I am not going to try and speculate at this very early stage but clearly when we look at the squad this season the glaring ommission right from the get go was midfield. We had 5 recognized midfielders for a midfield of 3. Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi, Can and Khedira. Which is really only 4 given that Khedira is the most injury prone midfielder I can remember us having. Bernardeschi was therefore regularly asked to fill in which he did a decent job of but he is not world class in that position. Pjanic and Bentancur are inconsistent and Can took a while to find his feet this season and he is a crude instrument of a player which is not necessarily a bad thing given we got him on a free and his qualities are definately valuable and can see them being more valueable next season. That leaves the 34 year old Matuidi as our most consistent player.
It is true that Juve have never quite replaced the midfield of Pirlo, Marchisio, Pogba and Vidal.
Another thing I think people fail to realize is Buffon's absence. Even though Woj is a great goalkeeper - Buffon's presence I feel could have helped as would have Chiellini's presence in that game. The fact that Dybala had to captain the side against Ajax sais a lot - he is not exactly the type of guy that instills confidence in his teammates given he is such a confidence player himself. I would rather have given the captaincy to someone like Matuidi in that case but I digress. Captaincy is not just about seniority but experience and attitude. Meritocracy matters most.
Rugani was thrown into the deep end too. I think he should have been given far more regular starts in the league. But I think he is still a good defender.
Yes Juve need to rejuvenate so to speak but its important not to completely dismantle the squad either as that could cause a lot more harm than good. We need healthy evolution without revolution.
Its early days but my suggestion is that we need 1 world class player in central defence, 1 world class ball player in midfield (plus Ramsey) and 1 world class forward that complements Ronaldo better than Dybala (perhaps Salah?).
Costa had a really unlucky season but he was actually our best player last season. The fact that he wasn't there for most of the season was a huge miss. Cuadrado as well was a big miss as he had a tendency of doing some important things in these big games.
I also don't want to tell Allegri how to do his job but I feel this team doesn't do enough training with the ball. The physical training regime is VERY intense (according to all new players who have joined) and I feel this leads to unnecessary injuries and poor fitness at the key point of the season. Also, if we are up 2-0 against a poor side, I think its healthy for us to beat them 5-0 or 6-0....why? Because we have to get into the habit of making sure we know how to score goals. When we come up against world class sides, I feel that we don't have much of a game plan or enough clever movement off the ball to unlock defences.
Juve always seem to get results in the league by playing poorly. Then all of a sudden you have to lift your game up more than just 1 level. Serie A is a poor league and I think this costs us more than even I thought previously. Serie A has not had 1 team win a UEFA or Europa league for more than what 25 years now? Its tough to raise your game by more than what you are used to.
Those are my first constructive thoughts after another demoralizing Champions League disspointment.