The boys, of all people, saved Massimiliano Allegri from even bigger problems.

The old and new coach of Juventus Turin is called "il Generale", and on Wednesday evening his youngest corporals knocked him out on the Ligurian coast.

The goal scorers in the 3-2 triumph were Moise Kean (21 years old), Federico Chiesa (23) and Matthijs de Ligt (22).

Juve had to play at Spezia Calcio on matchday five during the first English week of the season.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

  • Follow I follow

Before the game at the Stadio Alberto Picco at the port of La Spezia, with a capacity of 10,000, Allegri had stated: "If you look at the table, it's a six-point game in a relegation battle." La Spezia was in 13th place with four points, record champions Juventus in 18th place with just two points, one of three relegation places.

The “vecchia signora” had not started the season that badly in 60 years.

Two draws and two defeats, including in the home game against newly promoted Empoli, were the poor entry-level record.

And the 3-2 of La Spezia was only halfway liberating.

Juventus has left the relegation ranks, but there was no real upward trend to be seen.

Juve played well and fell behind at the beginning of the second half, but thanks to the individual energy efforts of Chiesa and de Ligt, they were able to turn the game around again.

Ronaldo couldn't win hearts

After the unsuccessful 2020/21 season under the hapless debut coach Andrea Pirlo, who just finished fourth in the final sprint and thus qualified for the Champions League, club bosses Andrea Agnelli and Pavel Nedved had Massimiliano "Max" Allegri back to Turin in the summer called. After all, the general with a weakness for unadorned victories had already led Juventus to five championship titles from 2014 to 2019 and twice sniffed victory in the Champions League.

But because two narrowly missed final victories - against Barcelona in 2015 and Real Madrid in 2017 - did not replace the highest triumph in European club football, first Maurizio Sarri and then Pirlo were brought to Turin for one year each.

But they failed rather early in the European summit attack, despite a Cristiano Ronaldo as Torgarant.

Juventus let the Portuguese superstar move to Manchester United: after three seasons in which Ronaldo duly scored goal for goal, but couldn't really win the hearts of fans in Piedmont.

With a record loss of 210 million euros, the club's management had no choice but to say goodbye to Ronaldo a year before his contract expired in Turin: He brought money into the tight coffers, which he further relieved as a top earner.

So Allegri should now do two things: he should lead Juventus to economic and sporting success, in any case to Scudetto, if possible to victory in the Champions League.

But so far there has been little to be seen of new beginnings, let alone renewal.

Until now, Allegri has built on the (older) players he knows from before, and he put the (young) additions from the time after his departure on the bench.

Difficulties at the beginning

In the 1-1 draw in the home game against AC Milan last Saturday, he let eight players with an average age of more than 30 appear, on whom he had already bet until his departure from Juve in 2019.

Chiesa, de Ligt and the 21-year-old Swedish international Dejan Kulusevski sat on the bench with investments that the club had cost around 190 million euros.

Whether Allegri will finally use his previously spurned young guard with conviction will be shown after the victory of the young strikers and pushers on Wednesday.

The statistics of the first four games of Serie A are clear: a mentally and physically exhausted team had an average of less than 40 percent possession in the second half, lost seven points after taking the lead in the first half of the game and did not score a single goal.

The fact that Juventus has been waiting for a clean sheet for 20 games reveals the weakness of the squad, which has so far been a conglomerate of individual players but not a team with team spirit.

With the Argentinian Paulo Dybala, who has just extended his contract in Turin, with the Spaniard Alvaro Morata as well as Moise Kean and Federico Chiesa, a playful and dangerous quartet is up for grabs.

The midfield around Adrien Rabiot, Rodrigo Bentancur, Aaron Ramsey, Weston McKennie and newcomer Manuel Locatelli has not yet found each other.

And holes open up in defense when one of the veterans like Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci fails completely or shows weakness due to an injury.

Allegri has to find the right mix very quickly to achieve the still big goals.