When there are injuries in a squad, sometimes it makes the starting lineup decisions rather simple. Other times, it doesn’t really make much sense at all, thus causing everybody to scratch their heads about 10 times over before any kind of sense comes rattling out into the open.
For Juventus’ game against Tottenham tonight, there’s a little bit of both going on. There’s no Paulo Dybala, which means certain formations are probably thrown out the window. There’s no Blaise Matuidi or Juan Cuadrado, meaning the possibility of both of them starting gets thrown out the window, too.
There are, however, other lineup decisions to be made no matter what formation Juventus manager Max Allegri goes with. And because of it, we’re going to dust off an old game around here. And it’s also the Champions League knockout round, so we like to pump these things up a little more than usual. Yes, more than when Juventus plays Benevento. Tough choice between the two, I know.
To pretend you’re Max for the day, you must need to know who you have to choose from starting lineup-wise:
Confirmation of our squad for #JuveTOT #TOGETHER #UCL pic.twitter.com/kcbg4SROjL
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 12, 2018
When it comes to Real-Life Max, there seems to be two very clear-cut starting lineup decisions for tonight’s first leg:
- Who starts on the right wing, Federico Bernardeschi or Douglas Costa?
- Who starts on the left side of Juventus three-man midfield, Claudio Marchisio or Rodrigo Bentancur?
Other than that, the lineup seems to pretty much fall into place.
(Although it would be quite fun to see Max trot out a 4-2-3-1 with Bernardeschi and Costa playing on the field at the same time. That’s a lot to ask for, I know, but a guy can dream.)
But I guess for this exercise then you will probably have to choose between the two wingers. Sorry to disappoint. Maybe next time around we’ll get to have more lineup-choosing fun around here.
So, choose away, BWRAO faithful. Just remember that Max is reading all of this.