Juventus: 5 takeaways from 4-0 win over Lecce
Arthur Melo can’t come soon enough
Juve’s midfield had another woeful performance despite the 4-0 win, and they should be thankful that Lecce parked the bus and then glued the bus to the asphalt once one of their players received a red card. Because if they didn’t face this opponent, they would have been embarrassed.
Miralem Pjanic is on the way out and is clearly not a part of the future for Juve due to his age and lack of utility, but he actually bounced back on Friday and was Juve’s best midfielder. Rodrigo Bentancur, on the other hand, regressed, failing to make any sort of an impact on the game. Adrien Rabiot was even worse, providing no support on the left side of the midfield; he needs to get out of the club next.
Arthur Melo is clearly the answer for Juventus, because the club needs a young midfielder with his dribbling ability. Set to join Juve from Barcelona in the Pjanic player swap, Arthur is a major upgrade over Pjanic both in terms of ability and fit. The Old Lady needs the young Arthur to progress the ball and help Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala in the attack.
Blaise Matuidi does his job
Blaise Matuidi was the emergency starter at left back with Mattia De Sciglio and Alex Sandro injured, and emergency backup Danilo was unavailable after getting suspended by picking up two yellow cards as a substitute in Monday’s win over Bologna.
Against Lecce, Matuidi got the job done at left back despite not getting any help from Rabiot in the first half. Matuidi supported the attack when he could but mostly stayed back to make sure he didn’t make any errors defensively.