JUVE’S MIDFIELD: THE BLACK AND WHITE JIGSAW THAT DOESN’T FIT

JUVE’S MIDFIELD: THE BLACK AND WHITE JIGSAW THAT DOESN’T FIT

Let’s be clear, I should not be sitting on my dining table staring at spreadsheets and writing this for many reasons. Chief among the endless list I could give you is that Juventus should not have a midfield of this quality or quantity. These are professional footballers and they are top class players but they are not the fit. More on that later. The next reason is simply because this sort of statistical analysis is always better done at the end of the season. Then I have finalized digits to use which give a clearer picture. But the truth is this is simply too urgent to let wait even 3 more games. If you have watched Juve at all for the last year or so, you’ll be inclined to agree with me. So without further ado this is ‘the black and white jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t fit’ and why.

The moment you set your eyes on any screen and watch 10 minutes of Juventus, you can tell there is something lacking in the centre of the park. A spark, magic, movement or just anything vaguely positive. If you were unlucky the 10 minutes you watched would include the 8 minutes and 11 seconds against Atalanta where none of the Juve players were able to touch the ball a single time in La Dea’s half. If you’re even more unfortunate then you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years and your memories are of a diamond of Pirlo, Marchisio, Vidal and Pogba. If that’s your scenario, honest recommendation, return to that rock as soon as possible. But while on the pitch the issues scream out, the off-the-pitch issues with the midfield are there too. One look at the Juventus roster to see the centre midfielders will present you with two issues. There are six…SIX!...centre midfielders in the squad. For perspective, Man City have used 8 different midfielders in the league this season and Bayern have used 7. What difference does 1 or 2 players make? First of all none of those sides play with diamonds like Juve. If Juve have an injury (Khedira, come outside) they can only have one natural centre midfielder on the bench. And that person isn’t necessarily the player you want to bring on the change the game (Matuidi, follow Khedira please). For a club that sold Pogba for 89 million to have this midfield is travesty especially considering 4 of the 6 were signed on Bosman’s. Patrici and those above haven’t spent bog on the midfield in what seems like ages. It’s inexcusable and while they have racked Serie A titles, this midfield can’t compare to the past few ones to win the Champions League. 

The second glaring issue is the age profile of the midfield. Only Bentancur, 23, is under 25. Rabiot is 25, Ramsey is 29, Pjanic is 30 and both Matuidi and Khedira are 33. It would be illegal to expect dynamic running, slick off the ball movement and hard yards from this set of people. These 6 (5 if you choose to rightfully discount Khedira) playing weekend and midweek is as good as cruel. All have played a tonne of minutes in their careers and their suns are closer to dusk that dawn. 

Arthur Melo.

He’s the bridge to this entire work.

Arthur’s signing can be used to argue against every point I gave above. But take a minute to think, would I really write all that, 588 words, just to be disputed by something I already knew? While you debate that, I’ll explain why. Arthur is an amazing prospect but he is not what this midfield needs drastically. He’s a start (an expensive and shady financial start) but he won’t set Turin alight. Kulusekvski might. Actually he should. If he plays anywhere near the middle of the pitch rather than the wing, he should be almost an instant boost. SHOULD. There’s a caveat. One that is best explained with digits, figures, numbers or whatever you call them as well as charts, graphs, tables or whatever you call these too.

The graph above shows the assists and expected assists per 90 for the Juventus midfielders and ‘some other’ players. It can be so clearly divided into 2 halves, that I almost didn’t insert the white line you can see. The first half is full of the current Juventus midfielders and Arthur. Why? Because the Juventus midfielders are so far behind the others in terms of their direct influence on score lines. None of them is expected to have up to 3 assists and only Bentancur defies that expectation with 6. Arthur has 3 from an expected 1.1. That’s not good enough by any standards. Kulusekvski on the other hand has managed 7 from 6.4 expected. His ability to directly influence score lines would be mighty for Juve next season. Papu Gomez, Pellegrini and Luiz Alberto just show how far behind the Juventus players are. 

This other graph shows the key passes (passes that lead to shots) and passes played into the opposition penalty area. (God help us.) The Juventus players are muddled up on the wrong end of the graph. Papu and co are clear of the Juve players. Tonali and Locatelli are linked to the Old Lady and while their numbers are improvements they aren’t substantial. Arthur doesn’t play that many key passes or passes into the area. Fine no more graphs. It’s almost bullying at this point seeing literally how far behind Juve are in terms of creativity.

I lied. This graph is a basic way to judge how forward thinking Juve players are with their passes. Only one of them makes it to the more impressive quadrant and that’s the one they’ve sold. I sound like a broken record but Papu is clear. Even Duncan of Sassuolo is better at progressing the ball by passing. Bentancur and Arthur don’t play too many progressive passes but they cover longer distances than the rest. 

At first glance this graph looks slightly better for the Juve players. I’ll give you a moment before I break your heart. MOMENT OVER. I’ll call him Alejandro this time rather than Papu. He’s great at driving forward with the ball, something no current Juve midfielder excels in. Arthur and Kulusekvski will help with this. Arthur will carry the ball more but they can cover similar ground.

SO NO MORE GRAPHS AT THIS POINT.

Conclusion: Juve need to spend on that midfield. They need to spend on it if there is any chance of competing in the Champions League and winning it without luck. The biggest problem with the players they have in the midfield is that they aren’t able to directly influence the scoreboard. Whether in form of assists or goals, these players simply can’t offer that. Arthur and Kulusekvski are inspired additions but Juve still need a centre midfielder capable of taking the goal scoring burden off Ronaldo and the creative burden off Dybala, especially with Pjanic leaving. They also need players who would take more risks in possession from time to time. Rabiot’s goal against Milan was a prime example of how that can spring a game to life. It may a case of Sarri telling his players to keep it simple but these stats are damning for a team of Juve’s stature. It’s also worrying that in all these stats you can tell there is a steady decline for all the players, at this moment. This could be down to age, poor form, adjusting to a new coach but it’s not encouraging. It’s however best to reserve judgement on that till the season is over. I don’t believe a lot will change in these figures with how things are going but stranger things have happened (Danilo’s has Real Madrid, Man City and Juventus on his CV).