Juventus trying to beat competition to signature of Italy’s most promising midfielder

While their midfield struggles through poor performances and injuries in the present, Juventus looks like they will be turning their attention toward the future.

Juve has been linked with Brescia’s Sandro Tonali for some time, but according to a report from Corriere dello Sport, they intend to finally turn that interest into an offer this winter. They would intend to make some room in the midfield with the of Emre Can first, but are in a hurry to secure Tonali’s signature so they can avoid entering a bidding war with PSG, Inter Milan, and anybody else who might decide to join the fray this summer.

Tonali doesn’t fit the archetype of the attacking midfielder that Juve currently needs to add, but he would fix a different problem that has occasionally arisen for Juventus this season. That problem is a lack of a replacement for Miralem Pjanic. It makes it impossible for Juve to rotate him to get rest when needed and leads to a clear drop-off in play from Juve whenever he is unavailable. Juve has

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been able to survive without a replacement so far this season because Pjanic has started 18 of 20 matches and came on as a sub in one of the matches he didn’t start. However, relying on one player to be able to start every match just isn’t a sustainable strategy (he’s suspended for the next match and Juve doesn’t have any kind of backup plan available). He is also approaching 30 years old, so it is definitely time for Juve to begin thinking about what their future of Pjanic’s playmaker role will look like.

Sandro Tonali would be a perfect successor to Pjanic. His passing acumen is incredible, leading to him being compared to Andrea Pirlo, and he could even replace Pjanic’s free kick taking ability. We all saw his ridiculous free kick against Genoa at the end of October and that kind of skill would keep Juve very dangerous from set pieces. The way he has continued to impress this season in his first Serie A action and with very little help around him leads me to believe that it wouldn’t take long for him to break into the Juve starting lineup once he joins the club.

For Brescia, it could make a lot of sense for them to sell Tonali in January. They are currently in 19th place in Serie A and possess the league’s worst goal differential. If we reach January and Brescia still looks destined for Serie B then they should let Tonali go for the highest price possible before they get relegated. They can claim that he’s worth 300 million euros as often as they want, but once they get relegated they’ll need to sell him for whatever they can get because he’ll be demanding a transfer and at that point the money from a transfer would be more valuable to the club than Tonali.

Hopefully Juventus can get this deal done quickly because adding Sandro Tonali would be the beginning to building a midfield that could avoid the struggles Juve has faced for the last few years.