Juve, in Allegri’s mind: defense, direction and bomber, here is his recipe-championship

It’s easy to say Allegri. 2. After the joy of returning, the embrace of an environment that had been his home for 5 years, the greeting of those who in the end made the farewell bitter, the great rejection of Real and any foreign option, in the name of the charm of Old lady. But the best part is now, and Allegri knows it. This is why he is already working hard, albeit in the shadows, despite not having been officially re-presented yet, and the inputs of Maurizio Arrivabene, the new general manager, with Federico Cherubini, who will lead the technical area, have not yet been formalized.

The last two should officially take office next week, Allegri will speak for the first time in front of the microphones probably only at the time of the meeting, towards the middle of July.

Defense to wall

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But in the meantime, meetings and contacts follow one another, and the new Juve takes shape in the head of the coach, who knows the environment and the players well, since 11 had already been part of Allegri. 1. Then there is the legacy of Sarri and Pirlo to be collected, and given the progress of the last two championships, some are shards and some are trophies, in a mix that Allegri will have to patiently unravel, throwing the first ones and drawing what good have left the seconds. Among the pieces there is certainly the poor defensive resistance: it is not a criticism of the department, which paradoxically was the one that worked best and saw its staff promoted almost en bloc, but of an obvious problem with the numbers. Sarri’s Juve conceded 43 goals, Pirlo’s 38, almost double the 20 conceded in 2016 by Allegri’s Juve, who in his other four years at Juventus had conceded 24, 27, 24 and 30 goals. Rethinking the defense for Allegri will mean the purchase of a new defender (waiting to understand if Demiral and Alex Sandro will stay or not), but above all create a game system capable of protecting the backward department as well as inspiring the offensive one.

Silent revolution in midfield

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And here is where Allegri’s real game is played: the invention of a completely new midfield, revolutionized in its setting and spirit even more than in men. The coach will in fact have to make a virtue of necessity, not being able to count on a profound reshuffle of the squad: a couple of purchases will have to be enough for him – which not surprisingly are at the top of his wish list already in the hands of Cherubini and C. – to shape a new department, able to play and give an identity to the team. Profiles and names are well known: if a director is considered indispensable, a director flanked by a more physical and smart second play would be an ideal double from which to restart the new Juve. The main name is that of Locatelli, who after the great tests in blue led the company to accelerate the negotiations, but also Pjanic and Tolisso are among the eligible candidates, also because they are less expensive, with the Pogba suggestion that dominates unchallenged above any other. hypothesis. On the other midfielders in the squad – whom Allegri sees well in the role of mezzala – there are no vetoes: from Arthur to McKenny, from Bentancur to Rabiot, situations are fluid and conditioned by market movements. Speech apart – and at the antipodes – for Ramsey on the one hand, who also revealed the desire to change the air, and Chiesa and Kulusevski on the other, the wings on which the Juve of the future will fly.

De-ronaldization

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The third but not least important junction on which Allegri plays the old-new Juventus challenge is the attack. A certainty has arrived in the last hours, and that is the renewal of Morata’s loan. Happy the Spanish striker, who will perhaps benefit from the novelty also in his next matches at the European Championship, satisfied Allegri who had launched him in black and white seven years ago and then defined “the man of dry matches”. The flexibility of the attacker is the characteristic most appreciated by the coach: “He is one of the few players in the world who can play with any type of teammate, whether he is first striker, second or other”. The 20 goals and 12 assists of the last season did the rest. But that’s not all: there is now the node-renewal of Dybala, a topic that is about to come back to life, as well as the chapter-new purchase, which has already been colored with names and profiles, but which has not yet taken a certain direction. . To stay with the most well-known names, from Gabriel Jesus to Icardi, from Vlahovic to Milik, there are many candidates for a place in the Juve attack, but on everything and everyone the specter of Ronaldo hovers, whose latest messages over the air have not given verdicts nor dissolved prognosis in a definitive manner. In any case, Allegri’s certainty is one: his will be a Juve no longer dependent on Ronaldo as it has been in recent years. And this prepares the ground for the double option, of a Juve with or without Ronaldo in the squad.