Vidal is back to scoring ways

reigning champions made it four wins out of four in Serie A in 2014-15 with a comfortable victory over Cesena. There were plenty of positives for the Bianconeri

One of the biggest criticisms of Antonio Conte during the second and third years of his Juventus reign was that he didn’t rotate his squad well enough.

This proved to be particularly harmful on the continent where
the current Italy boss regularly fielded almost identical XIs just days after Serie A matches.

The Europa League semi-final second leg stalemate against Benfica, which ended Juve’s hopes of contesting the final in their home stadium, was Conte’s darkest hour in this regard. Ten of the starting XI that night played just three days earlier in an away match at relegation-threatened Sassuolo despite the Scudetto being virtually unlosable. 

Conte often responded to his detractors by stressing that the “Scudetto is our priority”. But he failed to recognise that such is the gulf in quality between Juve’s squad and most of Serie A that there are plenty of opportunities to rest players and still win comfortably.

Juve’s home clash with newly-promoted Cesena on Wednesday is a perfect example of such a game. If Conte was in charge, he would have likely fielded a full-strength XI – and used Roma’s 100 per cent start to the season as justification.

Conte’s successor Massimiliano Allegri wisely chose to rotate his line-up for a match Juve were always going to bag three points from. Carlos Tevez, who was in unstoppable form after scoring four goals in his last three games, was benched along with Paul Pogba and Kwadwo Asamoah. In came Sebastian Giovinco, Patrice Evra and the returning Arturo Vidal – as Roberto Pereyra retained his place. Due to other injuries, Juve actually began the game with just six first team players.


During a congested period of fixtures, some of Juve’s star players were able to catch a breather ahead of a crucial week of football. The Bianconeri travel to Spanish champions Atletico Madrid in the Champions League next Wednesday before welcoming Roma to Turin on the Sunday in a Scudetto showdown.

This kind of rotation policy is an absolute must if Juventus are to have any hope of closing the gap on Champions League giants like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

Wednesday’s victory was as comfortable as they come. They boasted more than 70 per cent of possession, dominated territory, while Cesena had just one attempt all game. The biggest positive was, of course, the return from injury of Vidal. The Chilean was nowhere near his best and even admitted during his half-time interview with Sky that he was "a bit tired and wasn't at 100 per cent".

But such is Vidal's quality that even half-fit, as he was during the World Cup, he is still a man possessed. He slotted home a first-half penalty before striking home a brilliant second from the edge of the area on 63 minutes. He was substituted to a standing ovation with 10 minutes remaining, shortly before Stephan Lichtsteiner completed a 3-0 victory.

Giovinco was lively during a rare outing and went close on a number of occasions (hitting the post), while Claudio Marchisio showed increased maturity in the ‘Pirlo role’. The biggest negative was a very lethargic Fernando Llorente, who again disappointed and was substituted with 20 minutes remaining for Alvaro Morata - who himself missed a sitter.

Juventus continued their flawless start to the new season, and you would not bet against them getting close to their record 102-point tally from the previous campaign. The Bianconeri have won all five of their games in all competitions without conceding. And by rotating smartly, as Allegri did tonight, they may even make their mark on Europe too.