CB: Leonardo Bonucci
After Leonardo Bonucci started against Brescia, I thought for sure that Juve was planning to rest him against SPAL. Unfortunately, the fact Juventus currently doesn’t have a singe full back available means that he will be forced to continue his run of starting every match for Juventus this season. He has been awesome during that time, finally turning back into the reliable defender that left Juve for AC Milan. I just hope that his lack of rest doesn’t eventually lead to a drop-off in his performances.
CB: Matthijs de Ligt
Matthijs de Ligt has overcome the rocky start to his Juventus career to become the star Juve was expecting when they signed him this summer. Him and Bonucci have become the most dependable part of this whole squad in recent weeks. As the rest of the squad falls apart around them, they have continued to clean up everybody else’s messes. In this match they’ll get a 3rd center back to help them out and it should make Juve’s defense extremely difficult to beat.
CB: Merih Demiral
I figured Merih Demiral’s next start would come when Juve decided to finally rest Leonardo Bonucci. Instead, Demiral will play alongside both Bonucci and de Ligt because Juventus is officially out of full backs heading into Saturday’s match. It will give him more cover than he had in his debut when he looked a little bit shaky. I expect to see a much better version of Demiral on Saturday now that he has gotten the jitters of his first start out-of-the-way.