Juventus 4 – Parma 1: Initial reaction and random observations

The month of February has the potential to be very good for Juventus. It also has the potential to be a very tough slog knowing that there are big games pretty much everywhere you look on the schedule. The beginning of the month, however, was one of the final chances between now and the March international break in which Luciano Spalletti’s squad will be facing a provincial side that is looking at a potential (likely?) relegation fight.

And Juventus put down the hammer as you hoped they would against said provinciale.

Juventus could have been up 2-0 within the first six minutes. They then actually took a two-goal lead heading into the half after a very strong opening 45 minutes at the Tardini. And even with Andreaa Cambiaso doing his latest boneheaded defensive error that (directly) led to a goal, Juventus then responded with two more goals to roll to a 4-1 lead over a struggling Parma side on Sunday night in Emilia-Romagna. The win, yet another very good showing against those sometimes difficult to deal with provincial clubs, propelled Juventus up into fourth place as we wait to see what Roma will do against Udinese on Monday night.

It was the start to a big month of February — and bounceback performance after a relatively quiet night in the Champions League just four days earlier — in which you hoped this team would come out and have.

Then again, you also know things are going pretty well — both on the night and just on the whole in general over the course of Spalletti’s time as manager — when Juventus actually score from a header off a corner kick.

No, seriously. It happened.

Oh, you want proof of it? Is the photo above of Bremer celebrating that goal off a corner kick not enough for you?

OK, that’s fine. Considering Juventus’ lack of success on set pieces in recent years, I totally get it. Here’s proof …

You can now see it with your own two eyes. Believe it. Cherish it. Inject it into your veins.

Juventus won big, they scored from a corner kick and later a set piece — that had a nifty little routine to it! — all the while dominating a Parma side that has struggled to score this season for large swaths of the game.

It was a pretty good night to kick off a pretty good month.

You got Bremer scoring twice in the same game. You got Weston McKennie doing Weston McKennie things and scoring yet another great goal as we continue to wonder what his contract status for next season is. We got Jonathan David out here being an absolute fox in the box and scoring a simple goal to put the cherry on top of his improving run of form since the turn of the new year. You got a lot of good things from Jvuentus on Sunday against Parma that totally outweigh all of the facepalming we all did when we saw Cambiaso score the own goal that momentarily made a 2-1 game out of nowhere.

But the thing about this Spalletti squad is that they are just continuing to show more and more that they are simply under the direction of a better manager than the previous two coaches at this club. Spalletti has gotten them to play his brand of ball — they’re pushing for more goals regardless of the score and showing to be a pretty reliable on the defensive end following all of the troubles at the back under Igor Tudor. Yes, having somebody like Bremer helps a ton because he’s just that good, but it’s also the manager raising the level of the players that he has.

One 4-1 win over Parma doesn’t prove that. But it’s the latest instance in which you can see just what kind of difference this Juventus has to it as compared to when the Bianconeri beat this same Parma squad on the opening weekend of the season.

This team is confident, they’re playing well and they’re getting contributions from all over the squad. That’s a huge thing when it was just a few months ago we were wondering about how this team is basically Kenan Yildiz and if anybody else is going to actually come and help him out.

I don’t have those same worries now. That is thanks to the work Spalletti has done since taking over for Tudor a little over three months ago. There have been a lot of games over that time, but three months really isn’t a whole lot of time in the grand scheme of things. That, again, speaks to the work Spalletti has done.

Now we just get to see just how much it’s paid off with this huge month of February ahead.

It was a pretty good start to this new month on Sunday night. And hopefully more of that is on the way.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Let us hope that the initial reports from DAZN Italia about Kenan Yildiz asking to be subbed off as the halftime break approached because of fatigue are that and only that. This is not the time for Kenan to be suddenly missing games due to any sort of injury no matter how minor it may be. (But also totally understandable if there were to be a case of muscle fatigue because of how much he’s played this season.)
• This really should have been a clean sheet for Juventus. Who was responsible for marking Cambiaso on the back post on that cross into the box?
• I’m glad it was a 4-1 win with plenty of room to spare so that I can make that joke and not be absolutely incensed because Cambiaso’s absolutely stupid own goal cost Juventus points. Or even caused Juve to just hunker down and try and defend a thin lead.
• Yes, the name that has scored the second-most goals for Parma this season is Own Goal. I’m not making that up, folks. It’s true.
• But real talk, though: When did Andrea Cambiaso become Marco Motta?
• You know who had a very good game? Michele Di Gregorio, the man who is in Juventus’ goal with whom folks love to point out even the smallest of issues. Di Gregorio made a couple of big, big saves — and even the more impressive when you consider he had little to do outside of that for extremely long stretches of time against Parma.
• PAY WESTON McKENNIE WHA T HE WANTS AND EXTEND HIS CONTRACT ASAP.
• Thank you for letting me say that in all-caps again. I appreciate your cooperation.
• Who needs a big winter window striker signing when you’ve got Gleison Bremer? RIGHT?
• I say that with a massive amount of sarcasm of course, but it is pretty wild that Juventus scored off both a corner kick AND a free kick. And in the same game!
• Outside of one very bad giveaway, Manuel Locatelli’s passing was once again on point in the win over Parma. As a team, Parma completed around 350 passes. Locatelli alone completed 105 passes. He completed almost 90% of those passes. He was close to dead on perfect with his long-range passes. It was once again a sign of improvement for him under Spalletti.
• Unfortunately, we can’t necessarily boast about the performance from his midfield mate Khephren Thuram against Parma. At least he is continuing to be one of the creative forces of the goal celebrations.
• Pretty sure KT just needs some rest. Hopefully that happens in the Coppa Italia on Thursday.
• Some of these refereeing decisions … I dunno, man.
• That said, Francisco Conceição missed a couple of huge goal chances within the first six minutes and then got a really dumb yellow card that could have been more than that with a different referee. At least he had a really nice assist to Bremer on the opening goal, so at least there’s that.
• That header from Bremer was an absolute bullet. That needed some serious velocity on the ball for him to get it in at the near post — and he did exactly that.
• Since his brutal PK miss against Lecce, David has four goals and three assists. Those are the counting numbers. There’s also the unofficial contributions to goals like he had on McKennie’s goal. This is a man who is starting to hit his stride and take advantage of the faith Spalletti has shown in him. More of this, JD.
• (Insert your joke here about Loïs Openda going with cornrows to try and get the same mojo going as David has found of late. Go ahead and do it, folks. You won’t be the only one.)
• Bremer good.
• Lloyd Kelly good. Lloyd Kelly is now consistently good. What a difference 12 months makes.
• It didn’t count due to Openda being offside, but that sure was a nice pass from Fabio Miretti to set him up.
• In conclusion, EXTEND WESTON’S CONTRACT. (Had to say it one more time.)
• That’s a pretty good start to the month of February. I certainly preferred that compared to how Juve ended the month of January, but that’s just one man’s opinion.