Juventus player ratings vs Fiorentina: Absolutely disastrous debut for Sarri
By John Vaccaro
Life just got a whole lot more difficult for Juventus.
Not only did they drop their first points of the season much earlier than they did last year, but they also suffered quite a few casualties. In this match, Danilo, Douglas Costa, and Miralem Pjanic all joined Giorgio Chiellini on the list of players Juventus will need to take on Atletico Madrid without. To make matters worse, Juve now has a built-in excuse if they lose in Madrid on Wednesday that will take the attention away from their inevitable choice to continue starting Sami Khedira.
The rest of the match wasn’t any more positive for Juventus than their injury situation. There was never a point in the match that they looked like they were ever going to score. Even before Pjanic left the match, Juventus looked lethargic. In fact, Fiorentina looked like the team that might actually end up winning the match. Juve was fortunate to leave the Artemio Franchi with the 0-0 draw.
After dominating Serie A last season, Juventus has really come back down to earth these past couple of weeks. Now they’ll head to Madrid to take on Atletico in a difficult Champions League group stage match. They’ll need to get their act together quickly for that match, but they get some fortunate scheduling from there to deal with their injury issues. Verona, Brescia, and SPAL al provide Juve with winnable matches even though they aren’t at full strength.
GK: Wojciech Szczesny 6/10
Wojciech Szczesny nearly earned his first assist in a Juventus uniform in the match against Fiorentina. Unfortunately, that assist would have come on goal scored by Federico Chiesa. Outside of that awkward moment, Szczesny played very well. He made a great save on a Dalbert header that could’ve given Fiorentina all 3 points. This was a surprisingly busy match for Szczesny, but he could be even busier on Wednesday against Atletico, so it’s a good sign that he handled this match as well he did.