Daniele Rugani Learning At Juventus Or Stalling His Career?

“Our strong point is the defence,” Beppe Marotta told Radio Anch’io Sport (h/t Football Italia) on Monday, the Juventus director general under no illusions about the quality of the back line he has assembled in Turin.

Gigi Buffon is arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the club’s history, yet such is the level of talent ahead of him that the Juve skipper rarely has much work to do. Indeed, according to figures taken from Fox Soccer, a staggering 21 players have made more saves than his tally of nine.

When noting that Serie A is 20-team league that figure looks truly remarkable, with a number of other statistics serving to further showcase the strength Marotta had rightly highlighted.

The Bianconeri have restricted opponents to just 6.7 shots per game, according to WhoScored.com, with Napoli boasting the closest comparable figure in allowing 9.0 efforts per game to hit Pepe Reina’s goal.

10 – Juventus have faced only 10 shots on target this season, record in the top five European Leagues. Sturdy.

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) October 2, 2016

Supported by the rest of the side, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini have clearly been in superb form, the trio routinely starting matches in unison as Massimiliano Allegri’s first-choice back three.

Marotta reinforced that unit further still this summer, acquiring former AS Roma standout Medhi Benatia on loan from Bayern Munich, the Morocco international quickly readjusting to life back in Serie A.

With three league starts he settled into being part of that excellent defence, but his arrival has cast something of a shadow over the future of Daniele Rugani. With Benatia joining a squad that already boasted those three incredible Italy stars, the youngster appeared to be pushed even further down the pecking order.

He certainly found himself on the fringes of the first team in the first two months of the season, which Allegri explained at a pre-match press conference before the recent clash with Cagliari:

Daniele Rugani will start and we’ll be assessing the condition of Medhi Benatia in the coming days. Daniele has improved a lot since arriving here even if his playing time was relatively low last term.

He has trained very well over the summer and, as I’ve said before, will be an important Juventus player for years to come. Given the number of matches we’ll be playing, you can expect to see lots of Rugani this campaign.

Inserted into the side from the outset, the 22-year-old marked his first appearance of the season with his maiden Juventus goal, smashing home a simple rebound after Marco Storari had done well to deny a volley from Gonzalo Higuain.

Rugani gives his Juve the lead! pic.twitter.com/YJEHvCbldE

— Stereo Serie A Radio (@StereoSerieA) September 21, 2016

“I’m delighted for my first goal, the win and many other reasons,” he told JTV (h/t Football Italia) shortly after the final whistle, and he certainly had many reasons for feeling positive about his overall performance.

Playing on the right of the three-man defence, Rugani turned in another sound defensive display, proving once again that he belongs at such a big club and can play with the required intensity and concentration demanded by Juventus.

As the FourFourTwo Stats Zone graphic in the tweet below highlights, he registered one tackle, two interceptions, two clearances and won two aerial duels while also completing 45 of his 50 pass attempts.

.@DanieleRugani vs Cagliari: 1 tackle, 2 interceptions, 2 clearances, …

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