Predicted Juventus lineup vs Fiorentina: Ronaldo looks to keep rolling
By John Vaccaro
LW: Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo has been carrying the Juventus attack this season and has absolutely dominated in his first Serie A season. He is currently second in the league with 9 goals and also tied for second with 5 assists. He has either scored or assisted a goal in each of his last 10 Serie A appearances and is responsible for 54% of Juve’s goals in the league. Juve will likely need him to play at that high level against in Florence to extend their winning streak to 5 consecutive Serie A wins. He has yet to give fans a reason to believe he won’t be able to lead Juve to another win.
ST: Mario Mandzukic
More from Serie A
- Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
- Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
- Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
- The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
- Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it
Mario Mandzukic is in the midst of his best season in the black and white stripes. He has scored 6 goals and assisted 2 more in the league and is the only target Juve can depend on right now. Fiorentina’s German Pezzella has been playing very well this season and has the size to match up against Mandzukic. However, the Croatian should get plenty of good service to be able to take advantage of an opportunity. Mandzukic has almost gotten to the point where Juve fans shouldn’t miss Gonzalo Higuain anymore and another goal in this match will be another step in making fans forget about the Argentinian.
RW: Paulo Dybala
Paulo Dybala has struggled on the right wing this season, but the match against Valencia was his best so far in this position. Douglas Costa made another cameo appearance in that match and at some point should replace Dybala in the starting lineup, but this match won’t be when that happens. Allegri will be hoping that this last performance is a sign that Dybala is becoming more comfortable in the role. At some point we might get to see Federico Bernardeschi subbed into this match against his former team, but first we’ll get a look at whether or not Dybala is growing into this role.
For Juve’s sake, we’ll have to hope he is, otherwise these starts will haunt Juve in the Champions League knockout stages.