C’mon. Chiellini-Bonucci was miles better than decent. It’s great. We got to two CL finals with that pairing, beating teams like Barca and Madrid. Chiellini is one of the best defending CBs on the planet, and Bonucci’s ball skills helped in keeping pressure off our back line and breaking presses. They worked fantastic together for years. But as Barza aged out, not having a proper world class Chiellini back-up has shown just how problematic Bonucci is without a specific partner. Does that lessen how great that pairing was for us? No.
Bonucci mentally crumbling last year at Milan and never really finding his old form once he returned here is the biggest issue, and even so our defensive record is identical to last year. I’d replace him if a fantastic CB came along but the best option would obviously be having Chiellini, Bonucci, Rugani, + a Koulibaly level CB bought this summer