I agree with u, he's got very poor skills to be in Juve's starting team. Because of his mental/physical qualities, he could be part of the squad to play every now and then, in Coppa Italia, but never to be starting games.
That being said, he played well in these 2 games, he did a better job than I would expect from him. Giaccherinni is apparently rubbish and can't be used as a reference for comparison, but it's impossible not to notice that Pepe did much better than him.
Anyway, it bugs me wtf Conte wants. He picked up the players, and he said that Pepe and Giaccherinni were playing because they adjusted better to the system, providing more defensive efforts. I actually agree with him. But so, if he was planning to play this 442 or 424, and has chosen Elia and Krasic, knowing they couldn't play together, what did he want???
If u take a look at the team so far, it has improved a lot from last season's second part, thanks to Pirlo who is being absolutely world class so far. Litch also improved a lot the right back, but the rest of the team is basically the same... without Pirlo I guess we're pretty much fucked so far...