There are some signings that just look like a perfect fit on paper, so it’s surprising when they don’t work out as planned.
That’s not to say that Matthijs de Ligt should be written off as a Juventus player just yet, but it’s surprising to see him struggle after everything he showed at Ajax.
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He proved he could lead and inspire a team despite his young age, while being defensively sound and excellent on the ball. It’s possible that he was thrown in at the deep end when Giorgio Chiellini suffered a bad injury and wasn’t there to guide him through games, but he’s often struggled and looked error prone.
His form was so poor that Merih Demiral was brought in from the wilderness to take his place and the Turkish defender showed he was the better option at this point. Unfortunately a report from AS has confirmed that he suffered an ACL injury against Roma last night and that means his season is over.
It will be interesting to see if Juve react in the transfer market, but this means that two of their starting centre backs are now out for a long time. The Guardian reported that Juve paid €75m to sign de Ligt in the Summer, so this seems like the perfect chance for him to step up and justify that price tag.