Decade of Domination 6 : Juventus
Taking a Look at that Nine-Year Spell of Invincibility — 2016/17
Nine years of success that had all other Serie A clubs as livid as Germano Mosconi after the third take.
How did Juventus orchestrate their historic winning streak?
This is Part 6 on 2016/17. Click here to read from the beginning (2011/12)
Warning : This content may harm Inter, Milan, Roma and Napoli fans.
2016/17 : Records Tumble, Southerners Grumble
Following five consecutive Serie A titles, Max Allegri had set the bandwagon to cruise control, pedal to the metal on the highway to history. Now the club’s main aim was to win that vital sixth consecutive Scudetto in order to break it’s own league record of 5 in a row.
On a personal note, Max Allegri would simultaneously strive to emulate the heroics of his predecessor, Antonio Conte, by winning three-in-a-row.
During the previous season, the arrival of Paolo Dybala was a huge success. The Argentine concluded his first term in Turin with 19 League goals, finishing second to Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain.
Higuain had just equaled Gino Rossetti’s record total of 36 Serie A goals, set 87 years earlier in 1929, after plundering in a famous bicycle kick on the final day of the 2015/16 campaign to guide the Partenopei to a splendid second- placed finish.
Beppe Marotta would stop at nothing to prise away the League’s most prolific striker, a task which would require two transfer fee records to be shattered. Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentis, was helpless to stop the transfer, as Higuain’s €90 million release clause was met in July 2016.
The former River Plate youth player was eager to move north and win trophies. Napoli would make a handsome €50 million profit on the sale of El Pepita who’d netted 91 times for the southerners in just 146 games.
The Transfers Out : Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Roberto Pereyra (Watford), Simone Padoin (Cagliari), Mauricio Isla (Cagliari), Simone Zaza (West Ham). January Window — Martin Caceres (Southampton), Patrice Evra (Marseille), Hernanes (Hebei China)
The Transfers In : Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli), Miralem Pjanić (Roma), Dani Alves (Barcelona), Mehdi Benatia (Bayern Munich), Marko Pjaca (D.Zagreb), January — Tomás Rincón (Genoa)
Higuain’s acquisition would create a new Serie A record for most expensive player, previously set by another River Plate junior, Hernan Crespo, in 2000 at a cost of over €56 million from Parma to Lazio.
Two weeks later Juventus then broke the world transfer fee record, surpassing Gareth Bale’s €101 million move to Real Madrid from Tottenham in 2013, and offloaded Paul Pogba to Manchester United for €105 million.
Like a succubus, La Vecchia Signora had seduced the best out of Pogba — then sold him back to the club from where she’d once lured him for free — effectively securing Higuain’s services at zero cost and making a tidy profit in the process. An astute piece of business if there ever was one.
For the past few seasons, the Scudetto contenders had been Roma and Napoli. Both Conte and Allegri had understood that the best way to keep your competition at bay is to buy their best players.
Miralem Pjanić joined the Bianconeri for €30 million from Roma and the backline was bolstered by the arrivals of Mehdi Benatia and Dani Alves.
Allegri heavily rotated his starting lineups throughout the campaign and would alter his formation depending on the opponent, deploying the 4–3–1–2 or 3–5–2.
Miralem Pjanić was anchored in midfield in both systems as Claudio Marchisio’s decline made way for Sami Khedira. Higuain played every league game, drilling home 24 goals while Paolo Dybala and Mario Mandžukic provided decent support, scoring 11 and 7 respectively.
Key Contributors : Miralem Pjanić with 9 assists from midfield, Higuain with 24 goals to help Juve keep their former sides from nabbing the title.
Best Winning Streak : 7 games. 16 games undefeated streak.
Biggest Wins : Juventus 4 v Cagliari 0 and Juventus 4 v Genoa 0
Leading Serie A Goal Scorers 2016/17 : 24 Higuain, 11 Dybala, 7 Mandžukic, 5 Pjanić and Khedira, 4 Alex Sandro
Juventus secured Scudetto #33 on the penultimate round of the campaign. The Giallorossi, who’d beaten Juve 3–1 at the Olimpico in mid-May to keep their dream alive, finished in second spot. Edin Džeko topped the league with 29 goals in Francesco Totti’s last ever Serie A season.
Dries Mertens, Napoli’s answer to Higuain’s departure, slotted 28 goals while Andrea Belotti of Torino scored 26. Juve’s €90-million-man finished in equal fourth alongside compatriot Mauro Icardi of Inter.
Milan and Inter fought it out for a spot in the Europa League — the Nerazzurri missing out — as Atalanta ascended into UEFA competition calculations.
The Old Lady boasted the best defence for a sixth consecutive season, conceding only 138 times between 2011 and 2017 for an average of 23 per season.
