Why Alex Sandro Epitomises The Demise Of Juventus Over The Past Few Seasons

Heading into the 2017 Champions League Final, very few full-backs were held in as high regard as Alex Sandro. The left-footed Brazilian had been simply exceptional in the buildup to that showpiece event in Cardiff, constantly improving and consistently dismantling entire opposition flanks singlehandedly.

He had joined Juventus from FC Porto two years earlier, the Italian club paying €26 million ($26.64m) for him in August 2015. It didn’t take him long to establish himself as the first-choice left-back, Sandro’s command of the role meaning that less than 18 months later, Patrice Evra would ask to leave Turin in search of regular playing time.

Yet, as it did for so many of that Juve side, that aforementioned final would prove to be the beginning of the end for a team that had dominated the Serie A landscape for almost a decade.

As the referee blew for full time, nobody could know that Real Madrid’s 4-1 victory would stand as a metaphoric death knell for the Old Lady, who from that moment would embark on a slow, painful decline.

What makes that even worse is that it has been largely self-inflicted. Despite being completely dominated and outplayed in midfield by Zinedine Zidane’s side, Juve would ignore that area of the field completely and instead spend a combined €86 million on Federico Bernardeschi and Douglas Costa.

Quite how a pair of left-footed wingers were going to resolve the situation is anyone’s guess, but a year later Cristiano Ronaldo would arrive. The deal for CR7 would end Juve’s careful approach to squad building, instead catapulting them into a highly aggressive “win now” mode that would wholly backfire.

The same summer that saw the Portuguese megastar land in Turin would also see Leonardo Bonucci return to the club, an unnecessary move for a player who just 12 months earlier had turned his back on Juventus and sought a new adventure at AC Milan.

While his time at San Siro can only be viewed as a failure, the Bianconeri thrived in his absence, Medhi Benatia and Giorgio Chiellini forging a partnership that underpinned the best defence in Serie A.

Bonucci’s return cost Juve far more than the €35 million ($35.65m) fee. It marginalised Benatia, who demanded a move away in January 2019 after making just six appearances in the first half of the season.

But let’s get back to Sandro. In February 2018 he bagged the only goal in a 1-0 away win over crosstown rivals Torino, taking his scoring tally as a Juve player to eight in all competitions.

He had also registered 15 assists by that point too but from then onwards, his attacking output would wane drastically. By December of that year, Sandro had added only a solitary goal against Crotone and one assist (vs Chievo) to those totals, but was handed a lucrative new contract by Juventus.

According to the Calcio e Finanza website, that deal took Sandro’s net salary from €2.8 million ($2.86m) per year to €6 million ($6.14m). In the four years since putting pen to paper on that contract, he has contributed five goals and nine assists, a dramatic decline that had visibly begun before the club more than doubled his wages.

The same decline can be seen across the board in Sandro’s attacking play, with his successful dribbles, accurate crosses and key passes all dropping off dramatically over the last four years. So too did his defensive contributions, going from a combined 5.1 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes in 2015/16 to just 2.8 last term.

He will turn 32 in January so is unlikely to suddenly rediscover the drive that made him such a formidable opponent, particularly as the transfermarkt website highlights the fact that Sandro has missed 33 games in the past four years due to no less than 11 different injuries.

All of which leaves the Old Lady with a vastly overpaid player who still has one more year earning that massive salary, making it almost impossible to sell him. In turn, that forces them to field a player they know is no longer good enough in a position that has long been seen as vital to a team’s attacking play.

Rather than being able to find a more viable alternative, they must instead pay for their hasty 2018 decisions and continue using a player who – much like Bonucci, Adrien Rabiot and (until recently) Aaron Ramsey – is paid high wages but offers very little in terms of tangible production.

But of all those players, it is Alex Sandro that truly epitomises the demise of Juventus over the past few seasons.