Juventus: Three hopes, one fear

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Juventus’ midfielder from Bosnia Miralem Pjanic (R) fights for the ball agains Empoli’s defender from Italy Giuseppe Bellusci during the Italian Serie A football match Empoli vs Juventus, on October 2, 2016 at Empoli’s ‘Carlo Castellani’ comunal stadium. / AFP / ANDREAS SOLARO (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) /

Hope #3: That Miralem Pjanic can lead the midfield.

Lost among the Higuain hubub this offseason was perhaps Juventus’ most important signing: Miralem Pjanic from AS Roma. The Bosnian international came to the club on a five-year deal worth about 32 million Euros. Having been instrumental in establishing one of the more potent attacks in Serie A last season the hope is that he can lead Allegri’s midfield into being more proactive on the attack in 2016-2017.

At Roma last season Pjanic was extremely effective at breaking down compact, highly organized defenses. When retrieving a pass he always seemed able to keep it very close to himself, but faraway enough that he could create a simple misdirection. That coupled with his passing skills makes him an extraordinarily difficult midfield to defend against. His presence should allow Mandzukic to go up more and give Juventus more options up top.

The question is can he find his scoring touch. He scored ten goals with Roma last season, which was a career-best for him. With Juventus he probably will not be asked to provide their lion’s share of goals but he may asked to put up a similar number. He has already scored twice across all competitions for Juve thus far so it appears that he may be up to the task.

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