Keep, sell, or loan: How Juventus should handle their squad this month

Attackers:

Cristiano Ronaldo

I did recently write an article about selling Cristiano Ronaldo, but that was about selling him over the summer. I don’t think there’s any way Juventus would do it in the winter window. It’s too difficult to make a huge change like that to the squad in the midst of competition. He is also suddenly dominating again and seems to have put his issues from October and November behind him. I’ll reexamine this in the summer, but for now he’s definitely going to be sticking around.

Keep

Gonzalo Higuain

Juventus got lucky that a couple of the players who they wanted to sell over the summer refused to leave. One of those players they got lucky with was Gonzalo Higuain. If he didn’t play another minute this year, he’d already have played a better season than his full year last year. He has done it all for Juve.

More from Serie A

• Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
• Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
• Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
• The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
• Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it

He’s scored, he’s leading the team in assists, and he has even defended at times this year. I said over the summer that Juve should at least hold onto him until now to see if he could recover from last year’s struggles. Now, I’m saying they need to hold onto him for at least the rest of year and probably next year if he keeps playing like this.

Keep

Paulo Dybala

The other player who Juve was lucky they didn’t actually end up selling is Paulo Dybala. I believed since the summer of 2018 that Dybala should have been sold because he just didn’t fit in the 4-3-3. However, Juve’s formation change has brought back the world class player we saw Dybala’s first two seasons in Torino. There is no chance he’s being sold this winter or probably any time in the next few years. He is going to be the star of this Juve team for years to come.

Keep

Douglas Costa

We don’t get to see him much these days because of his injury issues, but Douglas Costa still shows flashes of brilliance when he’s healthy. I believe he can compete with Dybala and Ramsey to play as Juve’s trequartista, but he needs to stay healthy consistently before that’s going to happen. I think he’s safe for now, but this summer could be the end of Costa’s time at Juve because of his injury issues.

Keep

Federico Bernardeschi

It has been really disappointing to watch Federico Bernardeschi’s struggles. He was a player that came to Juve with a ton of potential after a successful start to his career at Fiorentina. However, his progress has just completely stopped. Neither Sarri or Massimiliano Allegri has been able to get his best out of him and at this point I think it makes sense for both Bernardeschi and Juventus for him to leave this winter. Hopefully he winds up somewhere that he can fulfill the potential we saw earlier in his career, but I really just don’t think Juventus is somewhere he is ever going to find consistent success.

Sell