How Juventus plan to rebuild midfield after injury crisis | OneFootball

The new season is barely underway, and already Juventus have a crisis on their hands.

Not only are their first-choice midfielders Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram out injured for long, both have also undergone surgery in recent days and are set to be sidelined until at least the turn of the year.

Locatelli has had surgery for a lateral meniscus tear in right knee, while Thuram underwent surgery to treat chondropathy of the patella, also in his right knee.

This has left Juventus and Luciano Spalletti already very thin in the middle of the park, and they’ll have to look around right away to find makeshift solutions, that too for the medium term.

That’s not to say that options aren’t available, though. Douglas Luiz can be expected to hold his spot as a deep-lying playmaker. Kenan Yıldız mostly operates off the left but could play through the middle in times like these — once he recovers from his own surgery, that is. Young Augusto Owusu could also be brought up from the reserves to play in midfield.

Pape Matar Sarr, practically onboarded for these situations, will get his chances nice and early to showcase his suitability in his this Bianconeri line-up, while Weston McKennie, whom Spalletti prefers in a more attacking role, might have to return to play deeper roles occasionally. That said, both Sarr and McKennie have been nursing minor muscular issues of their own.

Then there are players who could serve as makeshift midfielders. Argentine winger Nico González played through the middle against Milan, while Jhon Lucumí, who is an out and out centre-back, was considered sufficiently technically adept to play in midfield by his coaches at Bologna.

Up next for the Old Lady is a trip to Emilia-Romagna to face Sassuolo on Sunday night.

Anshuman Joshi | GIFN