Alex Sandro vs. Patrice Evra? Juventus' Left-Back Slot Should Be No-Contest

This summer saw Juventus sign a number of players whose value was already fully evident. Gonzalo Higuain is a proven goalscorer, Miralem Pjanic has spent the past few seasons proving he belongs at the highest level and Dani Alves is arguably among the best right-backs of all time.

However, 12 months earlier, the Bianconeri made some additions to the squad whose ability to make a positive impact was far less certain. Paulo Dybala had enjoyed a breakout year with Palermo, Sami Khedira suffered as his two previous campaigns were lost to injury while Mario Lemina was unquestionably an unknown quantity.

From all their 2015 acquisitions, perhaps the most intriguing was Alex Sandro, the Brazil native falling in neither of those aforementioned camps. With previous club FC Porto, he had showed flashes of potential brilliance, but it was unclear how that translated both to Serie A and to a team with genuine aspirations of UEFA Champions League glory.

According to their official website, the Turin giants paid FC Porto €26 million to sign Sandro, who told reporters at his inaugural press conference that he believed the move would be superb for his development:

"Juventus was the perfect choice for me. Coming here will help me to grow as both a person and player. As a team, we're working hard and will strive to win all the competitions we're involved in this season.

"Serie A is a tough league and the most tactical in the world. I am sure that the experience will improve me as a footballer."

Some longtime watchers of Sandro believed the reverse was also true, with Fox Soccer writer and Juventus fan Aaron West chief among those who saw the defender as the ideal signing, as he made clear in the tweet below.

Yet over the course of the 2015/16 season, coach Massimiliano Allegri saw the situation quite differently, often choosing to balance his 3-5-2 formation with one attacking wing-back and one more defensive alternative.

That meant Sandro was only fielded when Stephan Lichtsteiner was on the right flank, while Patrice Evra replaced him if Juan Cuadrado started on the right. There were also many matches where Allegri was even more cautious, opting then to have both Lichtsteiner and Evra in his starting XI.

As a result, the club made a major multi-million Euro investment for a player who spent his first season in Turin without becoming an automatic selection. Sandro started only 15 Serie A matches.

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Allegri was justified in those decisions, Evra’s solidity and experience often proving essential as Juventus fought to recover from their nightmare start to the campaign. The France international weighed in with two goals and three assists in Serie A, even filling in as a third central defender as the season wore on and was a reliably calm presence every time he took to the field.

Yet while the leadership and veteran savvy provided by the former Manchester United man were undisputed, there were many glimpses of just how important Sandro could be, particularly in the biggest games.

That was the case even at the start of the season, delivering match-winning assists in consecutive appearances against derby rivals Torino, then AC Milan and Manchester City during late October and early November.

If it was not already clear that eventually Sandro would supplant Evra as the best option for the left-back role, the start of the 2016/17 campaign has removed any doubt, with the former Santos man raising his game to an even higher standard.

He has been in the starting XI for all seven of Juve’s Serie A fixtures thus far and is arguably the club’s best player over that same period, leading the squad in a number of key statistical areas.

According to WhoScored.com, his tally of 17 completed tackles is a team high, with his total number of interceptions—again standing at 17—also more than any other player. The same is true of his number of blocked crosses (three) as Sandro proves to be a wonderful and vastly improved defender.

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Being a Brazilian full-back, it is also no surprise to see him bombing forward regularly to supplement the attack, and he has done so to great effect, with his two assists highlighting that contribution.

Yet were Juve’s strikers a little more accurate that number could be much higher, as Sandro also leads Allegri’s squad in terms of chances created (2.9 per game), according to WhoScored’s figures.

The same source shows that only Dybala (2.2) and Higuain (1.7) have completed more successful dribbles than Sandro’s average of 1.6 per game, his powerful running and superb skill a vital weapon to Allegri’s side.

"

GOL | #Inter 0-1 #Juventus

66' Lichtsteiner pic.twitter.com/NzmBFXCkpa

— Futbol Sound (@SoundFutbol) September 18, 2016"

That was very evident in the game against Inter Milan on September 18, a match where Juventus played extremely poorly yet took the lead as Sandro single-handedly created a goal for Lichtsteiner (shown above).

Despite an eventual 2-1 loss, it was the kind of moment so sorely lacking just a few days earlier when the Bianconeri took on Sevilla in the Champions League, which brings the conversation to one of the major issues impacting the team so far this term.

For that clash—Juve’s opening game of the group stage—Allegri inexplicably opted to hand Evra his first start of 2016/17, and the team’s cohesiveness and creativity suffered immensely as a result.

Slumping to a 0-0 draw, the Old Lady was crying out for the exact kind of offensive force Sandro has repeatedly been in the league, yet Evra also got the nod against Dinamo Zagreb in their second outing.

Adam Digby

The table above—compiled using statistics from WhoScored.com—shows that Evra trails Sandro in every aspect of play, the latter clearly now the superior player at both ends of the field.

That is certainly not lost on those who watch the team regularly, as one Juventus fan explained. “Alex Sandro makes a strong case to be Juve's best player so far this season,” Nate told Bleacher Report this week. “He has an ability to dance past players and create so much space down the flank, but this season he has also notably improved when it comes to his defensive duties.”

He went on to state his belief that “Sandro has been so consistent that he really should have secured the starting place based on performances thus far,” and ended by saying that “he will make that left flank his own for many years to come.”

On current form, that is undoubtedly true and is something Allegri must act upon as the campaign progresses, the Old Lady can no longer afford to go into the toughest encounters without her best players.

Sandro has improved exponentially, he’s now markedly better than Evra and should be starting in Juve’s biggest matches. His time is now.