Juventus are not exactly rebuilding, but the most successful club in Italy
need to find their feet again. The Andrea Pirlo experiment has failed
and Max Allegri has returned to the dugout where he won five Serie A titles in a row.
Allegri played with a variety of systems during his first Juventus tenure,
inheriting Antonio Conte’s 3-5-2 and then shifting to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. What is clear is that his
team needs a base, a deep lying playmaker who can weigh in with defensive duties or
a defensive platform that will allow more dynamic midfielders like Rodrigo Bentancur
to excel. Having worked with midfielders like Pirlo, Paul Pogba, Claudio Marchisio,
and Arturo Vidal, Allegri will be aware that no one in his current midfield is of that quality.
Fresh from announcing himself at Euro 2020, Manuel Locatelli has a good claim
to be Italy’s most well-rounded midfielder after Marco Verratti.
A vital part of Roberto De Zerbi’s aggressive, vertical style of football at Sassuolo,
Locatelli can play as a six or an eight, spray accurate long passes or dictate a game’s tempo,
and also weighs in with goals and defensive acumen. He sees a huge amount of Sassuolo’s
possession, averaging around 85 passes per game, the key cog in De Zerbi’s impressive machine.
One of Locatelli’s strengths is his versatility. His all-round game is sufficiently strong to
be able to slot him into a midfield two, like at Sassuolo, or three, as with Italy.
This versatility shows itself in his metrics, where he competes favourably
with creative and defensive midfielders alike. His ability to find forwards with long passing,
or split the opposition lines with penetrative through balls, bears some comparison with the way
Allegri used Pirlo and Pogba at Juventus, while he can also carry the ball well.
Locatelli is also only 23, a fixture in the Italian squad if not yet the starting eleven,
and has the physical profile to mix it with the league’s toughest midfields.
Juventus and Sassuolo have also had a good relationship in the market,
with loans, co-ownership deals, and full transfers between the two clubs suggesting a deal would be
achieved with relative ease. That might have changed due to Sassuolo’s growing aspirations,
but Juventus would be well served by moving aggressively for Locatelli regardless.
Lyon have an embarrassment of young midfield talent,
some of it imported but much homegrown by their impressive academy. And Maxence
Caqueret might just be the strongest candidate to cement a place in the ranks of the elite
over the coming decade. An intelligent, diminutive six, he uses his anticipation
and reading of the game to make blocks and tackles, and his pressing game is phenomenal.
But Caqueret is more than a midfield disruptor;
he orchestrates play from deep with incisive passing through the lines. He has a good range
of passing, too, with slide-rule through balls and chipped passes from deep,
but always looks to progress the ball into dangerous areas. He’s added more ball carrying
and aggressive runs this season, and plays in a more advanced role for the French U21 side.
This shows his ability to grow and change his role, which was required in a fiercely
competitive Lyon midfield, and this versatility bodes well for a midfielder who is not yet 22.
His best role could be that of a press-resistant and creative defensive midfielder,
linking defence and midfield but with the ability to push forwards too,
while securing the area in front of the back four with positional intelligence and awareness.
If this sounds a little like Andrea Pirlo that’s because Caqueret could blossom into
exactly that kind of player. And with Lyon facecd with financial limitations and already
well stocked with midfielders, Caqueret could be available at a reasonable price.
A central midfielder from a relegated Premier League side might seem an odd choice for Juventus,
but Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa would be a very interesting pick who has not looked
out of place back in a European top five league. He would offer something different,
a defensive midfielder with press resistance, someone who can shield a back line with tackles,
interceptions, and blocks, but also carry the ball through tight
spaces and open up room for Juventus’ more creative midfielders to thrive.
Anguissa is by no means a poor passer, although he tends to pick
conservative options to keep the ball safe. His physicality and ball retention are good, though,
which makes him an ideal first receiver from defence under pressure. Where he stands out is
a combination of defensive work and ball carrying which, when stationed in front of a back line,
makes him a perfect shield and someone who can break a press or carry the ball into
space before laying it off to a better passer having gained significant ground.
When Fulham splashed the cash having been promoted in 2018, Anguissa was purchased having started
the Europa League Final for Marseille a few months earlier, and was probably the pick of
those signings, along with Aleksandar Mitrovic. Last season, and his previous season on loan at
Villareal, show that he has what it takes to thrive in a top league and his unusual
skillset could be a very useful platform on which to build the rest of Juventus’ midfield.