Compared to our previous and Allegri's last season at the helm we've basically had the exact same team as we do now just without the improvements made in the summer that Sarri arrived. I'll break up the most crucial parts of it because i keep seeing here debates about who has improved and what contribution has x has on y.
The way I see it.
-> C.Ronaldo - Improved? Yes , but also remember that CR7 started this season after a full season of accomodation in the previous one, then it's only natural that both him and Dybala after almost 2 years of playing together they would start to develop an much better understanding compared to their first 6-12 months of playing together.
-> Dybala - has indeed went back to his pre-Ronaldo's arrival impact on our team, perhaps our MVP this season but again, that's been mostly down to him also maturing and proving hisself after we've tried to offload him last summer.
-> Bentancur - has improved , but not thanks to Sarri, he is young and has been maturing, no matter the coach it's almost impossible not to expect Bentancur to improve after his 3rd full season here.
-> Cuadrado - is the same just that less injury prone this season, again proved his versatility and what an important asset he is to this team, only props that goes to Sarri is insisting with him at RB as his primary position,altough tbf it's not like we've had other better options there.
-> Costa - has been as injury-prone as always, however i'd say he was available at important times this season way more then he's been available last year so he's had somewhat of an more noticeable impact this year compared to the last.
-> Pjanic - has been as inconsistent as last season and pretty much on the same level as those around him.
-> Alex Sandro - started the season well but faded and got inconsistent/relaxed in the final stretch, but is that really in any way different then the way he's played last season or the way some of his teammates have done aswell? not so sure.
-> Bernardeschi - has never really been one of our star players but this season compared to the last he has been without a doubt a shadow of himself , very little contribution and little to no chemistry with Sarri in getting the best out of him either.
-> Bonucci - Just as inconsistent as he's been the previous years(be it at Milan or in Allegri's last season), started the season well and the captain armband has given him that extra responsability to not be as superficial as he tends to be at times but overall also faded away along with our gameplay throughout the season, overall indeed he's had a slightly better season than the last but still transmits that odd feeling of a mistake waiting to happen which is the f*cking last thing i'd want a Juventus captain to transmit, be it to his teammates or even worse, to his opponents.
So, after this i'd go with the fact that we've actually imporved our team compared to last season, not as much as we should in our CM department or not what some of us might have wished for but there's definetely no denying we are stronger on paper this year compared to last year. We essencially got:
-> Ramsey + Rabiot added to our already stacked midfield, supposedly to improve it and the latter is definitely showing positive signs, Ramsey however showed promising signs at the beggining but then kept being injured all season.
-> DeLigt + Demiral added to our already solid but injury-prone backline, Chiellini has been greatly missed but make no mistake that this transfers have solved many of our issues as we've seen what happened last year when we've had to start Rugani against Ajax and co., we've also missed Chiellini last year in the crucial stretch of the season.
-> Altough we did eventually lose Mandzukic we have however added Higuain back which in terms of pure goalscoring is an obvious upgrade, anyway frankly i would say we should/could have kept both of them for the remainder of this season. Overall Higuain started well but as the season went on i believe he started getting frustrated for being left on the bench more often than not and Sarri giving up on the 'trio' ideea with Dybala behind him and CR7.
-> Then the only real spot we can say it got downgraded was the Cancelo-Danillo swap which obviously proved how much of an mediocre player Danillo is (altough in terms of contribution he wasn't at all DeSciglio level bad), but anyway we've obviously had it planned ever since the summer to give Cuadrado a full season at RB whch proved it wasn't exactly that much of an downgrade afterall.
-> Also, we've got Buffon back which greatly adds to our locker room tranquility, we've missed him last season aswell and i honestly think we would have struggled way more without him arround.
Anyway, now that he is here is his Scudetto too and he's earned it even if only by having been carried along because overall there's not been much of an impact by Sarri on the league so far, this team still won the Seria A more or less on auto-pilot due to huge gap in quality and mentality between us and those who could supposedly challenge us. I still keep him accountable for gifting the Coppa Italia to Napoli and Supercoppa to Lazio, we must have won at least one of the two and not look so toothless in both of them, however us beating Inter both direct games was a pleasure to watch altough i'm not so convinced it was down to our better tactic rather then Conte and Inda bottling under pressure, but anyway we'll see how we fare in CL from here on, our defending as an unit must improve on all aspects and the know-how in dealing with certain phases of the game needs to get fricking sorted out, no more excuses from here on, we are strong enough to at least not have to worry about a team as in shambles as Lyon has been for the past year or two.
Congratulations again both to Sarri and the team for clinching the 9th Scudetto in a row which as been another historic achievement we are gratefull for but let's just please not fall asleep on one side and pretend like everything is fine, i really expect to see a different animal when it comes to CL and that won't happen if we or the players are already like ' grazzie mister' and acting as all it's fine after we've barelly done or won anything, grazzie for 1 out of 3 possible trophies so far? that's the type of mentality that could hurt us on the long term as we are still looking to fight for the 4th and last trophy left. so let's snap out of it get back to work, we've done nothing but the bare minimum expected so far.
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