Scouting Juventus Transfer Target Rolando Mandragora

This summer, Juventus began taking a different tack in their transfer dealings.

The Bianconeri have always had an eye toward the future.  The purchase of Domenico Berardi in 2013, and their continual contact with Sassuolo over his future, was an obvious sign of that.  But this summer, director Giuseppe Marotta made it clear that the team has its eyes on extending their recent run of success into the next decade and beyond.

A number of talented young players are now either in Juve's squad or under their control.  Stefano Sturaro and Daniele Rugani are already contributing at the first-team level.  Mario Lemina, acquired this summer from Olympique de Marseille, has reminded a few fans of a young Arturo Vidal.  And, of course, Paulo Dybala has already proved he is worth more than the €40 million Palermo received this summer.

The team also has a plethora of young players on loan, from goalkeeper Nicola Leali—in some circles the heir apparent of Gianluigi Buffon—to midfielders like Ouasim Bouy and strikers like Lorenzo Rosseti.

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If reports are to be believed, that policy of planning for the future by investing in youth is continuing.

According to Sky (h/t Football Italia) Juventus met with the agent of Rolando Mandragora a week ago.  Owned by Genoa and on loan at Pescara, the 18-year-old Mandragora is expected to complete a move to Juventus during this transfer window.  If he does, it could be yet another coup as the Bianconeri build for the future.

In Mandragora, Juventus could be on to their regista of the future.  He made his debut with Genoa on October 29, 2014.  Ironically, the game was against Juve.  He played 69 minutes of the game—which turned out to be Allegri's only loss that year until April—and saw time in a further four before the season was out.

Loaned to Pescara in the summer, the youngster has impressed with the Delfini.  Detailed statistics of Serie B matches can be hard to come by, but according to Transfermarkt.com, he's played 15 games—12 of them starts—and has notched one assist, helping Pescara into position to make the promotion playoff and get back to Serie A for the first time since 2012-13.  His performance has marked him as one of Italy's brightest young stars.

With more detailed statistics difficult to find, an evaluation of Mandragora needs to be done less through stat analysis than with the eye test.  Fortunately, the internet can help us here with several compilations of the youngster's performances this year.

What can be seen from those videos is impressive.  Even at 18, Mandragora shows the skills of a much more mature player, both with the ball and without.  His anticipation is incredible, and he makes intercepting both short- and long-range passes look easy.

Equally impressive is his ability to tackle.  Of particular note is his ability to make difficult, high-risk challenges, often from behind his man.  He's seen on the highlight video making at least two dangerous sliding tackles, once with Pescara and once with the Italian U21 side, that managed to gain the ball when a slight miscalculation would have resulted in a booking at best and a red card at worst.

While he has an affinity for these challenges, they don't work 100 percent of the time.  According to Transfermarkt's numbers, he's picked up eight yellow cards over the course of the season, garnering him a one-game suspension for accumulation in mid-November.

He is equally excellent at corralling loose balls, tipping it first-time either to himself or to teammates and often continuing his run to trigger the counterattack.

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His passing ability, both in short and long distances, is superb.  In the video, he can be seen laying down pinpoint long balls, often from his first touch.  Equally impressive has been his ability to operate in traffic.  One incident in particular (starting at about the 2:15 mark of the video) sees him receive a through ball, hold off a pair of defenders and flip a ball through a tight window to a waiting teammate, whose shot on the turn crashed into the bar.

The skills Mandragora displays all point to the same thing—a budding young regista.

As little as seven or eight years ago, the deep-lying playmaker position known in Italian parlance as the regista was considered a dying breed.  High-energy destroyers like Mark van Bommel were considered the future.  Then Pep Guardiola came along.  His tiki-taka style, made famous at Barcelona, ran circles around blocks of granite like Van Bommel.

That led to a revival at the position, spearheaded by Xavi, who directed Guardiola's teams.  In Italy, the gold standard at the position was Andrea Pirlo.  Cast off by AC Milan in 2011, Pirlo came to Juventus and showed the world just what a regista can do.  He dominated Serie A in leading Juventus to an unbeaten year and took Euro 2012 by storm en route to an appearance in the final.

The regista position has been essential to Juve's recent success.  Pirlo pulled the strings for a further three seasons, and when he was sidelined—which happened more than once over the last two seasons, particularly last year—Claudio Marchisio took over the position.

The academy product doesn't play the role with Pirlo's silky effortlessness, but his more fast-paced approach works just as effectively to pull the team together.

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Juve has needed that fulcrum in front of the defense to operate properly.  When Marchisio missed the first two months of the season after injuring his leg in training, Juve's entire team looked out of balance.  The midfield was starved of creativity and, especially in the case of Paul Pogba, tried to do too much to compensate for his absence.

Pirlo left after last season to finish his career with New York City FC, and while Marchisio has years left in him, he still turns 30 this month.  It's imperative that Juve seals the future of this vital position.

Getting Mandragora is a major step in that direction—and a chance to make up for a previous failure.

Three years ago, Juventus thought that they had indeed planned for the future.  They were deep in negotiations for Marco Verratti, who was then playing for Pescara himself.  All signs looked like he would move to Turin and spend a season or two under Pirlo's tutelage before taking over the team himself.

Of course, it didn't end up happening.  Paris Saint-Germain swooped in and snared him for €12 million.  He has since become one of the best midfielders in the world, a worthy follower to Pirlo before him.

From a transfer-market perspective, Mandragora is Verratti 2.0 for Juve.  His game is actually a closer facsimile of Verratti's than of Pirlo's.  Like Verratti, Mandragora has much more affinity for the defensive side of the ball than Pirlo does.  They're both much more skilled in that aspect and far more willing to do any dirty work than L'architetto—as exhibited by both of their yellow-card totals over their careers.

Mandragora might even end up being more useful in the back than Verratti thanks to simple genetics.  The younger man is seven inches taller, making him less likely to be muscled off the ball and much more viable in aerial duels.

Sealing this deal would be a major step forward in Beppe Marotta's plan to keep Juve's future secure.  With the future of such an important position in the balance, getting Mandragora on board is key.  He can learn from established stars like Marchisio and Sami Khedira, with an eye toward combining his skills with the likes of Sturaro, Lemina and perhaps—depending on what the transfer market holds in the future—Pogba down the line.

Mandragora is a player with huge promise, and acquiring him would be a fantastic move for Juve's future.