Sarri finally proves he can win a Serie A title: What’s next for Juventus?

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri has finally proven he can win a league championship at home. What’s next for the Italian manager?

In what can only be described as an unusual league championship, banker-turned-coach Maurizio Sarri was able to coach Juventus to a ninth straight league title on Sunday in only his first season at the club.

For Sarri, the title is the first he’s ever won in his native Italy, also making him the oldest ever to coach a team to the scudetto at age 61. To date, his only trophy was a Europa League title during his one-season stay in England at Chelsea last year. Sarri has coached since 1996 and made a name for himself starting in 2015 when he took over at Napoli.

In his three seasons with the Partenopei, the chain-smoking Sarri grabbed headlines for his style of play and for making Napoli title contenders. Despite the hoopla about a tactical revolution, Napoli won nothing and Sarri signed with Chelsea. His return to Italy last summer, with Juventus, opened the door for Sarri to finally win something in his home country.

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Sarri’s tactics, often under question for their defensive high line, featured a 4-3-3 formation this season that focused on the left-side flank and crosses. As a result, the defense seemed porous at times (especially after the pandemic break), but the midfield and offensive line created lots of chances.

While Sarriball did run into some roadblocks in the Premier League, he has found Serie A a more suitable style. This season showed that Sarriball, with the right players, can succeed. It does help that Juve have been a powerhouse for the past decade and that the lineup features such stars as striker Cristiano Ronaldo and midfielders Juan Cuadrado and Douglas Costa.

Now that Sarri has gotten the scudetto monkey off his back, can Juve win the Champions League? That’s the big question the team and fans are asking now that another league title is wrapped up. Juve powered up over the past few years, spending money on players like Ronaldo and defender Matthijs de Ligt, just to win the Champions League.

More data to ponder: 14 players logged at least 1,000 minutes for Juventus in Serie A this season, with the club doling out some $30 million in transfer fees for 11 of them over the last six years. That means Sarri has pretty much made up his mind on who his core players are (something he also did at Napoli), while the club hasn’t been shy about spending money to build a competitive team with a long bench.

As a former banker, Sarri knows the value of his players and what it will take for them to win more trophies this year. For him, it’s about managing minutes and being more flexible depending on the opposition.

As a result of the three-month coronavirus hiatus, the Champions League will be played throughout the month of August in the bubble of Lisbon. The format of playing every few days and with no fans will certainly change the feel of the tournament. It really is anyone’s for the taking, but Juventus know that failing to lift the trophy will be seen as a monumental failure.

Should Sarri fail to lead the team to European glory, expect the chorus calling for him to be replaced rise. It has been a bumpy ride for the Old Lady since the restart. One could argue that Juve won the title because other teams (most notably Lazio, Atalanta and Inter Milan) failed to be more consistent. Had they been, Juventus could have easily been looking at second place in the standings.

Juve thrives in close matches and when the score remains low. The trauma of three recent games for Juventus, against Milan (a 4-2 defeat), Atalanta (2-2) and Sassuolo (3-3) bring future failure into focus. This inability to hang on to a 2-0 advantage could come to haunt Juventus as they prepare for Champions League soccer.

“In this period, we are physically and mentally tired, and it is a problem common to all,” Sarri said following the 2-1 defeat to Udinese this past week. “For this reason, being aggressive is something more tiring and, therefore, now what matters most is order, because the inertia of a game changes very easily.”

Sarri’s tactics are partly to blame for these lapses. The inability by Sarri to adapt to the game being played before him is what hurt him in England. It can do so again against the best clubs in the world.

Here’s one sobering stat for Sarri to hang on to: 22 of Juve’s league games this season have been decided by zero or one goal. In all, they have lost only three of those games. If Sarri’s men are able to do that in the Champions League, then Juve could be celebrating its first European title since 1996.