attacker who usually plays wide and deep but one who creates rather than scores goals. Hence, his poor tally of only four league goals last season.
Vieri (23) and Amoruso (22) are promising players, scorers of seven and 14 goals last season respectively, but both are totally inexperienced in the context of the Champions League and the upper echelons of the Italian championship. Furthermore, the replacement of Portuguese midfielder Paulo Sousa with French international Zinedine Zidane (Bordeaux) represents another gamble since Sousa was a vital element in the success of the last two seasons. (The arrival of Uruguyan Paolo Montero, ex-Atalanta, in defence does however look like one inspired buy.)
President Bettega, himself a former brilliant Juventus striker in the late `70s and early `80s, appears unworried. Since taking over from Giampaolo Boniperti three seasons ago, he has been under orders from the club owners, car giant Fiat, to make the books balance. The sale of Baggio last year and of Vialli and Ravanelli this year fits in with that logic and leaves him with a `96 transfer balance that reads £21.5 million in, £18.5 million out In other words, £3 million in the black.
It remains to be seen whether good accounting will also lead to good soccer. Watching Juventus draw 1-1 away to newly promoted Reggiana last Sunday in their opening league game of the new season, we had our doubts. Boksic saw a lot of the ball, got into many good positions but sent his final shots screamingly wide in a manner only too familiar to Lazio fans.
Vieri huffed and puffed but to nothing like the same effect as Ravanelli or Vialii. Zidane flitted in and out of the game, deft in his touch but still somewhat on the periphery of the main action. Juventus undoubtedly had a majority of the possession and created more chances but their inconclusive finishing was there for all to see. Coach Lippi, however, claims not to be worried.
I'm not happy with the result but if I look at what the team has done, then I am more than satisfied. This was a game when there were a lot of goal scoring chances and they were all ours ... Reggiana had one shot in the entire game and scored.
"This performance augurs well not just for the tie with Manchester (United) but also for the entire season."
Against United, Lippi will have to replace the suspended pair, defender Moreno Torricelli and Serb midfielder Vladmir Jugovic, with Sergio Porrini and Antonio Conte respectively. Those replacements, however, generate less concern than the ability of the new men Boksic and Zidane above all to make a telling contribution.
Juventus face a difficult task tomorrow night. An experimental formation containing players still short of full fitness apart from August friendlies, Juventus have played just one league game and one Italian Cup tie so far this season may have difficulty against a determined, fitter Manchester United. The Juventus gamble begins.
