Despite all that is said about the importance of squad rotation, every football manager loves to have a well-established best lineup.
Surely he’ll need to rest some of his starters from time to time and offer the substitutes a chance to prove their worth on some occasions, but there needs to be a certain pecking order.
Unfortunately for Juventus, this order has been replaced with complete chaos in the last few years.
Last season, the media enjoyed highlighting the fact that Andrea Pirlo was switching his starting lineup literally every week.
This was actually one of the most criticized points during the rookie coach’s ill-fated tenure in Turin. But sometimes it takes a change in personnel to realize that the problem lies somewhere else.
This campaign, Max Allegri isn’t doing any better in this regard. The tactician often had a clear first XI during his first spell at the club.
But thus far, we still don’t have the slightest clue about his current favorite lineup… and perhaps neither does he.
At this point, we should realize that Pirlo was hardly at fault (at least in this regard), as it’s an incredibly tough task to find a consistent lineup when your squad contains a host of inconsistent players.
Take the attack for example. Most of us wanted Alvaro Morata dropped following his display against Atalanta, and Allegri gave us our wish when he started with Moise Kean in Salerno.
Nevertheless, the young Italian couldn’t score, instead it was the Spaniard who sealed the victory with a poacher’s goal and even won penalty kick that was wasted by Paulo Dybala.
We know the drill by now. Morata’s second half cameo will be his ticket for a return to the starting lineup… until another poor stretch sees him dropped yet again.
Rodrigo Bentancur also put on a decent if not spectacular performance against the weaker opposition, but who’s to say that he won’t commit another howler when the Bianconeri take on a more formidable opponent.
Back when Allegri had wonderful players at his disposal, he was able to forge solid and consistent starting lineups.
But with the current bunch, we can understand why his second tenure is resembling the Pirlo experiment more and more with every passing day.
The current squad is the fruit a past mistakes. It is assembled without a strategy, with no specific formation or manager’s play style in mind. We have a collection of individually good players that don’t fit together nor in a specific system. Whatever happens though the team can’t afford to replace Allegri and start again though. Give him time to build a squad. Also this season injuries to key players like Chiesa and Dybala, to players finding their form such as MDS, and to a host of other players don’t help at all. Especially when you can’t replace like with like.