Morata sums up how it feels to be watching a team.
The images are from the same company.
The events that led to the loss at the Bridge must be looked at in a different way, as the underlying problems go back to the beginning of Max Allegri's first tenure. In the five years that followed his departure, decisions were made that resulted in the team being considerably weaker.
Max Allegri told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he preferred a 4-3 formation. The Coach gave the Old Lady an attacking verve that they had failed to show in the 3-5-2 used by his predecessor and it was with that dangerous intent that the Old Lady collected her first league-and-cup double in twenty years.
The Bianconeri lost to Lionel Messi and Barcelona in the first season of Allegri's reign, but they went on to win the league and reach the playoffs. The Coach had taken a side who failed to get out of the Group Stage the previous season, and he had done it at the first time of asking.
It looked like the future of the team was bright.
The side lost their identity at the start of the following campaign, but once again Allegri would transform their fortunes. He brought the best from new arrivals like Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Sami Khedira, and he was following the principles he discussed in the interview with Gazzetta.
With Paul Pogba in a more prominent role, the Bianconeri would embark on a 24 match run to retain their title and lift the Coppa Italia once again, but they would also lose in the last-16 of the European competition to eventual winners, FC Barcelona.
Paul Pogba wasn't really replaced by Juventus.
The images are from the same company.
In the summer of 2016 Allegri would find a way to get results after Paul Pogba left for Old United for 105 million. He switched to a 4-2-3-1 system in the middle of the season, which allowed him to put Mandzukic on the left wing to allow him to play through the middle. It was the best display of pragmatism.
The Coach was praised for his ingenuity, but it was in the game in Wales that the flaws of Allegri's new setup were exposed. The Real Madrid boss flooded the centre of the pitch and his players completely smothered the two-man unit of Khedira and Miralem Pjanic to help their side to a 4-1 mauling.
A few weeks later, the club would get a 20 million signing from Paris Saint-Germain. The move back to playing threeMidfielders was the right one, but it was the decisions made above the Coach that made the team unrecognisable.
The first season of Allegri's tenure saw the emergence of a new generation of stars, with the likes of Vidal, Pirlo, and Marchisio giving an increasingly important role as the season went on. Signing Matuidi and Pjanic for less than half of what Manchester United paid for Pogba makes sense, so too did adding a World Cup winner in Khedira for free after his Real Madrid move.
They were a woefully inadequate blend on the pitch. None of them are blessed with speed, dynamism or the ability to take on a defender, and that lack of explosiveness made the unit predictable, easy to play against and vulnerable to any team boasting pace in the centre of the pitch.
Beppe Marotta promised that a Higuain for the midfield would follow after signing him from Napoli. The fans are still waiting. They looked on as their club searched for cheap, subpar options, including Toms Rincn and Mario Lemina.
None of those players remain in Turin, and they were supplemented with out of contract players who arrived on free transfers from big clubs on big wages. When they arrived, they were seen as good value additions, but they have never performed to a level that made their salaries seem close to a solid investment.
Weston and Arthur McKennie arrived from Barcelona and were major investments last summer. The pricing of the Brazil international at a whopping 72 million was discussed in the previous column, and was part of the first deal. The jury is still very much out on whether or not he can be a major focal point of the side moving forward, as the 25-year-old has made 39 appearances since that move.
The total outlay for McKennie was 23 million.
It is not known if Arthur & McKennie can make a difference.
The images are from Juventus FC.
It can be said that he has performed intermittently, like Italy international Manuel Locatelli. The 25 million that was given to Sassuolo for the player looks to be an excellent value, but he has struggled to make the same impact for the Bianconeri that he has for Italy.
The players are under-performing and many are substandard, but Allegri can't be blamed for that. The main task of a coach is to bring the best from the players at his disposal, to mask their flaws and make the collective unit greater than the sum of its parts.
Instead, he is sticking with a 4-4-2 framework that negates the strengths of Locatelli, as well as Federico Chiesa, who recently has been pushed into a weird strike partnership with Alvaro Morata rather than destroying full-backs from wide areas as he did all summer.
It's not unusual for a central pair to be overrun by opponents who flood that area, just like in the case of Zidane and his team back in 2004. Sometimes, like in recent wins over Lazio and Fiorentina, there are flashes of the old magic, but never quite feel sustainable or tangible.
It's like falling asleep when you watch Juve play. On Tuesday, it was both of them, as they both helped their teams to victories.
Think about that. Under Ciro Ferrara, a nightmare of mediocrity and even a year on the bench for Pirlo, the Bianconeri have never lost as much as they did. Tuttosport, a newspaper based in Italy, labeled the team "unwatchable" after the club's worst ever defeat in the European competition.
It is up to Max Allegri to change that in the immediate future. The long term issues need to be addressed, but for now, how about reading the interview with La Gazzetta, going back to 4/3-and-then-we'll see, and adopting a positive approach?
It isn't like it could be any worse.
