I've said it before and I will say it again, it was a mistake for Juve not to go after Mudo Vazquez. Pjanic is a fine player but he clearly has not yet understood how to play with Dybala. Dybala and Mudo were sensational together at Palermo(Vazquez led the league in assists that season and Dybala was third, I believe), are friends on and off the pitch. He's now thriving at Sevilla and it cost them 15 million? What did Pjanic cost? Double that? Its not always about getting the so-called better player, it is about finding the right pieces of the puzzle.
I would personally love Vazquez. His link up with Dybala was basically telepathic, so the kind of service our attack would get would have been obscene. Wonder if we would still be able to get him at some point.
Pjanic and Dybala have clashed several times. They even have to discuss the set pieces which I find is wrong, Max needs to take control of that. When there was talk of Vasquez, Zamparini was asking 30m for him, when there was no takers he dumped him to Sevilla for dirt cheap. In any case, Pjanic is a different tool in the midfield and its been clear that in any scenario Max wants an attacking midfielder. I was not against Vasquez but I think the club wanted a higher caliber player... especially for 30m. Let's give Pjanic/Dybala more time especially with Marchisio back.
Hernanes did look his best in the most recent game, he even looked somewhat composed and really did well with that calm dummy on the ball and then pass right after... Pjanic was struggling to just hold on to the ball, let alone win anything... Mandzukic does not really yield production in goals, he is valuable tho as he always puts in a lot of effort and is a reliable threat on 50/50 air balls played into the box, he does not score often, but he never does not try and its typically somewhat on target, often just too weak or too weak of a finish.... this is quite useful tho as defenses must account for him and that opens up play for other teammates, he is a pretty good team guy overall... I liked Zaza too, it seems it was kinda his choice to go tho, but its weird because he kept turning down transfer after transfer the past 2 years stating he wanted to be here, it seems he just wanted more playing time. He has not played well for West Ham but that is not saying much...
As many have mentioned, the midfield struggled offensively and in controlling the match. I counted one successful through ball to Higuain into the box (by khedira) all match long. Pjanic and khedira too rarely received the ball in the final third with any room to deliver potential assists. Hernanes hesitates to plays the ball forward into those tight areas. Rather than play Manzdu or Cuadrado when Dybala is out, maybe it would be better to play an extra CM in a 3-6-1 diamond with wingbacks. Playing both CFs puts too much of the playmaking on the three CMs.
I still want to see how a Pjaca- Higuain- Dybala front line with Pjanic-Marchisio-Khedira midfield play before judging this team's potential. The other option being to use Pjaca as an attacking mid with Higuain-dybala in a 3-5-2\3-4-2-1. It's unfortunate that both of Juve's most dynamic attackers are injured simultaneously. Without them this team lacks players that can beat opponents 1v1 when driving to the inside. Cuadrado can unbalance a side but his best work is definitely not in the interior.