Going into the current season (2019/2020) Juventus had a squad of 23 players, and three main competitions in sight to win, now, does a 23 man squad sound big enough to deliver on three fronts? Right now, the answer is no. As of writing Juventus have three injuries to three key players, Giorgio Chiellini, Gonzalo Higuain and most recently Alex Sandro. With a congested fixture list ahead that includes a match every 4 days this leaves Juventus in a very tough position and it all goes back to decisions made last summer.
“WE'VE CHANGED A LOT, BUT ITS NOT A YEAR OF TRANSITION"
Those are the words Pavel Nedved said back in August 2019, words that sound very hollow after what has transpired since the beginning of the season. With the arrival of Maurizio Sarri, many saw it as a move by the club to distance themselves from the more pragmatic style of football that had been seen under Massimiliano Allegri during his final two seasons with the club. Instead the Old Lady would embark on a make over to entice new eyes on a more appealing brand of football, 'sarri ball'. Unfortunately the Old Lady very much looks like she is still in the process of wearing a new face, as despite some flashes of 'sarri ball' the style of play has for the most part remained the same, frustrating and ugly on the eye. Naturally when a new manager arrives there will always be a period of transition before their ideas are fully understood by their players, but at no point during the season has player and manager looked to even be speaking the same language in terms of football. Cast your mind back over the season so far and count the number of times that Juventus have won and won convincingly, not many instances come to mind do they? And is it any surprise when Sarri delivers quotes like this post game, “We are struggling to get past opposition players when taking men on, we have a team built on individuals who can usually do that very well." A team built on individuals is the most worrying part of this admission from Sarri, if the team is built on individuals rather than tactics and football philosophy, then it goes a long way as to explaining why we are yet to see consistent signs of Sarri's brand of football and raises the question, what exactly does the Italian coach do with his squad during training sessions?
LACK OF OPTIONS IN ATTACK
It was decided that there was no place for Mario Mandzukic in the squad despite combining well with Cristiano Ronaldo during the previous season, which very few fans objected to given the strikers age (34 years old) and a need to inject the squad with some much needed fresh faces. The manner of the Croatian strikers departure however is a completely different story. Mandzukic exit could be explained by the clubs need to reduce the wage bill, especially with the likes of Rabiot & Ramsey arriving on big contracts. Rabiot earns a reported £116,000 per week, but that is dwarfed by Aaron Ramsey's earning's of £400,000 per week, so you can understand the club's need for departures. So Mandzukic leaves the club, all be it midway through the season in January on a free transfer, but still, the wage bill has been somewhat reduced for the Old Lady. Fans should have been looking forward to seeing young Italian striker Moise Kean get more minutes on the pitch in the Croatians absence, but instead he was also sold during that summers transfer window, joining Everton for a reported £36m. These decisions meant that Juventus had to heavily rely on Gonzalo Higuain to play as striker in Maurizio Sarri's preferred 4-3-3 formation, with Dybala regularly trading places with his compatriot. Now with Higuain injured Juventus are reduced to having only one player available that is comfortable playing the role of striker, a player that spent most of the past couple of months testing positive for Covid-19, Paulo Dybala. Cristiano Ronaldo is also an option for this role, but if the previous two games against Milan & Napoli are to go by, it is not a position that Juventus big name favours playing. Either way recent events have exposed a worryingly lack of depth in this position for the Old Lady. Speaking of a lack of depth...
WHERES THE FULL BACKS?
Once again, rewind back to the summer of 2019 and potential problems for the upcoming season become clear as day to see. If the clubs handling of the striker position looked odd the dealings at full back were completely baffling. Outgoings included both Leonardo Spinazzola, who left for Roma at a cost of £26.55m and João Cancelo, who departed for Manchester City in a £58.50m deal that included Danilo coming to Juventus. Also arriving would be Luca Pellegrini, however fans wouldn't get a chance to see the Italian left back play for Juventus as he was quickly loaned out to Cagliari. These decisions left Juventus with only 3 players that could naturally play the position of full back, Alex Sandro, Mattia De Sciglio and new arrival Danilo. To address this, the solution was to convert Juan Cuadrado from a right winger to right back, and to the Colombians credit he has performed well in his new role. However one player that has somewhat suffered from this predicament is Alex Sandro, with no competition (similar to last season) the Brazilian full back starts the majority of Juventus games as left back, racking up a tally of 33 starts for the club. By comparison the other left back in the squad Mattia De Sciglio has 12 starts to his name. That's less than Sami Khedira with 18 starts to his name, a player that has been injured since December 2019. This highlights a serious lack of options in the full back position, which has further been compounded by Alex Sandro's injury, which has been reported to keep him out of action for at least 3 weeks. With hindsight the club should not have went into the season without properly addressing the lack of options in the full back position, but that should have been obvious from the beginning.
LACKING IN FITNESS, OR SOMETHING ELSE?
As expected Juventus recent showings in the Coppa Italia can be described at best as average, and that's the polite version. But this was always likely to be the case as the team's last competitive game of football came on the 8th of March, and since then not only has football changed but also the world around it. A lack of match fitness, rustiness, call it what you want was always going to be an issue for returning teams, as unlike a normal season when there is a break that break is quickly followed by intense training sessions focused on fitness and pre-season friendlies to get the team accustomed a season of football, neither options have been available in these extraordinary circumstances. So is that the reason for going 180 minutes without scoring a goal? No, no its not. If that was the case, then why have other clubs around Europe fared better than Juventus on their return to competitive football? Simple unlike other clubs like say Manchester City for example, who comfortably won their first game after a long lay off 3-0, Juventus are a side without an identity, no clear plan and no structure. To take the words right out of Sarri's own mouth, Juventus are "a team built on individuals", and when those individuals are severely lacking in fitness and match sharpness you have problems, big problems. The task for Sarri is taking the pieces available to him and fitting them together in a match winning formula, instead of relying on moments of individual brilliance as a get out of jail card because that individual brilliance could take some time to return, and time is not a luxury Juventus have.
