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Five ways in which Giorgio Chiellini’s injury impacts Juventus

By John Vaccaro

Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini (3) kisses the Serie A soccer title trophy after the Serie A football match n.38 JUVENTUS - VERONA on 19/05/2018 at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Matteo Bottanelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini (3) kisses the Serie A soccer title trophy after the Serie A football match n.38 JUVENTUS - VERONA on 19/05/2018 at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Matteo Bottanelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images) /
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TURIN, ITALY – AUGUST 31: Douglas Costa of Juventus celebrates after own goal of Kalidou Koulibaly of SSC Napoli (Not in frame) during the Serie A match between Juventus and SSC Napoli at Allianz Stadium on August 31, 2019 i (Photo by Tullio Puglia – Juventus/Juventus FC via Getty Images)
TURIN, ITALY – AUGUST 31: Douglas Costa of Juventus celebrates after own goal of Kalidou Koulibaly of SSC Napoli (Not in frame) during the Serie A match between Juventus and SSC Napoli at Allianz Stadium on August 31, 2019 i (Photo by Tullio Puglia – Juventus/Juventus FC via Getty Images) /

The attack needs to shoulder a bigger load

Even with Maurizio Sarri taking charge of Juventus and changing the style of play this season, the squad was still going to lean heavily on their extremely talented defense. Now, it might be the attack that has to take over to keep Juventus at the top of Serie A.

The defense will absolutely be more vulnerable now that Giorgio Chiellini is unavailable. It reintroduces Leonardo Bonucci to the starting lineup after he was a liability last year and even with all of the hype behind him, there is no question that Matthijs de Ligt is at least somewhat of a downgrade from Chiellini. Juventus is absolutely going to allow more goals this season than they have at any point during their run of consecutive Scudetto wins.

The attack will need to pick up the slack for Juventus for them to continue their winning ways and if they were ever equipped to do it, this would be the year. Sarri’s new system looked like it was going to bring out the best of the Juve attack in the first half against Parma. In the second half, Juve got sloppy and began to show some of their conservative tendencies from last season, but that was likely due in part to the fact to the fact that Sarri wasn’t available at halftime.

Against Napoli, Juve showed that they were continuing to grow into Sarri’s system and the attack looked phenomenal. They were the much more dangerous team in the first half, leading to an early 2 goal lead. They even added a 3rd in the second half, which would have been unheard of last season. Still, it nearly wasn’t enough. The fact that the defense allowed 3 goals in the last 30 minutes of this match overshadowed just how successful the attack had been in the first hour.

This match should give us an idea of what we will need to expect in big matches. It will no longer be the defense that will be asked to deliver wins against the toughest opponents, but instead it will be this high-powered attack.

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