“Pressure is normal in football. For me it’s not a problem.” Those were the words of Matthijs de Ligt as he was unveiled as Juventus’ ninth – but most important – signing on Friday. Juventus had beaten PSG to the signing of the 19-year-old Ajax captain and there is palpable excitement at the club before the new season.
And pressure there will be. The feeling is that Juventus finally have a squad strong enough to win the Champions League for the first time since 1996. They have been in two finals in the past five years but lost to Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Last season they were eliminated by Ajax at the quarter-final stage and at the end of the campaign, after five years and five Scudettos, the manager, Max Allegri, left. Maurizio Sarri was hired to replace him, an appointment that raised eyebrows because the 60-year-old is arguably as un-Juve as one can possibly get, all tracksuit rather than stylish three-piece and a tie.
But the hope is that the squad at Juventus is so good that he can succeed where he, on some levels, failed at Chelsea. The plan is for Juve to play the attractive Sarri-ball seen during the manager’s time at Napoli.
“This is a club that has won so much in the past five years that it will be difficult to emulate that in the next five years statistically,” Sarri said. “The objective, therefore, must be to forget all the responsibilities and to have fun and to entertain and hopefully combining that by extending the sequence of good results.”
Apart from De Ligt, Juve have signed Adrien Rabiot, Aaron Ramsey, Wesley and Gianluigi Buffon on frees as well as Luca Pellegrini from Roma for £20m, Cristian Romero from Genoa for £23.3m, Merih Demiral from Sassuolo for £16.1m and Luca Zanimacchia from Genoa for £4m this summer.
It gives Sarri a remarkably strong squad. In fact, he has such a strong set-up of players he would not mind selling Gonzalo Higuaín, the player he fought so hard to get to Chelsea last season.
This is how Sarri’s first-choice XI could look at the start of the season (if Cancelo stays rather than joining Manchester City or Barcelona): Szczesny; Cancelo, De Ligt, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Ramsey, Pjanic, Rabiot; Douglas Costa, Ronaldo, Dybala.
And as if that was not impressive enough, this is what his reserve line-up could look like on any given day: Buffon; Cuadrado, Bonucci, Rugani/Demiral, De Sciglio; Emre Can, Bentancur, Matuidi; Bernardeschi, Kean, Mandzukic.
Aaron Ramsey will have a key role at Sarri’s Juventus. The manager is a huge admirer of the former Arsenal midfielder, a player who can defend, attack and score goals. His starting position will be on the right of a three-man midfield but he could also operate as a No10 if Sarri does the unthinkable and switches to a 4-3-1-2.
Miralem Pjanic will be Sarri’s “Jorginho” at Juventus. Last summer Sarri told Marina Granovskaia at Chelsea that, if they sold N’Golo Kanté, he wanted Pjanic to replace the French midfielder. It did not happen but this season Sarri will be able to use the metronomic skills of the Bosnian midfielder with Adrien Rabiot likely to take the third midfield slot.
Up front there is Cristiano Ronaldo. The first thing Sarri did when appointed Juventus manager was to call Ronaldo and arrange to come out to Greece, where the Portuguese was on holiday, to sit down and discuss the coming season.
Sarri went on a charm offensive saying how much he admires Ronaldo and told the Portuguese that he would pretty much be able to play where he prefers, whether that is as a No 9 up front or more to the left. Ronaldo has been trying both positions in training with Sarri saying: “Wherever you play, you will be my leader and we will play attractive football so that you can score many, many goals.”
The attractive football is key to the Juve hierarchy and the fans. Allegri was tremendously successful but the football was often insipid. Juve would dominate, then score and then retreat.
Sarri knows that a few players, mainly Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa, were unhappy under Allegri, especially last season, and the new manager is keen to reintegrate them into the starting XI. Both are superb assets if used in the right way and, if Ronaldo plays as a striker, there will be room for both of them to create havoc from the wings.
“With me, quality players will always start. Always,” Sarri said during pre-season. “ I’m convinced Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa can do more than what we’ve seen last season.”
There has been a real feeling of happiness around the camp during the summer and they are unlikely to be troubled domestically this season. But therein lies the problem. Juventus’ season will not start properly until February, when the knockout stage of the Champions League begins (if they have qualified of course).
Will all the players be as content as they have been in pre-season by that point? One of the main question marks hanging over Sarri before this season is whether he will be able to rotate his players to keep them all on side. His philosophy has always been to have 11 players who are his starters and then two or three players who come off the bench.
That is unlikely to work at Juventus. There are simply too many good players. Last season Allegri changed the team for every single league fixture. Sarri has never done anything like that in his career so will he be able to start now?
He has a wonderful squad at his disposal and it will be fascinating to see how he utilises it. His main problem is, perhaps, that it is so good that, if he does not win the Champions League, the season is likely to be regarded as a failure. No pressure then, Maurizio.
