Five ways in which Giorgio Chiellini’s injury impacts Juventus
By John Vaccaro
On Friday, Juventus suffered one of the biggest setbacks they possibly could have this season.
When Giorgio Chiellini tore his ACL it left Juventus without their star defender and without a captain. Let’s take a look at just how big of an impact Chiellini’s injury will have on Juventus this season.
Juventus goes back to square 1 after the break
Juventus has been thrown another curve ball before they are even through the month of August. It started with Maurizio Sarri’s pneumonia leaving Juve without their manager for the first two matches of the year. He still isn’t back and now Juventus has another issue to deal with. Once he is finally able to return to the team he will have a lot of work to do to get the squad back on track.
Sarri’s system looked like it was still a work in progress during the first match of the year, which is something Sarri will have to fix when he’s back, but more importantly, he’ll be tasked with finding somebody to lead a squad that he hasn’t gotten to be around during matches that count. His two most qualified options, Gianluigi Buffon and Paulo Dybala, don’t currently look like they’ll be starting regularly this season, which eliminates them from the conversation.
Leonardo Bonucci doesn’t deserve to ever wear that armband again after the way he left Juventus a couple of seasons ago and because of how disorganized and unmotivated Juventus looked when he was wrongfully given the honor last season. He doesn’t quite live up to the last few captains, but it looks like Miralem Pjanic might actually be the best option to take over as captain.
There is also the issue of what to do now with the defense. Before Giorgio Chiellini was injured, it was clear how Juventus should handle the defense. Chiellini would start with Matthijs de Ligt likely joining him either against Napoli or in the first match after the international break.
That combination would have given Juve plenty of coverage on the defensive end any time they overextended themselves trying to attack, Now with Bonucci back in the starting lineup, Juventus can’t afford to take nearly as much of a risk. They will have to make major changes to the way that they play, even though they haven’t even really gotten used to their new style yet as it is.