Juventus player ratings vs AC Milan: Paulo Dybala saves Juve again

CM: Blaise Matuidi 6/10

Blaise Matuidi was the opposite of what we expected in this match. He had very little impact on the defensive end (because starting him and Bentancur is redundant), but for some reason was the player getting all of Juve’s best chances before he was subbed off. His positioning would have been great, but the last thing Juve wants is Blaise Matuidi trying to turn into a striker. I had high hopes for Matuidi because I thought we’d see somebody other Bentancur playing on the other side of Pjanic. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and it rendered Matuidi pretty ineffective for this match.

CM: Miralem Pjanic 6.5/10

Miralem Pjanic had to play a surprising amount of defense in this match and he actually did a pretty good job of it. What this midfield lacked in creativity they definitely made up for in defensive effort. Unfortunately, the reason they had to play so much defense was because they did very little to advance the attack once they got possession. The responsibility for that should probably fall on more poor lineup decisions from Maurizio Sarri, but Pjanic needs to be able to make something happen when Juve is struggling to maintain possession. He wasn’t able to bust them out of their funk in this match and that helped Milan outplay them for way too much of the match.

CM: Rodrigo Bentancur 7/10

Of the two Blaise Matuidis that were included in Juve’s starting lineup, Rodrigo Bentancur was the more effective one. He played a big part in slowing Milan down as they kept the pressure on Juve early in the match. He didn’t offer much to the attack, but that should really be expected at this point. It should be abundantly clear what Bentancur’s strengths are (even though it seems unclear to Sarri) and he at least used those strengths well even if they weren’t really what Juve needed in this match.