Predicted Juventus lineup vs Roma: Ronaldo looks to build off first Serie A hat trick
By John Vaccaro
CAM: Aaron Ramsey
It’s nice to finally be able to write this and know it’s actually going to be true. For most of this season, Aaron Ramsey has either been kept out of the starting lineup or left out of matches completely because injuries or lack of fitness. That appears to be over following the winter break as he was finally reintroduced to the starting lineup in Juve’s first match of the new year. The Juventus attack simply functions differently when he is on the field as he makes the defense work every time down the field with his forward runs and clever passing. Let’s just hope things stay this way.
ST: Paulo Dybala
I think the first game of the new year gave us a pretty clear picture of Juve’s hierarchy up front.
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That should mean that Paulo Dybala is going to get the majority of starts up front this season while Gonzalo Higuain rotates in every few games to keep Dybala fresh and appears regularly as a substitutes. This clear hierarchy, along with the news that Higuain missed some practices this week with a hamstring injury, makes it easy to pick Dybala here. Dybala played a major part in picking up the slack while Ronaldo struggled and helped to make sure Juve stayed at the top of Serie A. Dybala hasn’t scored against Roma since 2016, so I’m thinking he might be due to change that.
Next. Keep, sell, or loan: How Juventus should handle their squad this month. dark
ST: Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo had his best match of the season on Monday. He scored a second half hat trick against Cagliari and even tacked on an assist for good measure. It looks like he is peaking at just the right time to lead Juve in their pursuit of a treble. Ronaldo hasn’t scored against Roma since joining Juve, but did quite a bit with Manchester United and Real Madrid. He’ll look to add Juve to that list on Sunday.