Juve produced an exact repeat of the previous season with 29 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses for 91 league points, albeit 12 less than their record-breaking season of 102 points in 2013/14 under Antonio Conte.
Only Napoli lost fewer matches (4) and also impressively scored 17 more goals than the champions. But Juventus eclipsed the Serie A record for consecutive Serie A titles nonetheless and also broke the Italian Cup record.
Coppa Italia 2016/17
The achievements kept coming for La Vecchia Signora. Accompanying the six in a row in the League was a record third consecutive Italian Cup title.
Paolo Dybala led the side to victories over Atalanta and Milan early on in the competition and the ex-Palermo attacker also netted against Napoli in the first leg of the semi-final.
The second leg was played at the San Paolo. Gonzalo Higuain induced plenty of Neopolitan stomach pains, scoring a brace to sink his former club with a goal on either side of the break to set up a final berth against Lazio. Juventus had defeated Napoli 5–4 on aggregate.
Juve’s twelfth Coppa Italia title was clinched on May 17th, just four days before mathematically securing the season’s Serie A title.
The Biancocelesti were outplayed by the Juve defence both defensively and offensively. Dani Alves volleyed home first-time from an Alex Sandro cross on 12 minutes while Leonardo Bonucci tucked away a loose ball from a few yards after 24 minutes. The game ended 2–0 at the Olimpico in Rome.
Lazio had lost a second Italian Cup Final in three years, Juventus the culprit both times.
Champions League 2016/17
Like Gollum’s quest for the ring, Juventus perpetually pursued European football’s holy grail — the UEFA Champions League — which had eluded them for 20 years.
After defeating Ajax in 1995/96 Juventus has been denied by Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Barcelona in four finals.
Juventus topped Group H, undefeated, to advance to the knockout stage after powerful performances against Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia (0–4) and away in Sevilla (1–3).
Porto and Barcelona were both dispatched 3–0 on aggregate and Kylian Mbappé was the only goal scorer who managed to penetrate the Juve defence in the knockout phase thus far. The Bianconeri defeated Monaco 3–1 in their semi final over two legs to reach their ninth final.
Real Madrid had scored 32 goals throughout the Champions League campaign, far more than Juve’s total of 20. However, the Spaniards had conceded 17 along the way while Gianluigi Buffon picked the ball out on only 3 occasions.
The Final, contested in Cardiff, was set for a huge finish after Mario Mandžukić surprised even himself by acrobatically finding the far corner to beat Keylor Navas just seven minutes after Cristiano Ronaldo had put Los Blancos into the lead. It remained 1–1 at halftime.
Casemiro’s deflected strike from distance tipped the scales for 2–1 and then Ronaldo and Marco Asencio finished off the job — an unflattering 4–1 thrashing.
Coach Zenedine Zidane, a two-time Scudetto winner with Juventus, made history that night as Real Madrid became the first club to win two successive UEFA Champions Leagues. Los Merengues stretched that record in 2017/18 to three.
Since that win over Ajax in the mid-90s, Juventus had now lost all of their five Champions League Final appearances. “My precious” echoing into eternity.
Conclusion
More glamour for Juventus, a third successive Scudetto under Max Allegri, also surpassing the 1930-1935 Serie A record of 5 in a row, set 82 years prior by the Old Lady back when she was in her late thirties.
Factolicious : Gonzalo Higuain’s €90m transfer fee made him the most expensive South American player in history. Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, was paid €27m by Juventus for facilitating his transfer back to Manchester United. Pogba’s transfer fee of €105 million set a new world record, surpassing the fee for Gareth Bale’s journey (€101m) to Real Madrid two years earlier.
Moise Kean made his debut at 16 years of age, playing his first-ever Serie A games against Pescara and scoring his first goal on the last Match Day against Bologna.
Kean is the club’s youngest ever debutant, the first player born in the 2000s to compete and score in a major European league and also play in the Champions League.
Gonzalo Higuain scored three goals against Napoli in his first season at Juventus, which helped prevent the Partenopei from winning their first title since the Maradona days.
Goal Scorers (All Comp.) : 32 Higuain, 19 Dybala, 11 Mandžukić, 8 Pjanić
Miralem Pjanić’s addition to the squad brought 8 goals which proved to be telling. The Bosnian had scored 12 times for Roma — finishing second behind Mo Salah’s 15 — during the 2015/16 season before leaving for Juve. La Lupa fell just 4 points short this term.
The Southern clubs had mounted the mightiest of challenges. Roma and Napoli fell short in the League and Lazio came undone in the final of the Italian Cup.
The two Milanese clubs were impotent, helpless as Juventus reigned supreme for another season.
Marotta and Allegri fell just one step short of completing the treble. Champions League remained the priority moving forward.
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