08 June 2013
After serving under the watchful managerial eye of Antonio Conte at Atalanta, Simone Padoin then made the move to Turin, where he has earned three trophies during a highly successful 18 months playing in the Bianconeri shirt.
In the season just gone by, the versatile midfielder made appearances in every competition that Juventus took part in. He played both halves of extra-time in the Italian Super Cup against Napoli, started in two crucial Champions League knockout clashes against Celtic and Bayern Munich and also featured heavily in both the league and the Coppa Italia.
Heart, determination and adaptability are qualities valued highly by all managers, especially Conte. Padoin possesses these gifts in abundance and has demonstrated his importance to the side during all of his 20 championship matches this season.
The statistics clearly prove that, when given the chance, the 29-year-old can seamlessly adapt to many different roles in the side, be it as a right wing-back in the 3-5-2 setup or as a central midfielder. Passing is a crucial aspect of playing in the midfield and Simone boasts an impressive accuracy rate of 86% from his 349 attempted passes (216 of which came inside the opposition half).
Unlike last season, the Friuli-born midfielder did not manage to find the back of the net during this year's successful league campaign which produced yet another Scudetto title for Juve. However, he did make some key contributions in the final third, registering five shots on target from seven attempts on goal, thereby giving him the highest shooting accuracy (71%) in the entire squad.
For the second victorious season in a row, Simone Padoin once again filled an important role in the team and proved to be a more than capable utility player for Conte to have at his disposal.
