Mattia De Sciglio or Luca Pellegrini — who should leave Juventus?

Far away from Europe where athletes are bagging medals in the Tokyo Olympics, making their respective countries proud in arguably the grandest way possible — Juventus, impacted by the ill influence of the post-pandemic period, are discovering themselves inside the whirlwind of the transfer market.

You may have already heard that Mattia De Sciglio, having finished his one-year loan spell at Olympique Lyonnais, returned to Juventus. Under the newly-fashioned management of Massimiliano Allegri, he is trying to regain the favour of the Old Lady hierarchy.

Among the returnees, Luca Pellegrini also resides. Signed from AS Roma in a deal including Leonardo Spinazzola in 2019, Pellegrini was with Genoa on loan for the entirety of the 2020/21 campaign.

Amid the current circumstances at the club, Juventus are inclined to sell players, perhaps to retrieve some funds, which would help them conduct further business in the ongoing transfer market. The arrivals of the aforementioned two have provided Juventus with the option of doing so.

If we take a look at the current squad of the Bianconeri, we see that they are heavily stacked with full-backs capable of playing on both sides. What we are trying to imply here is that they are immensely versatile. So, selling one between Mattia De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini may ultimately be not that irrational. But why are we talking about Juventus selling one between De Sciglio and Pellegrini?

Juventus are preparing for an exodus…

As quoted by @BianconeriZone Twitter, a reputed Italian journalist in Romeo Agresti (via Juventibus.com and @JuveFanInfoFR Twitter) has claimed that one between De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini will leave Juventus this summer.

It has been insisted that Juventus can’t keep both going into the new season. The journalist has added that he would “never label De Sciglio as 100% leaving” as Allegri will have the final say on the matter of whom to sell and whom to keep.

Nonetheless, there has been no mention of teams potentially tempted by the availability of the respective full-backs.

What do the numbers say?

A massive part of modern football relies upon numbers and data because it is one of the easiest ways — if not the easiest — to gauge any player’s performances, abilities, strengths, and also weaknesses. We will use the data from StatsBomb (via FBref.com) for our purpose today. Using the data from FBref.com, we will try to find out the winner between De Sciglio and Pellegrini.

First of all, it is difficult to compare these two, because both players played their last season in two different leagues, with De Sciglio playing his trade for Lyon in Ligue 1 and Pelligrini doing the same for Genoa in Italian Serie A.

Plus, there is a huge difference in playing time that both the players earned in the 2020/21 season, with De Sciglio completing 1491 minutes (29 apps) in Ligue 1 and Luca Pellegrini getting only 639 minutes of football (11 apps) for Genoa in Serie A. So, how can we compare these two on the same terms? Now the per 90 stats come to action. We have already done enough chit-chat. Things are going to get a bit serious. Get ready, good people!

Attacking attributes: Full-backs, unless they are of Theo Hernández’s mould, never get associated too much with goals. When they are not famous for scoring goals, those who help others scoring are regarded as the best modern-day full-backs.

So, assists have become a crucial part of how we look and judge the decency of a full-back. In this aspect, both De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini had only one assist to their name last season in Ligue 1 and Serie A, respectively. Then how are we going to know who would be the better player attacking-wise for Juventus?

Don’t worry, we have xA or, in more common words, expected assists. This is a metric used to measure the chances of producing an assist in modern-day football. That said, Pellegrini accumulated an xA of 0.17 per 90 last season for Genoa, while De Sciglio pocketed an xG of 0.09 per 90, meaning Pellegrini would’ve ended up with around 17 assists last season if he had played 100 games to De Sciglio’s possible nine. Therefore, the Roma-born full-back beats the Milan-born full-back in the first round.

From the point of view of a full-back, Pellegrini was one of the best dribblers across the top five leagues in Europe. He bested De Sciglio with his 2.11 successful dribbles to the latter’s 0.48. Pellegrini had an upper hand when it comes to touches on the ball inside the penalty area. He averaged 1.97 touches in the attacking-penalty area — better than De Sciglio’s 0.97 — indicating that the starlet was more adventurous with his task of bombing forward.

Passing traits: Yes, as we have seen, Pellegrini would’ve had a better campaign assist-wise last season and was more courageous than De Sciglio in possession. But is that all? No, of course, not! Passing and keeping possession of the ball could prove to be as vital as providing assist sometimes.

Taking that note into account, let’s compare the two’s passing figures from the last season. As shown in the stats on the FBref.com site, Luca Pellegrini averaged 46.62 passes per match last season with a completion rate of 69.8 per cent. On the other hand, De Sciglio recorded 58.55 passes per game with a success of 84.1 per cent, showing that the 28-year-old remained a more astute passer for Lyon than the 22-year-old.

De Sciglio also completed more progressive passes (4.47 per 90 minutes) than Pellegrini (2.68) last season.

Defending: What the unquestioned dogma says is that a full-back is considered good when he is sound with both his attacking and defensive features. Pressuring an opponent, nowadays, is one of the new inventions of modern football. Pressing has now turned into an integral part of defending — you know that.

In terms of pressing the opponents, Pellegrini takes the nod over De Sciglio, maybe because he is younger and more adventurous — as we have already seen — than the former AC Milan prodigy. The former AS Roma professional completed 12.68 pressures per 90, which is way better than De Sciglio’s 10.62. In terms of tackling, both were timid last term, with the youngster completing 2.11 tackles per game and the older one registering 2.05 tackles per game.

In the section of interceptions, blocks, clearances, and aerials duels, however, Mattia De Sciglio prevails with better numbers than Luca Pellegrini, perhaps for having much more experience than the 22-year-old. So, what is the verdict?

In conclusion: Who, between the two, should leave Juventus this summer?

Before jumping to the conclusion, we are obliged to state that both Mattia De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini are talented players. Maybe they have some certain limitations in certain areas of the pitch, but who doesn’t have?

With my colleague James Cormack earlier covering that Gianluca Frabotta is looking likely to join Hellas Verona on loan, Juventus should try to keep both De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini under their ranks at the end of the day. But if either one of them is to go, it needs to be Pellegrini for certain reasons.

Naturally right-footed, De Sciglio is a versatile outlet, capable of playing in both right and left flank. When he is not that beneficial offensively, De Sciglio is also more experienced than Pellegrini. He has the experience of playing under the guidance of Max Allegri in the past. Hence, he knows the gaffer’s tactics and could adapt to them quite easily.

Well, Pellegrini is a fantastic prospect; he truly deserves the chance to show his value for Juventus this summer. But, if one is to go, it doesn’t look like the 28-year-old. Some of you may not perceive this verdict as correct. That is fine. But do you know the funny thing here? In the presence of Alex Sandro, none of these two would play as Allegri’s first-choice full-back.