Juventus Set to Test Rolando Mandragora on the Serie A Stage in 2016/17

There is little doubt that the 2015/16 season was a hugely successful one for Juventus, the Italian giants once again proving to be the strongest side on the peninsula by clinching a league-and-cup double for the second successive year.

That means they have also now won the Serie A title in each of the last five campaigns, yet their Champions League exit in the first knockout round has left the club hungry for more, something coach Massimiliano Allegri noted at a press conference last month.

“We’ve now won three trophies this season, an achievement which leads me to thank the players, the club and the fans, who’ve been extraordinary again tonight,” he told reporters moments after seeing his side add the Coppa Italia to the Scudetto and Supercoppa Italiana they had already won.

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“We now look forward to the next campaign which will present new challenges, namely the fight for a sixth straight Scudetto, retaining the Coppa Italia and performing well in the UEFA Champions League,” Allegri added, and the club seem intent on helping him achieve those aims.

As the Bianconeri seek the reinforcements needed to improve, it is not difficult to identify which areas of the squad are most in need of strengthening during this summer’s transfer window. With a stout defence and four high-quality strikers, it is in midfield where major investment is arguably becoming vital.

In this recent post analysing which four players Juventus should look to sell ahead of next season, three—Hernanes, Kwadwo Asamoah and Roberto Pereyra—are all usually deployed in the middle of the park.

Each was massively disappointing last term, and it is little surprise that the one new addition the club has already confirmed is a midfielder. Rolando Mandragora may not be a player who can deliver the Champions League crown to Juventus, but he could prove to be a valuable signing and certainly more impactful than that aforementioned trio were last season.

According to the club’s official website, they paid €6 million to acquire the 19-year-old from Genoa back in January, with a potential further €6 million in bonuses “should he achieve certain sporting targets stipulated in the agreement.”

Also revealing that Mandragora signed a five-year contract, the Bianconeri allowed him to spend the last six months on loan at Pescara, continuing a stint with the Serie B outfit that began the previous summer.

It was a deal fully in-keeping with Juve’s philosophy of signing the best emerging Italian talent, something director general Beppe Marotta took time to explain at a recent Football Leader event in Amalfi.

“The objective is to create a mix between young and less young players,” the club official explained, as reported by Tuttomercatoweb (h/t Football Italia), “with experienced players who help on the pitch and give strength to the dressing room.”

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With veteran midfielders Sami Khedira and Claudio Marchisio leading a group that also contains Paul Pogba, Stefano Sturaro and Mario Lemina, that blend is almost certainly what Mandragora will find in Turin when he reports for pre-season training.

Indeed, speaking to Fabiana Delle Valle of La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Pagine Romaniste, link in Italian) last week, Marotta said that the youngster would spend the first part of 2016/17 with Juventus, making it important to understand just why he is so highly regarded.

Having begun his career with AC Ponticelli, Mandragora switched to Genoa during the 2011/12 season, progressing through their various youth teams before making a surprise first-team debut against Juventus in October 2014.

The Grifone would steal all three points courtesy of a stoppage-time winner from Luca Antonini, but it would be a win owed in no small part to the performance of his newest team-mate as Mandragora turned in an incredibly accomplished performance to largely neutralise Pogba.

As the FourFourTwo StatsZone graphic in the tweet below shows, the Genoa man recorded five tackles, one interception and two clearances, while also completing 13 of his 19 pass attempts (68 per cent) and drawing praise from his coach Gian Piero Gasperini.

“I really liked Mandragora’s performance and I never give an opportunity that isn’t deserved,” the Genoa boss told reporters at his post-match press conference. “He is only 17, but already has an important professional mentality. I needed a player with these characteristics and he handled such a big game with aplomb.”

Despite those words and such a bright start, however, the midfielder would struggle to find space in Gasperini’s side, playing a total of just 131 minutes over the entire season, which in turn prompted his subsequent switch to Pescara.

Quickly settling into the Delfini setup, Mandragora would prove to be one step ahead of his opponents in Serie B, blossoming as an effective playmaker and a sound defensive presence at the heart of the midfield.

Heavily dependent on his favoured left foot, he will need to improve his weaker right in order to thrive in the top flight, but his time at the Stadio Adriatico has undoubtedly bolstered his reputation as an elegant passer who enjoys the physical element of tense matches.

Playing 26 games and recording two assists, he also improved his discipline as the season progressed, picking up a staggering nine yellow cards in his first 16 appearances but receiving just two more before his campaign was cut short by injury.

Leaving the field during a late-April clash with Virtus Entella on a stretcher, the Pescara website (h/t Gazzetta World) announced Mandragora had unfortunately “suffered a fracture to his fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot.”

Juventus suffered their own injury problems towards the end of the season as Turin native Claudio Marchisio required knee surgery, with the club revealing in May that the Italy international had suffered a minor setback in his recovery.

“Inflammation of the knee after the operation had delayed the first stage of the midfielder’s specialised fitness programme and arthroscopic cleansing was also required,” a statement on their official website read, going on to reiterate that Marchisio would be out of action for six months.

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That could well create a small window of opportunity for Mandragora to fill in for him in the early weeks of next season, with his own characteristics ideally suited to step into the void created in the absence of the Turin native.

“I’m a midfielder who loves to be on the ball a lot. I have good technique but I also carry out defensive tasks” Mandragora said in an interview with the Italian FA website last year, also telling them that his role model “would be a player like Thiago Motta.”

With Serie A following the lead of UEFA and implementing a quota on “homegrown” players—as detailed here, per Football Italia—the Bianconeri will certainly be boosted by the presence of such a talented Italian youngster in their ranks.

It remains to be seen whether his eye-catching ability and cool temperament will survive the move to Juventus and the increased intensity that comes with such a switch, but there is little doubt that the Old Lady intends to find out just how good Rolando Mandragora can become as soon as possible.