Team Focus: Juventus Still Have Pressing Need to Bolster Depleted Midfield

Around 5,000 Juventus fans made the pilgrimage to Villar Perosa on Wednesday, the spiritual home of the Agnelli family to watch the A team take on the B team in the final warm up game before the championship returns this weekend. Nowhere is Juventinità stronger. Andrea Agnelli’s father and uncle, Gianni, both ex-presidents, are buried in this small town an hour outside Turin where the team used to stay before games. That tradition is gone but this friendly is one the club has kept alive.

As the eve of the new season approaches, Juventus fans, aware of how delicate this campaign promises to be, are cautious. Preparations have hardly been ideal. The team could be in better shape. “Unfortunately I won’t be able to start the season this year,” Claudio Marchisio tweeted on Tuesday evening. He had torn one of his quads and will miss not only Sunday’s opener against Udinese but the trip to Roma the following week. As such, Marchisio becomes the fifth Juventus player to suffer a muscle related injury since the team returned to training.

Andrea Barzagli was the first to pull up. While he recovered in time for the Super Cup win against Lazio and is healthy again, Giorgio Chiellini missed it with a thigh strain. He’s back now as well but Sami Khedira isn’t. Juventus’ new signing, a free transfer from Real Madrid, was ruled out for close to two months after he left a friendly with Marseille on a stretcher. Alvaro Morata then joined him in the treatment room with a calf tear. The joke at the time was that if Juventus’ pre-season continued like this they wouldn’t have any players left with which to start the season.

Fingers have been pointed at their pre-season training. Juventus came back later than other teams in order to rest and recuperate fully after going all the way in the Coppa Italia and Champions League. They then leaped almost immediately into a series of friendly games to ensure that they were ready for the Super Cup in Shanghai. In light of the unfortunate five, attention has turned to Max Allegri’s first two years at Milan when there were no fewer than 137 injuries, of which 78 were muscle-related. It must be said in his defence, however, that the rate has hardly diminished since he left, suggesting the problem instead lies with MilanLab.

Nevertheless it’s a concern for Juventus. “I understand your alarm,” Allegri said before the Super Cup, “but the important thing is that I am laid-back about it.” The squad doesn’t lack depth after all and remains adaptable. Juventus’ performance in the Super Cup offered yet another reminder of it. They reverted to 3-5-2. Martin Caceres stood in for Chiellini and Stefano Sturaro filled in for Khedira. Juventus won 2-0 with second half goals from new signings Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala.

This brought welcome reassurance. To find out why Juventus don’t lose games, it’s enough to look at Buffon and the BBC. How they would win them without go-to match winners Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal, players responsible for 87 goals in the last two years, had yet to be answered. So this was an encouraging first response.

It’s clear Juventus have bought well. The generational transition Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici are overseeing could hardly have been executed better. But with less than a fortnight to go until the transfer window closes, the team remains incomplete. Khedira’s injury has prompted Allegri to argue that Juventus need two midfield players. One as cover. The other to play as a No.10 in his preferred 4-3-1-2.

Marchisio’s absence complicates matters further. It should not to be downplayed. He was Juventus’ most consistent performer in midfield last season. He did so much more than hold the fort on the two spells when Pirlo was out injured. In fact he left many with the impression that there really is a future without il Maestro. For now, though, Juventus will kick off at the J Stadium with only one first choice player in midfield and that’s Paul Pogba.

It’s a tricky situation. The midfield is a team’s engine room and its ideas factory. It’s also the area that has undergone the most change at Juventus with Pirlo and Vidal leaving. Renowned as the team’s greatest strength these last three years, it looks weaker in it’s current threadbare state even if, in addition to Morata, Roberto Pereyra really came into his own last spring, Sturaro delivered a display beyond his years in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final and Padoin is a reliable utility man.

But how are Juventus going about resolving this matter? Well, at the moment a left-back is being sought to allow Kwadwo Asamoah to return to midfield, once he’s finally fit again, rather than stay on as Patrice Evra’s deputy. Alex Sandro, another 90s child after Pereyra, Daniele Rugani, Pogba, Kingsley Coman, Dybala, Simone Zaza and Morata, looks an upgrade on Evra. Nicknamed O Lobo - the Wolf - he recovered the ball 39 times for Porto in the Champions League last season and was fouled more than any defender [22]. That’s indicative of his ability to push on and get far forward. Expect Sandro to be a source of crosses for Mandzukic. His tandem with Stephane Lichtsteiner - the Swiss Express - promises to be one of the best in Europe.

Sandro’s arrival will take Juventus’ [gross] spending beyond the €100m mark and they’re not done yet. Unless Asamoah relapses, the focus will continue to be on Julian Draxler rather than a Ramires-type. I now make it 14 players that Juventus have been linked with for the No.10 position in the last six months. However, it’s abundantly clear that Draxler is No.1 in their order of preference. Anyone else, with the exception of those players currently not on the market or out of Juventus’ budget [think Isco] are contingencies.

If further deterred by Schalke expect Juventus’ attentions to turn to Palermo’s Franco Vazquez who had a telepathic relationship with Dybala in Sicily. They scored 23 of the team’s 53 goals [43.4%] and laid on 20 assists, 7 of which were for each other. Either one of them had a direct hand in 36 of Palermo’s 53 goals [67.9%]. Other alternatives would be Juan Cuadrado [a first choice target for Conte] and Erik Lamela, both of whom are available on loan. Cuadrado can play 3-5-2, which is useful but considering his attributes as a predominantly wide player, like Lamela, his signing would take the team in the direction of a 4-3-3, so a different one than the 4-3-1-2 Allegri originally set out with in mind.

It’s a new look Juventus this season. They aren’t in revolution. This is evolution. But, as Max Nerozzi notes in La Stampa, a different species is gradually emerging.

Can Juventus retain their Serie A title with their current crop of players or do they still need to strengthen? Let us know in the comments below