Juventus: 3 keys to winning the 2020-21 Serie A title
Juventus are heading to the Coppa Italia Final after eliminating bitter rivals Inter Milan in the semifinals of the cup. Andrea Pirlo has already secured one trophy, the Supercoppa Italiana, in his first season as the Bianconeri’s manager, but he won’t be satisfied with stopping there. And with a tenth straight Scudetto on the line, he’ll want to improve on Juve’s third-place ranking in Serie A.
Despite the slow start, Juve have what it takes to win the league. They have outplayed Inter and AC Milan in their most recent meetings, and those are the two teams above them in the table.
Let’s take a look at three keys for the Bianconeri in order to capture the league title.
A midfielder must step up for Juventus
We know that the midfield is Juve’s biggest weakness. That’s why the likes of Paul Pogba, Manuel Locatelli, Houssem Aouar, and Rodrigo De Paul have been linked to the Bianconeri for the summer 2021 transfer window. These are four of the best midfielders in Europe.
But Juve acquired two young standouts last summer, let’s not forget that. Arthur Melo and Weston McKennie have already been “hits” for Juventus.
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Rodrigo Bentancur and Adrien Rabiot? They need to improve. One of those guys needs to show that they can be a weekly starter for Juventus, because the inconsistency from these two players is unbearable. It’s one thing if they were both poor and we could just write them off as liabilities. But we KNOW that they are capable of being solid starters.
They just need to show it more frequently.
Juventus cannot beat themselves defensively
It’s all there for Juventus to have the best defense in Serie A. Danilo’s resurgence in 2020-2021 has been a sight to behold. For all of our frustrations with Alex Sandro’s lack of pace, the Brazilian left back is one of the best at the position in the league due to his cleverness. Matthijs de Ligt, Leonardo Bonucci, Merih Demiral, and Giorgio Chiellini are all excellent center backs.
The problem is that Juventus are their own worst enemies defensively at times. De Ligt and Chiellini are world-class. Demiral is close, but he creates nervousness among Juventini with his limited ball-playing skills. And Bonucci? His ball-playing skills are world-class, but his absent-mindedness on defense have proven costly.
As it stands, Juventus are the only team in Serie A with fewer than 20 goals allowed. However, they are behind Milan, Inter, and Napoli in clean sheets. We have seen some truly disastrous defensive performances from Juve this season, whether against Inter or Fiorentina in the league.
No mistakes. No silly errors. All it takes is one slip and the title is going to a club in Milan.
Either Paulo Dybala or Dejan Kulusevski has to find their mojo
The most individually talented attacking player on Juventus is quite obviously Cristiano Ronaldo. And there is little doubt in my mind that Paulo Dybala is second. In a couple of years, though, we could be talking about Dejan Kulusevski as the biggest star in the Bianconeri front line.
Kulusevski was one of Serie A’s top players in 2019-2020 while on loan at Parma, scoring 10 goals with eight assists. This season, he has three goals and one assist in Serie A for the Bianconeri, making more appearances off the bench than starts. But he’s been invisible in just as many games as he’s made a difference.
Meanwhile, injuries have blighted Dybala’s contract year, rendering him a complete non-factor for most of the year. With Alvaro Morata stepping up as something of a muse for Ronaldo, Dybala might not even be a starter for Juve.
But Dybala was vital to Juve winning the Scudetto last season. The club may need his heroics in 2020-2021, too.
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So if Dybala cannot provide those heroics, Kulusevski must be the one to step up. Either way, Juventus need someone electrifying up front to force the issue and be an X-Factor alongside Morata and, especially, Ronaldo. These are the two players who can do it, but which one will step up to the plate? The experienced La Joya or the explosive Kulu?