Arthur Melo has spent months recovering from an injury and is slowly picking up minutes at present, but Juventus manager Max Allegri has already talked of a regular playing role for him.
The Brazil international has been missing since the summer, having had to be operated on in June, but made his return to action against Roma 10 days ago, before two further appearances off the bench against both Zenit St Petersburg and Inter Milan.
Arthur still has less than an hour’s action on the clock however, and a start may still be a little while away as he looks to build up his fitness and sharpness, but the manager has already talked of the quality that he has, and sounds as though he is already keen on pairing him in midfield with summer signing Manuel Locatelli.
Prior to our clash with Inter Milan, Allegri said in his pre-match conference(via Juventus News 24): “He has grown a lot, he raises the quality of the team and the speed of passing. But he did two clips, he hasn’t played a whole game for two months. You have to give him time to make him gradually become one of the owners.”
While I’m a fan of Rodrigo Bentancur, I still feel like his transitional play is a little on the slow side, while Arthur has a creative side that could be a huge boost to our side.
Arthur’s return to the fold would also give Locatelli more freedom to get forward, although the pair will need a little time to build up an understanding before a formidable partnership through the middle could be formed.
I can’t help but believe that the pairing would bring an exciting edge to our attack with both midfielders having a keen eye for a pass, and the likes of Morata and Chiesa will relish making those runs in behind the defence onto the through balls which will be coming in.
The fact that Allegri is already seeing that Arthur will play a key role in our side is a huge positive, and fingers crossed he can get at least 30 minutes under his belt this evening as he progresses.
Patrick