La Joya | Paulo Dybala #21

I actually thought that at most times we do play to Dybala's strengths. Against Madrid in the first leg, he had the freest role you could give a player at Juventus and he rewarded us with a tasteful dive and a sending off.

I find the difference between him in a 4-3-2-1, a trequartista, a second striker playing off a #9 to be marginal at best. I do think a bigger problem is the piss poor midfield and lack of attacking full backs. I'm fairly sure that most teams are not going to be overly concerned with the attacking prowess of Lichtsteiner and Asamoah, and even Higuain is far too easily marked out of games. It makes us extremely predictable going forward and as such we have to rely on the individual brilliance of Dybala, Douglas and co. which at times, is sorely lacking and makes the team not function.

It's a stark contrast from the way Napoli plays this game. I'm not saying we ought to emulate them but we can learn from a team that has 1/3 of our budget yet massacres us at our own home field. It begins and ends in the midfield for me, I know I sound like a broken record, but I have trouble judging a forward who doesn't touch the ball because it doesn't reach him for large stretches of the game and this is not a singular event like with Napoli, far too many times this season we've been thrown off our game too easily

We could run some GOAT 4-4-2 with Dybala and Higuain up top but tell me how it's different from a 4-2-3-1, it's really not. The 4-3-2-1 from last night should be adequate to see the best from Dybala, the issue is when Douglas has a poor game and 2/3 of the midfield is Matuidi and Khedira, might as well be Sturaro and Sturaro going forward

Midfield could go a long way towards solving our current crisis in the frontline but I just think he's done under Allegri. Maybe he thinks he won't improve any further under Max and move elsewhere.

If he think that then he has a mentality problem and it's better just to sell him. He has improved tons season by season and he still has a lot more to improve. Being the centre of a top team at 24 is a rare position to be in. Imo he won't get many better chances to grow as he does here. He is involved in everything.

Only with someone like Guardiola or Sarri could I see an improvement. Put Dybala in place of Mertens and we'd be talking of a monster Napoli.

It's only like 3 weeks until the end of the season. Gonna be a fun summer.

Basically what I think is, given the responsibility and freedom we give to Dybala, that if he succeeds with us he is one of the best players in the world no questions asked.

With us he runs, passes, tackles, shoots, goes box to box, takes free kicks, etc. If he can grow into what we want/let him do and comes out better for it then he will be a ballon dór candidate.

S wrote:Midfield could go a long way towards solving our current crisis in the frontline but I just think he's done under Allegri. Maybe he thinks he won't improve any further under Max and move elsewhere.

Maybe, but I can't think of a single top team that will make him the number one option/focal point of their attack as we do and be as successful as we have been in this 3 year spell with Dybala

If that's what is meant to happen, then so be it. He's a top talent, not a top player for me yet. I would be happy if he stays but if he moves on then lets just hope it's for the betterment of the team

If this half decade, or even this season, has taught us anything, it's that no one is untouchable at this club. This season has left us wanting in a big way, we expected a season of transition and while we may not have seen the changes we wanted to be implemented, like Bernardeschi as a starter, Rugani as a starter, Marchisio/Bentancur seeing some more minutes, we have gone through all the ups and downs of a team lacking an identity