LB: Alex Sandro 7.5/10
This was closer to the Alex Sandro of 2 years ago than last year’s Sandro. He was involved in the attack throughout the match and played solid defense. It was also his shot that led to Giorgio Chiellini’s winner (although whether he should have been credited with the assist or not is debatable). This match was a good sign that Alex Sandro will be able to turn things around this year.
CB: Giorgio Chiellini 8/10
As expected, Juve’s captain scored the game winning goal in the Serie A season opener. Seriously though, he did a good job to get a foot to the loose ball and redirect it past Luigi Sepe. Outside of his winning goal, Chiellini was everything we would expect on defense. He didn’t make any positional mistakes and only made one poor pass that gave Parma a chance to score. For the most part, Parma was a non-threat in this match and Chiellini was definitely a big part of that. Hopefully we’ll get to see him partner up with Matthijs de Ligt next week to get a look at how Juve will line up for the rest of the year, but him and Bonucci were a good combo for this match.
CB: Leonardo Bonucci 7/10
I didn’t think Leonardo Bonucci should have gotten the start in this match, but he played well enough to not get too upset about it. He did the one thing in this match that he struggled with last season. He played a mistake-free match. He even cleaned up after a couple of mistakes by his teammates. This match wasn’t nearly enough to convince me he should stay in the starting lineup, but it was at least enough to give fans confidence in his ability to serve as a strong backup when needed.
RB: Mattia De Sciglio 7/10
Mattia De Sciglio generally played well in this match. He was great defensively, but his performance had one major flaw in the match. His passing was all over the place. He made some really bad turnovers, especially in Juve’s defensive half. De Sciglio is already at a disadvantage in the race for this starting spot thanks to the money Juve just spent on Danilo. A complete performance would have really helped him in that race.
His defensive performance might have been enough to keep him in consideration for this spot and was enough to make him a net positive for Juve. He just had the opportunity for it to be much better.