One of the surprising absentees from the Juventus lineups this season has been Fernando Llorente, signed this summer as answer to the club’s forward problems, but so far has seen only one minute of action in the Serie A and Champions League matches.
Carlos Tevez, allegedly, added more fuel to the fire by claiming that Llorente, a player with 85 goals in 262 matches for Athletic Bilbao, is the worst striker he has ever played with. According to the minutes we’re seeing being given to players, Llorente is fifth on the depth chart for the Italian champions, as Tevez, Mirko Vucinic, Fabio Quagliarella and Sebastian Giovinco are all in front of him.
He did not play for nearly a year, and he needs more time to return back to his best, while getting back the required intensity and aggressiveness on the field. He’s lost a lot of a lot of it, naturally, during the time he’s been out of the lineup in Spain.
Last season, as punishment for not signing a new deal with Athletic Bilbao, Llorente came off the bench in 22 of his 26 matches, playing a total of only 886 minutes the entire season in the La Liga. However, remaining out of the plans for Liverpool and simply practicing isn’t exactly the way to get him back on track.
Conte also mentioned that there’s a good chance Llorente will get more minutes in the next few matches, but that maybe just a way for him to calm the waters and defer the questions in a different direction.
So far this season, Arturo Vidal with 3 goals and Carlos Tevez with two are the team’s top scorers in the Serie A.