Juventus: Matthijs de Ligt’s return will solve a lot of issues
Juventus center back Matthijs de Ligt missed the first seven matches of the Serie A campaign with a shoulder injury, and his return will be a huge boost.
Coming out of the November international break, Juventus sit fifth in the Serie A table behind Milan, Sassuolo, Napoli, and Roma. The Bianconeri are still favorites to win the league, but there have been some predictable growing pains in Andrea Pirlo’s first season at the ship’s helm.
A couple of absences have hurt Juve. Paulo Dybala missed the start of the season and has struggled for form since returning. Cristiano Ronaldo missed time with COVID-19. Left back Alex Sandro has been injured. But the most impactful injury has been to Matthijs de Ligt, who missed all of the first seven matches of the season with a shoulder injury.
De Ligt is now back and ready to play, and his return is coming at the right time. Juventus have lost veteran center backs Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini to injury, meaning that if de Ligt weren’t ready to play, Juve would be seriously short-handed defensively.
Juventini must temper their initial expectations for de Ligt, since he is just coming back from a significant injury.
But when de Ligt is fully back and at his best, Juve will have a downright scary defense. Bonucci has his issues, but Chiellini is still a steadying presence when healthy. Merih Demiral has been great this season when he’s been able to start, and he really should be playing even more. Finally, Danilo has been the pleasant surprise of the season, as he has arguably been the team’s second-best player in 2020-2021 thus far behind only Ronaldo.
Despite Danilo and Demiral’s positive play, Juve have had some shaky moments defensively. After a season in which they posted their worst defensive record in years, barely winning the Scudetto, the Bianconeri are second in the league in goals allowed behind only Verona. But they’ve made some disappointing mistakes and were torn apart in the Champions League by Barcelona, who could have easily scored more than two goals.
De Ligt’s athleticism and anticipation defensively will make up for a lot. As good as Demiral and Chiellini are, de Ligt is Juve’s best defender. We saw that clearly last summer. After an adjustment period, de Ligt showed his best and put himself squarely in the conversation with the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly and Alessio Romagnoli as Serie A’s best overall center back.
The former Ajax captain is also excellent on the ball. He scored a wondergoal against Udinese, and the 21-year-old actually scored a career-high four goals in his first season with the Old Lady. He completed over 90 percent of his passes in both Serie A and the Champions League.
Juventus should try to sign Calhanoglu. dark. Next
Despite his young age, de Ligt is already a proven, superstar player at the top level. A player and emerging leader like that can make up for so much, both in terms of his athleticism and awareness. He is a world-class center back already, and his return will solve the lingering issues Juve’s otherwise-talented defense seem to have. It will be exciting to see how de Ligt, Demiral, and Danilo play in a back three together vs. Cagliari on Saturday.