CB: Daniele Rugani
This should be interesting. Juventus has gotten pretty desperate at center back at this point leading them to inquire about players like Bruno Alves, Gary Cahill, and the player who will line up alongside Daniele Rugani on Saturday. This is absolutely not something Juventus was expecting to resort to when the season started, but the plethora of injuries and horrible mishandling of Medhi Benatia has left them in a pretty awful spot. Rugani has never been relied upon as Juve’s #1 center back in a match before and certainly didn’t look like somebody capable of filling that role during Wednesday’s annihilation. If there were ever a time for Rugani to start living up to the potential everybody saw in him when he joined Juventus then this match would be that time.
CB: Martin Caceres
I can’t believe this is the reality of Juve’s defense right now. I never thought I’d see Caceres rejoin Juventus let alone see him in the starting lineup. There isn’t really much positive to say about Caceres being a necessary starter for the next couple of weeks. He hasn’t started regularly for any team since his 2013-14 season with Juventus and has barely seen the field at all since then. The most appearances he has made in a single season since then is 12 and that was also with Juventus. Since departing the club he has become a rarely used rotation player for Southampton, Lazio, and Hellas Verona. I really don’t know what to expect from Martin Caceres at this point in his career, but if his last few years are any indication then this could be a rough couple of weeks.