So what are your first impressions of his Juve?
I realize that it is very early, and any judgement can only be thoroughly preliminary, not to say hopelessly premature; but hey, when has that ever stopped a football fan.
I try to follow their games a bit more this season (usually not really a Serie A expert), as I can't help but be intrigued by this appointment, or rather the sheer brazenness and mind-boggling absurdity of it. I'm not aware of there ever having been a case of a top club appointing a manager/head coach with literally zero experience. Zero, not as an expression for very, very little, but as in the actual number of games in charge, or training sessions held, in his coaching experience..
It's also intriguing, in a more positive sense, due to the glamorous and likeable figure that Pirlo presents.
So I'm sensing a win-win situation here, either against all odds we can witness the birth and baptism of a great managerial figure, and football is always in need of those - or, even better, there will be opportunity to bath in some good old Schadenfreude about the self-demolition of the all-dominating club in Serie A.
Anyway, my first impression is that this Juventus is all over the place and Pirlo is in over his head.
The win against Sampdoria was alright, even if the team seemed uneven and shaky, against Roma they were very lucky to get away with a point as they allowed tons of chances, the performance against Crotone was rather bad.
In the latter, he used something like a 4-4-2 for the majority of the match, as opposed to the three at the back of the first game, and also different to the formation at Roma, where Ramsey surprisingly had played a rather free roaming role on the left attacking side (this time Chiesa on the right)
Now, the squad situation and player availability in these first matches makes it hard to discern what his preferred team will be, for example the two man midfield against Crotone, Arthur plus Betancur, was the exact inverse of the midfielders chosen to play in the first two games, McKennie, Rabiot and Ramsey. In general, the midfield part of the squad comes across as a whirlpool of question marks.
Again, too early to tell, but the first signs seem not positive to me, and if I was a Juve fan I'd be worried. Of course, their current 5th place in the table is also due to the points awarded to them by default in what otherwise surely would have been a very difficult game.
Does anyone else have an opinion yet?