Juventus team of the decade: 14-15 squad dominates the decade

LB: Alex Sandro

When Alex Sandro joined Juventus, he solved a problem the club had for quite some time. They weren’t very good at left back and then when they finally added one who was world-class, it was an old Patrice Evra. Sandro quickly took the job from Evra after arriving and hasn’t looked back since.

Sandro has been an extremely reliable defensive presence for Juve over nearly half the decade and at one point was easily one of the 5 best players in the world at the position. His introduction to the club made them complete and helped Juve’s defense dominate Europe en route to the 2017 Champions League final.

RB: Stephan Lichtsteiner

It’s easy to forget this because of the last few years of his career, but Stephan Lichtsteiner was a stout defender for Juventus for most of the last decade. He was never the best attacking player and that also kept him from always receiving the praise he deserved, but his defensive abilities and effort could never come into question. When he arrived at Juve, he strengthened one of the club’s weakest areas and played a big part in the club’s dominant defense in the first half of the decade.

He wasn’t quite the same player late in his career, which led Juve to move on to a younger option at the end of the decade, but his contribution to this team over the last decade can’t be denied. I recently saw a list like this where Juan Cuadrado got this spot and that is disrespect that Lichtsteiner doesn’t deserve.

Honorable Mention: Patrice Evra

As I mentioned above, Patrice Evra was Juve’s first truly reliable left back of the decade. His introduction to the club helped them to reach the 2015 Champions League final as his inclusion in the team meant that they didn’t really have a deficiency in the squad. He played well for the 2 years where he got meaningful minutes and had a pretty big impact in a very short time, but he fell short of making the 11 because the player who took his job was an option here.