Juventus vs. AC Milan: BWRAO starting lineup vote results

The 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation prevails again, while the four-man backline formations continue to collectively outnumber the others. The BWRAO divide continues.

In goal, Gianluigi Buffon surprisingly didn’t receive 100 percent of the votes. After his performance against Lyon, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had.

In front of Gigi, all available central defenders were voted into the lineup, with Giorgio Chiellini still unavilable for the tilt. Alex Sandro continues to lead the way over Patrice Evra, and Juan Cuadrado ever so slightly edged out Stephan Lichtsteiner and Dani Alves, however, it was very close with only five percent separating all three.

Cuadrado definitely deserves a start as the right wing back

Keep Cuadrado on fire!

Juan has clearly won over some Juventus fans after his big goal midweek.

In the center of the park, Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira led the votes, while Stefano Sturaro makes his BWRAO starting lineup debut. While Juan Cuadrado has seemingly won some support, Mario Lemina has clearly lost some:

Stefano because LOLmina

And not so coincidentally, many are calling to see what Sturaro can offer us this year:

Khedira looks out of form, let's see what Sturaro is made of

Sturaro - I think he is ready to start after a couple of sub appearances

Sturaro to start in order to give Khedira some rest

Up front, who else but Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain to start an important game like this? Moise Kean got 12 percent of votes on his inclusion debut, being the only other option up front, really.

The poll results were very close, much closer than I expected. In conclusion, 54% of readers voted that Mario Lemina deserved to be sent off against Lyon. He took a solid amount of heat in the comments as well.

I don’t believe it’s anywhere near the time to give up on Mario Lemina just yet. Yes, he may have got red-carded and nearly cost us some pretty valuable points, but there are very few players that haven’t done that at one point or another in their career. That stuff is just bound to happen. Lemina has had his fair share of good, if not great performances this year, and I still think he can and will be an important piece to our team for years to come.

Now for my team. Seeing as we have Sampdoria coming up midweek, and Napoli next weekend, I decided the best strategy would be to choose what I think our best team is, then rest midweek against a weaker Sampdoria side. I definitely think Cuadrado earned a start, and I placed him up front because I’m dying to see how a trident would work up there. I’m not going to suggest throwing a 16-year-old out in his professional debut, because Milan is a pretty good side. If anything, his time will come midweek. I also included Licht, both because he’s fresh after not starting the last few games, and he’s been a reliable ‘big game’ option for as long as I can remember. I think it’s his time to get back in there.

Anthony’s Starting XI (4-3-2-1): Gianluigi Buffon; Alex Sandro, Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli, Stephan Lichtsteiner; Miralem Pjanic, Stefano Sturaro, Sami Khedira; Juan Cuadrado, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala.

BWRAO’s Starting XI (3-5-2): Gianluigi Buffon; Mehdi Benatia, Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli; Alex Sandro, Miralem Pjanic, Stefano Sturaro, Sami Khedira, Juan Cuadrado; Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala.