Juve, Chiesa at work: when does he return, in what role and how does it affect the market

Federico Chiesa was perhaps the cover man among those present as early as day 1 of the resumption of work for the Juventus pre-meeting. Indeed, already from day zero, given that for weeks the blue has been racing at Continassa with the aim of returning as soon as possible after the injury to the anterior cruciate of the left knee suffered in Rome last January and the subsequent ligament reconstruction surgery. Fresh from his number 7 shirt and a definitive acquisition from Fiorentina, Chiesa runs, and runs to return.

SEVEN MONTHS

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Recovery times, first of all. They had been immediately quantified in seven months. Starting from the intervention means arriving at the end of August-beginning of September, even if obviously the quality of the recovery cannot afford to give in to the rush to return: “I started running and making the first changes of direction, I hope for the beginning of September to be ready but let’s see if we can shorten the times a bit. You have to be sure not to have relapses, ”said the former viola a month ago.

WHAT JUMPS

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The timing clashes with the strange calendar of a season that starts slightly earlier than usual and then stops for the World Cup for almost two months, from mid-November to early January. How many games does Juve risk finding themselves still without the Church? Before the break in September, seven league games will be played, and in any case four (Sassuolo, Sampdoria, Rome, Spezia) before the end of August: it is in this range that the answer lies.

WITHOUT HIM

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It is realism to say that from an injury of this kind, as well as from an absence of this length, you do not return overnight as if nothing had happened: it is inevitable that the first weeks, and perhaps months, must be running in. . Juve’s priority is to try to count on Federico Chiesa in his shoes, fully recovered, after the Qatar 2022 interlude which will allow them to continue to work profitably on their physical condition. But when Serie A resumes in January, 15 games will have already been played, practically half of the championship in which to take into account that the former viola may understandably not yet be at full capacity. With what follows in building the team.

THE CONSTRUCTION

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Also for this reason, the Juventus transfer market ahead did not end with the arrival, also central to the construction of the team, of Angel Di Maria. The question would still have arisen on a quantitative level, but certainly the times of the Church require that there are two high-level outsiders arriving from the market: one is the Argentine, the other will have to serve while waiting for the Church and then as alternative. For this reason a left-handed like Kostic has full citizenship in the notebook to complete the rotation of the attacking outsiders. But in these hours the main road is known to lead to Nicolò Zaniolo, even if it is to be seen to what extent Allegri sees him from outside the trident and how much he could spend it elsewhere.

THE ROLE

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The question of the role also closely concerns Federico Chiesa. Counting on him means you are definitely covered on the right, dictating the address of having to look for someone on the left. But the arrival of Di Maria which is a possibility to use the Church on the left, where he has already shown more than once to be incisive even with the foot reversed, or perhaps precisely for that reason. And finally there remains the predilection expressed by Allegri, since his arrival at Juve, to use Chiesa as a pure and not external striker, which opens to the use of him in support of Vlahovic and therefore to the choice of 3-5-2 as a variant of 4. -3-3. Church is good everywhere.