The trequartista conundrum: Juventus go in search of their dream playmaker
A string of potential creative options have been linked with Juventus, but who should the Serie A champions focus their efforts on?
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri confirmed his club’s aim to recruit an attacking midfield player on Monday, following weeks of speculation on the matter.
A supposed shortlist including Oscar, Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler and Kevin De Bruyne has been bandied about, as the search for a suitable candidate intensifies.
Juve’s revered N.10 shirt was vacated by the departed Carlos Tevez, but instead of another striker taking over the jersey, it appears a creative force operating between the lines of midfield and attack is now a priority.
Allegri watched regista (deep-lying playmaker) Andrea Pirlo leave for New York City FC this summer, who previously shouldered much of the responsibility from his deep-lying position.
Additionally, the likes of Claudio Marchisio and Paul Pogba to the right and left of the maestro, plus Arturo Vidal, Alvaro Morata and Carlos Tevez ahead of him, shared out the remaining creative burden as equal parts of a potent attacking quintet.
The debilitating losses of Tevez and Pirlo in particular — who assisted 12 Serie A goals between them — have prompted an apparent change of approach from the coach, with more emphasis to be placed on the as-yet-unknown advanced midfield schemer.
Promising Schalke starlet Julian Draxler would appear to be the riskiest option of the lot, considering he sat out five months of last season through injury, and featured predominantly on the left wing during eight Bundesliga starts made when he was available for selection.
Asking an unproven 21-year-old to suddenly become creator-in-chief for the 33-time Scudetto winners would be unfair on the player at this stage — and unwise from the club’s perspective.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have repeatedly ruled out the possibility of selling Oscar, yet rumours persist over the Brazilian international’s future at Stamford Bridge.
His form has sparkled at times, faltered on other occasions.
The hit-and-miss nature of those displays leaves a question mark hanging over his ability to fulfil such a prominent position in Turin — but he did lay on more goals than any single Juve player in league action last term with eight; plus, he undoubtedly possesses the raw talent to justify the gamble.
There’s a widely-held misconception that Mario Gotze hasn’t gotten a look-in at Bayern Munich under coach Pep Guardiola.
Yet, he alternated frequently between attacking central midfield and left wing in starting 28 league matches, and also made the starting line-up in nine of 12 Champions League fixtures played during 2014-15.
But, it’s entirely true that he hasn’t been able to cement his favoured playmaking role in Bavaria, which partly led to a meagre return of two assists last year. He did notch nine goals, though, while boasting a creditable 86 per cent pass completion rate.
Former Real Madrid footballing artist Mesut Ozil joined Arsenal two years ago, having to endure recent criticism of his performances following an initially bright start with the Gunners. That could be viewed as slightly unfair, given the fact he produced 65 key passes and 88 per cent were successful last season.
At 26, he is the eldest of the five-man group, inevitably leading to the fact that he can call upon substantially more big-game experience than his counterparts. Furthermore, Ozil was known as the assist-making king at Real Madrid, and very much represents the highly technical operator referred to by Allegri.
However, two marks against the ex-Werder Bremen star are that he perhaps doesn’t provide enough goalscoring prowess, with nine Premier League goals so far in Arsenal colours, while he also has a tendency to drift out of games.
The complete package would seem to be offered by Wolfsburg wonder Kevin De Bruyne, who was frozen out at Chelsea, but has since blossomed in the Bundesliga.
He helped the Wolves to second spot in the standings behind Bayern, as well as being named the league’s Player of the Year at the end-of-season awards.
De Bruyne also achieved the most domestic league goals (10), key passes (91) and number of assists (a league-high 20) of those on the wanted list, during a real breakthrough campaign for the Belgian international.
He appears to be coming of age at 24, while nobody else within this rather illustrious set of targets reached double figures in goals scored or created.
Rumours of interest from Manchester City shouldn’t put the Old Lady off making a firm bid to secure his services, as he is the outstanding candidate for the job above all others — and his fabulous link-play and constant inventiveness could take the Bianconeri on to a whole new level.
