Serie A Team of the Season 2020-2021: How many Juventus players made it?
With 12 teams taking the field at the same time but in different venues, the Sunday of 23rd May marked the end of another ordinary season of the Italian Serie A. Wait, did I just use the word “ordinary”? Pardon me, but the 2020-21 season was everything but ordinary. Juventus, perhaps again heavily relying on the heroics of Cristiano Ronaldo, were dreaming of capturing the Scudetto for the 10th successive time, which would have been a record. Dreaming, as the saying goes, is good, but daydreaming is futile. For the context, Juventus were doing the latter this time.
An exciting but exhausting total of 38 matchdays, with almost no fans in the stadiums amid the ongoing pandemic, delivered us a new champion (yes, the longevity of Juve’s dominance has made it look like that), three relegation squads, a fascinating race for the top four places (which kept on going until the final day of the season), and the first candidate of the forthcoming UEFA Conference League.
If your lives don’t go along under the rocks (an apparent pun, don’t need to get triggered and offended), you should know about the ones making the headlines this season. Inter Milan became the Serie A champion for the 19th time in the history of the competition. AC Milan, Atalanta, and Juventus finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively, confirming the Champions League football for the next season in the most unique way possible.
Napoli bottled the top 4 on the last day, surrendering their spot to Juventus. As a result, the Azzurri will join Lazio in the Europa League next season. AS Roma, thanks to a better head-to-head ratio over Sassuolo, got to secure their place in the inaugural edition of UEFA Conference League next term. The ones to say goodbye to the first division of Italian football were Benevento, Crotone, and Parma.
Having said that, we have seen some confident, consistent, and brilliant individual performances over the course of the season. So, the time has come to mention and appreciate their efforts. Without any further ado, let us jump to the Old Juve‘s Serie A team of the season 2020-21.
Gianluigi Donnarumma (GK)
Did you seriously expect someone else? To be honest, we also had a dilemma at the beginning. Choosing one between the AC Milan shot-stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Genoa’s No. 1 Mattia Perin was tricky. After giving the issue some serious thought, the former was given the nod, owing to his ever-present posture under the bars.
Donnarumma, among all the goalkeepers in Serie A, made the most number of appearances (37) this term and kept the most number of clean sheets (14) — equaling Inter’s Samir Handanović in that regard.
The Italian custodian, per the stats from Fbref.com, recorded an impressive save percentage of 71.2. Despite his future being covered by the dark clouds of uncertainty, Gigio has always performed with his heart and soul for the Rossoneri, garnering over 250 appearances in the Milan colours to date. Still 22, Donnarumma has a very bright future ahead. Now, whether that lies at San Siro or somewhere else requires further investigation.