Juventus have suffered with countless injuries this season, with a variety of knocks robbing the side of some important players at crucial times.
Ongoing health problems were a major factor in their early struggles, and even though the team have clearly improved, the issues have clearly persisted.
Indeed, as the Bianconeri headed to Spain for this week’s meeting with Sevilla, coach Massimiliano Allegri was forced to leave a number of his men behind.
As this list of those who travelled—per the club’s official website—shows, Patrice Evra, Hernanes, Sami Khedira, Mario Mandzukic, Roberto Pereyra, Martin Caceres and Mario Lemina were all absent.
In addition, Simone Padoin and Kwadwo Asamoah remained in Turin, both having been omitted from the club’s Champions League squad for 2015/16.
While the former was left out to allow other players space to shine, the latter’s long-term injury problems were the reason for his exclusion.
Last week’s Serie A meeting with Lazio saw Asamoah make his first start of the campaign, and the midfielder had made just two substitute appearances before that outing.
With just 10 starts—and a total of just 884 minutes of action—last season, his impact at Juventus has been dramatically reduced.
That stands in stark contrast with his 45 appearances in 2013/14, with only five of those coming from the bench as the Ghanaian established himself as a key figure in Antonio Conte’s 3-5-2 system.
Fielded almost exclusively as a left wing-back, Asamoah contributed two goals and four assists that season, with statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com showing he also averaged 2.0 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per game.
Alex Sandro has since supplemented that duo, and Asamoah’s continual injury problems leave him at a crossroads.
Rapidly closing in on 100 appearances for the club, both parties will likely need to consider their position this summer.
Juventus are clearly well-covered in the defensive role that was once Asamoah’s regular slot, and they also have a raft of young midfielders with very promising futures.
Mario Lemina continues to improve, while the emergence of Stefano Sturaro was discussed at length in this previous post.
Furthermore, Allegri discussed the squad’s core of young players at a press conference this week (h/t Football Italia), adding the name of homegrown 18-year-old Mattia Vitale to the list:
"[Paulo] Dybala is growing, and we also have to include Vitale in that group, he’s a lad who is always with us and has improved a lot in the last two months. I think he’s a lad who could carve out a space for himself during the course of the campaign, and that shows that there are good youngsters at Juventus, guided well by a group of older ones, who understand the responsibility they have."
It remains to be seen whether Asamoah still has a role to play there, but the clash with Lazio showed just what he has to offer.
As the graphic in the tweet below shows, the 27-year-old completed 13 of his 19 pass attempts, won two tackles, won one aerial duel and was successful on the one occasion he took on a defender.
The Champions League, Coppa Italia and Serie A mean there are plenty of games to be played, and Kwadwo Asamoah is a proven winner and an international-quality midfielder.
For the grand Old Lady of Italian football—desperate to continue her recent winning run—he is a good man to have around for the foreseeable future.