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As Juventus slogged by means of the winter months of the 2019-20 season, there have been only a few positives to take out of the best way Maurizio Sarri’s squad was taking part in. They have been successful more often than not, however their type removed from something you’ll take into account spectacular and even near good. They have been grinding out outcomes as all of us hoped that the notorious Sarriball strategy to reach because the season entered the latter phases.
(Director’s notice: It by no means arrives.)
One of many good issues to return out of the primary 4 or 5 months of Sarri’s tenure as Juve supervisor — and there weren’t plenty of issues typically — was the truth that Rodrigo Bentancur, on the age of twenty-two, was beginning to grow to be Juventus’ finest midfielder. He was getting used as a jack of all trades by Sarri, who was utilizing him far and wide — and Bentancur was proving to be as much as the duty. It didn’t matter if it was as a makeshift trequartista, as a deep-lying midfielder or as prototypical No. 6 that was out to be a bulldog throughout the sector, you title it and Bentancur was getting it carried out.
As his adopted father, I used to be very pleased with my Giant Grownup Son.
A yr later, I actually don’t know what has occurred. The nice vibes round Bentancur are gone, and the shape we noticed a season in the past is nowhere to be discovered as Juve’s 2020-21 marketing campaign begins to enter crunch time.
This was nicely earlier than his game-changing mistake all of a minute into Wednesday evening’s loss to Porto within the first leg of the Champions League Spherical of 16 tie. This was earlier than the flip of the calendar to 2021. Bentancur’s 2020-21 season has been in regards to the reverse of what his 2019-20 marketing campaign was — and that’s not precisely what you wish to see whenever you’re worse off 12 months later. Bentancur’s type, or lack of something constantly optimistic, has been a season-long challenge that dates again to the primary weeks of the Andrea Pirlo period.
(That is the a part of the submit the place I made a decision to test Bentancur’s WhoScored ranking, noticed he was Juventus’ sixth-highest rated participant and subsequently proceeded to scratch my head fairly than proceed typing for a few minutes. Like, actually … sixth-highest? I’m confused.)
The numbers say that Bentancur is having a comparatively strong season. He’s finishing practically 91 p.c of his passes, probably the greatest figures on the staff. He’s averaging a pair tackles a recreation. He’s bought a few assists to his title. He’s bought fewer yellow playing cards by means of 19 Serie A appearances than you suppose he does. Whereas they is probably not numbers that make you go ‘Wow!’ they’re one thing that look to be comparatively strong.
Hell, Bentancur’s mainly bought the same WhoScored rating this season as another midfielder beneath the age of 25 years outdated who individuals — each round right here and across the calcio world — are heaping a complete bunch of reward on proper now.
However we all know that Bentancur hasn’t been nearly as good as that ranking or wherever near being the distinction maker of Nicolo Barella, that midfielder who occurs to have a WhoScored ranking that’s all of .02 factors greater. The numbers say one factor, however the eyes say one other. And that’s the problem with all of this. Generally you see small pockets of him resembling the participant that he was for a lot of final season — or, on the very least, beginning to get there — when issues have been trying comparatively strong as he began alongside Arthur and Weston McKennie just some weeks in the past. However, different instances, I really feel precisely the identical means my buddy Sergio felt like when he penned his post-Porto loss Grab Bag:
I don’t actually know what occurred to Bentancur.
Yeah, we don’t. We now have hunches, we’ve got concepts, however we don’t know for positive.
We will join the dots between Paulo Dybala and his struggles this season. We will see that McKennie wants a break as a result of he’s not taking part in with the identical form of gung-ho grinta that has made him abruptly a favourite amongst the Juve devoted. We all know that it was being sick within the couple of days earlier than the journey to Portugal that was why Alvaro Morata didn’t begin after which practically fainted after the sport Wednesday evening. (It took till a post-game press convention for that, however we bought a solution in fast vogue.)
On the subject of Bentancur’s step again this season, it’s exhausting to pinpoint it. Is it the truth that Sarri performed him so many minutes post-restart final summer time? Is it a factor the place he simply can’t totally get into sync with the function that Andrea Pirlo needs from him now? (And with Arthur out in the meanwhile, it’s a task that continues to alter, thoughts you.) Or is it only a case of a still-young participant scuffling with confidence and he simply can’t get out of this rut?
At this level, it’s exhausting to say.
That’s not a refusal to deal with the issue. It’s simply an acknowledgement that we don’t know why we’ve gotten up to now. Attempting to attach these dots isn’t all that straightforward.
What I do know is that this, although: Juventus wanted Bentancur to take a step ahead after a really productive 2019-20 season. They wanted him to be the midfielder that was trying like he was about to grow to be one thing actually good for a lot of final season. They wanted him to take that subsequent step from fairly good to actually good and even nice. That hasn’t occurred, and it’s simply the newest challenge for a midfield that continues to be the obtrusive weak point on a staff that has so many high-priced gamers on it.
For a lot of final season I believed that Bentancur ought to get the No. 6 jersey — the identical one he wears on worldwide obligation with Uruguay — the minute Sami Khedira left the constructing. Khedira could also be gone now, however this season has compelled plenty of of us to rethink if Bentancur is a long-term resolution to this ever-growing midfield downside.
Sure, even his adopted father on this right here weblog.
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