Juventus projected lineup vs Lazio: Changes needed for Ronaldo’s home debut

Central Midfielder: Miralem Pjanic

Miralem Pjanic was a positive presence for Juve against Chievo. He played in a beautiful ball on a free kick that eventually led to Sami Khedira scoring the opening goal. After that he also supplied 2 more key passes and completed an impressive 90.4% of his passes. While he wasn’t able to create a another goal, his performance should have been enough for him to keep his spot in the starting lineup.

Pjanic is a required starter for Juve on a weekly basis. He is Juve’s best creative option in the midfield. He will be even more important to Juve if their other creators continue to struggle. He will be a key piece of Juve’s squad once again this year and can be expected to play a big role in the result of this weekend’s game.

Central Midfielder: Blaise Matuidi

This spot is the first one that is truly up for grabs. Juve has 4 central midfield options other than Pjanic. Between Blaise Matuidi, Sami khedira, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Emre Can. Khedira got the nod in week one and played well, but with how vulnerable Juve looked at the back last week they may look to start a midfielder who is more likely to provide support for the center backs this week.

Massimiliano Allegri usually takes a little while to work new players into the lineup, so we can expect Emre Can to make another late substitute appearance in this spot. Bentancur played well in the World Cup, but hasn’t made an appearance since. Allegri may be wary of giving him his first start in a month against Lazio. That leaves Matuidi. He would fit well helping keep the pressure off of the Juve back line. That will be a valuable role against the high-scoring Lazio side. This position will be up for grabs for a while, but for this week I think Matuidi will get the nod.