Last Saturday, Juve’s positive run came to an abrupt end at the hands of Napoli.
Although there were several elements behind the 1-0 defeat, including the lack of precision in front of goal, one aspect should also be noted.
Throughout the Old Lady’s nine-year reign, some observers used to claim that the Bianconeri “can win the title while playing their substitutes”.
Arguing the validity of this statement is not exactly our topic, but it must be said, that Juventus used to possess some incredible depth within their squads – in terms of both quantity and quality.
During the Max Allegri era, the Italian champions always had two capable players for every position on the field, plus some extras.
Even during the earlier years of the project – the Antonio Conte era – Juve always had five strikers within their ranks competing for two positions on the pitch.
On the contrary, the club only have three true strikers in today’s squad.
Last season, Maurizio Sarri started the season with seven central midfielders, meanwhile Andrea Pirlo is forced to endure the whole packed campaign with only five.
On Saturday, Juve only had three absentees – Paulo Dybala. Arthur and Aaron Ramsey – which shouldn’t exactly qualify as an injury crisis.
However, with the current squad, it turned out to be exactly the case.
Despite trailing by half time, Pirlo was only able to bring in three players from his five allowed substitutions – a left back (Sandro), a midfielder (McKennie) and a winger (Kulusevski) – not to mention that he had to start with the shaky Bernardeschi.
Therefore, a relatively small number of absentees can cause havoc within the current Bianconeri squad – especially in this particularly packed campaign – as Fabio Paratici and company chose the wrong season to trim their ranks.
