Throughout the season, the Serie A table has offered us a false sense of security. It doesn’t show the scraping win against Fiorentina on day one. It doesn’t show that Udinese was only a result of one boy’s one foot. It doesn’t show the unnecessary effort that went into edging past Chievo. Being outplayed by classic rivals Inter and Milan didn’t trigger the panic button – it was just two games, they were ‘big’ teams, we’ll beat them when they come to Turin anyway. And teams like Roma, Lazio, and Napoli do enough damage unto themselves that we don’t even have to waste time peering backward as we march on ahead.

Then, this happened.

The thing though is, we knew this day would come. On some level, probably far deeper than we can fathom, Mister Allegri too must have known that this day would come. Yet, he also has had the benefit of crouching behind the devastation of injuries – I don’t think we’ve had the opportunity to field our full first team to date this season.

I won’t sit on a high horse and say I’ve never criticised a coach (two words: Del Neri), but apart from the handful who were appointed during The Dark Years, the Juventus management has had a decent track record of selecting the right men for the ever-daunting task of leading Italy’s greatest team to glory.

Nevertheless, I’m not a fan of criticising the coach. If there is one man who truly knows the ins and outs of the team, its dynamics, its current fortes, and its current foibles, well beyond our knowledge, it’s the coach. So while I don’t agree with Mister Allegri’s selections yesterday, I must believe that he did so with deliberation, given the dire situation with availability.

Of course, it’s painful to watch our team scramble and crumble when we know the ragazzi are capable of so much better. But let’s not forget to give credit to Ivan Jurić’s Genoa, who were tightly organised and disciplined yet played an open, fluid, and dare I say it, entertaining, game. We did plenty to mess things up ourselves, but the midfield of Laxalt, Rincon, Lazović, and Cofie were solid in their distribution and keeping here-one-moment-and-gone-the-next Pjanić and perpetually-out-of-position Mandzukic out of the picture altogether; with Burdisso and Izzo looking like Barzagli and Bonucci in disguise.

Personally, I was looking forward to watching Perin work (fancying the boy as Buffon’s heir) but he had so little to do that he was practically getting a preview of life as Gigi Buffon.

So the question is: What now?

The entire BBC is down.

It doesn’t seem as if Dybala will return in full force before the new year.

Marchisio is ‘back’, but can still only manage one game per week.

The stretch before the winter break appears grim. Atalanta (on fire), Dinamo Zagreb, Torino, Roma and AC Milan. Going in to Christmas with our first trophy of the season will be sweet, but the confidence AC Milan carry from their victory over us last month (in spite of unfavourable results after) may lead to a hotter contest that we intend.

We’re holding out hope for a January miracle that will turn our season around – but with a recent history of welcoming Boriello, Bendtner, and Anelka during the winter, it’s naïve to expect a season-changer to arrive. It would be nice, but we shouldn’t expect it.

It was Vialli who recently said, “I confess, in my many years with the Bianconeri nobody ever said: ‘Make sure you play well today.’ More often than not the phrase was: ‘Make sure we win today.’” And Totti finally admitted, “When Juve meet Chievo or Bologna, even if they play badly, they win them all. I think that is the true strength of Juve, that they never give up.”

Yet because winning is the only thing that counts at Juventus, we’ve spent most of this season getting away with appalling performances that still bring home results. And like the Serie A table, that has only offered us a false sense of security.

There’s an illustrated drawing I save for days like this. It shows an old couple sitting on either end of a bench, facing away from each other and visibly upset. It’s raining, but the old man still holds out an umbrella over the old woman’s head, as he himself gets wet. And the caption says: “Love is caring for each other even when you’re angry.”

So yes, we’re angry. We’re disappointed. We’re frustrated. We all have our opinions on what the Mister should have done, what he shouldn’t have. And of course we’re allowed to feel this way.

But for Mister Allegri to do his job as well as we know he’s capable of, we must also stand firmly behind him.

For the ragazzi to rise up to the standards we demand, and push beyond, we must keep believing in them. (Yes, even Hernanes.)

For the real Juventus to return, there’s a lot of work to be done by a lot of people in a short space of time – but ours is the simplest.

All we have to do now is be the old man. Hold out an umbrella over our Old Lady’s head and shield her from the rain. After all, nobody else can love and care for her like we do.

Farah Bagharib-Kaltz

Juventus Club Singapore

https://www.facebook.com/JuventusClubSG