without having mandzukic, we would be still playing our shitty 3-5-2, and as marchisio is still finding his fitness, one of lemina, sturaro and rincon would have been starters for the most part of the season. mandzukic is the cornerstone of our current football.
i'm not saying that higuain got an undeserved mvp award. in most cases, a top scorer of any team is probably the safest choice for this award. of course higuain was fundamental, and so were buffon, alves, sandy, pjanic, khedira, bonucci, dybala, even chiellini in the cl. fortunately, most of our key players are having a solid season. but without mandzukic, this whole new style of play that allegri invented mid-season - regardless of the formation, which is constantly changing even during matches anyway - simply won't work at all.