Juventus projected lineup vs Chievo: Who will start in Ronaldo’s debut?
By John Vaccaro
Juventus will be looking to get off to a hot start in a game that serves as Ronaldo’s debut in Serie A and Serie A’s debut on ESPN+.
Juventus will likely turn to their familiar 4-2-3-1 formation to get a win in their season opener. It’s brought Juve a lot of success in Serie A over the last two years and should only get better with Ronaldo playing up front.
The mutual agreement to terminate Claudio Marchisio’s contract leaves Juventus with only 5 central midfielders available, essentially guaranteeing Juventus can’t consistently play with a 3-man midfield. Even with Marchisio, it seemed very likely that Juve would be sticking this very familiar formation.
With the whole team healthy to open the season, Juventus will have plenty of options to choose from for their away match against Chievo Verona. We can expect many of Juve’s long time starters to hold onto their positions for opening day as some of the newer players continue to settle into their roles.
It will be a high pressure situation for Juventus. There will be more eyes than ever before on Juve following the addition of Cristiano Ronaldo. Even just getting a road win to open the year likely won’t be enough for many. Juventus will need to put on a truly impressive display to appease the new audience they will be reaching.
There will be some familiar faces missing on opening day and some new faces breaking into the Juve squad this season. Juventus will have a new captain and a new star, but will be hoping to achieve a very familiar result. There will be some new faces, some of the usual starters, and one returning player fans aren’t too thrilled about and it looks like the right lineup to start Juve’s title defense off strong.