Juventus player ratings vs Empoli: Ronaldo saves Juve from embarrassment

Juan Cuadrado 6/10

Cuadrado was brought on in the 65 minute to spark the attack as Juve searched for a winner, but unfortunately for him Ronaldo made the rest of the attack unnecessary just 5 minutes after Cuadrado came on. After that Juventus did what they’ve done all year with second half leads, they stopped chasing another goal. This made it difficult for Cuadrado to influence the match and because of that he was mostly just a neutral presence on the field.

Douglas Costa 6/10

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Douglas Costa’s performance suffered from 2 issues on Saturday. The first was that Juve didn’t need to score when he was brought on and the second was that he only played for 16 minutes. He helped Juventus see out the win, but didn’t really do much more than hold the lead.

Andrea Barzagli: Incomplete

Barzagli only played 6 minutes in this match, so he didn’t really get the chance to do anything during his appearance.

Manager: Massimiliano Allegri 6/10

Sometimes I feel like Allegri makes his life more difficult than it needs to be. I thought we learned last year that Paulo Dybala shouldn’t start as the lone striker in a 4-3-3, but for some reason, Allegri continues to try it. With Mario Mandzukic injured Allegri had the perfect opportunity to pair Ronaldo and Dybala up front and only use 2 central midfielders so one of the 3 healthy ones could rest.

Instead, he used Dybala out of position again and continued to burn out the midfield. Also, he hasn’t been able to get anything resembling the best out of this team for most of the season. Juventus simply shouldn’t struggle to beat teams like Empoli, but Allegri has made Chievo, Genoa, and Empoli all look like title contenders this year. He needs to change something soon because Juve can’t afford these lapses if they want to compete for 3 trophies.

You also can’t have bad days during the Champions League knockout stages, but right now it’s impossible to tell when Juve has a bad day coming.