Juventus have taken the points at Lecce, winning 2-0, but the wider picture after eight Serie A rounds remains uncomfortable. Luciano Spalletti’s side have scored only 11 league goals, a return that places them 12th in the division for attacking output.
Only Parma, Cagliari, Genoa, Venezia, Bologna, Fiorentina, Lecce and Udinese have found the net fewer times. The result in Puglia eased the immediate pressure, yet it also underlined how dependent Juventus have become on particular routes to goal rather than a sustained attacking rhythm.
Quick facts
- Juventus have scored 11 goals in their first eight Serie A matches.
- Four of those goals, 36% of the total, have come from set-piece situations.
- They have attempted 127 shots overall, sixth in Serie A, but only 70 from inside the penalty area.
- Their 55% share of shots taken inside the box is the lowest in the league.
- A Juventus shot has produced a goal 9.5% of the time, a conversion rate close to the relegation places.
Spalletti described his 5-3-2 at Lecce as a cautious system after the match. The switch brought a clean sheet and a victory, while Weston McKennie’s opening goal again came from a rehearsed dead-ball move. It was another reminder that Juventus have become more effective from set pieces this season.
That improvement has had tangible value. Goals from dead-ball phases have contributed to seven points across the matches against Frosinone, Milan and Lecce. Yet the same statistic points to a larger concern: only Lecce have a higher proportion of goals from set pieces than Juventus.
Lecce have scored six of their nine goals that way, or 67%. Juventus have four set-piece goals from 11, representing 36% of their total.
Bremer scored from such situations at Frosinone and against Parma, while Federico Gatti did so against Milan and McKennie at the Via del Mare. The remaining goals offer a narrow picture of how Juventus are creating chances in open play.
Two came from outside the area: Nico Gonzalez against Parma and Douglas Luiz at Lecce. Five were scored from inside the box, with Edon Zhegrova twice against Sassuolo, Teun Koopmeiners against Parma, Francisco Conceicao against Atalanta and Randal Kolo Muani at Cagliari.
Of those goals inside the area, only Conceicao’s and Kolo Muani’s followed properly constructed attacking moves. The others owed more to individual execution than to Juventus consistently moving the ball into dangerous central positions.
A problem inside the penalty area
The most revealing numbers concern where Juventus are shooting from. Their total of 127 attempts is the sixth-highest in Serie A, behind Inter, Como, Roma, Frosinone and Napoli.
But they sit only 11th, level with Sassuolo, for attempts from within the 16-metre area. Their 70 such shots are fewer than those recorded by Venezia, Monza, Fiorentina, Atalanta, Milan, Frosinone, Napoli, Roma, Como and Inter.
The contrast leaves Juventus at the bottom of Serie A for the percentage of shots taken from inside the box: 55%. Milan lead the division on 78%, followed by Inter on 72%, with Roma and Napoli both at 70%.
Lazio are the nearest major side to Juventus in this measure, although even they stand at 58%, having taken 64 inside-the-area efforts from 111 total attempts. For Spalletti, the issue is not simply the volume of shooting but the difficulty of putting attackers in positions where the odds favour them.
That is reflected in the finishing figure. Juventus convert 9.5% of all their shots, better only than Frosinone and Parma on 9.2%, Genoa on 9.3% and Udinese on 8.2%.
Those are numbers associated with the lower end of the table, not with a club carrying two centre-forwards acquired for a combined €50 million and with total gross annual wages of €19 million. The 2-0 at Lecce offers a useful result, but the next chapter of Juventus’ season will depend on whether Spalletti can make their attacking play less reliant on set pieces, long-range strikes and isolated individual moments.
