The Juventus coach rejected two of the four attackers available (David and Openda) and, for the future, spoke clearly about what he asks of his attacking reference
He currently has four in his squad: Vlahovic, Milik, David and Openda, in order of recent consideration. At least a couple will say goodbye in the summer and, at the top of the list of reinforcements, the profiles of Randal Kolo Muani and Robert Lewandowski stand out. Five months after his arrival on the Juve bench, Luciano Spalletti, also thanks to the Serbian’s long injury, is still looking for the center forward to whom he can entrust the Juventus attack in the present, but, above all, in the future. But what are the characteristics that the Juventus coach asks of the player who must act as an offensive reference?
shoulder pads and the identikit of the center forward
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This season, the former national team coach started by focusing on Vlahovic, after his knockout for a certain period he tried to rely on Openda, then chose David. Except, then, ending up failing them both in the last few weeks and testing Yildiz and Boga in the role of false nine. However, he drew up the identikit of his ideal centre-forward quite early, just when in January he had asked the club to intervene in the market to make another nine available to him. Just rewind the tape to the post-match of the match won against Benfica, when Spalletti talks about David’s performance, who had a hand in both Juventus goals by Thuram and McKennie, the latter even arriving after a double exchange in the narrow area on the edge of the area. “I’m satisfied with him,” said the Juve coach Prime Video -, because he knows how to play football, but then he doesn’t have the malice and ferocity to say “I’ll take this ball because it’s fundamental”: for him they are all the same. He has this good boy face, to be a little more determined you need to gain better experiences. Openda himself: he’s good at going at speed, but he has to take on a few more balls.” A concept that he will also reiterate after the next match against Napoli, extolling Hojlund’s qualities, but which the Juve coach specifies even better in the conference after the meeting with Mourinho. “When the ball gets to him, you have to keep it, in that moment you need to keep it to get the team up and turn the action around. Instead he doesn’t like this very much and so he loses the duel and the ball immediately goes back to the others – explained Spalletti in reference to the Canadian -. He lacks a bit of ferocity inside the penalty area, because there are no spaces there and you have to go and cut them out, you have to take them away from your opponents. Is there a ball that can decide a match? Is it a ball that can decide the match? You have to take it and “bam”! You have to get there with more strength, but from that point of view we are not very bad and ferocious. Bang! And everything is fine.”
Juve, eyes on Kolo Muani and Lewandowski
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Malice in duels and ruthlessness in front of goal. In short, in two concepts, these are the characteristics that the coach from Certaldo asks of his center forward. Given that David and Openda have already been rejected and that Vlahovic will have to be verified in the context of the “Spallettian” Juventus, would Kolo Muani and Lewandowski correspond to the identikit? The Frenchman seen at work in Serie A with the Bianconeri in 2024-25 certainly: he is a little lacking in duels won per game in general (27.3%) and aerials (27%), but he is able to communicate with his teammates (72.8% of successful passes) and, above all, he stands out for his killer instinct. With Tudor and Thiago Motta, Kolo managed to score 8 goals in the league with just 14 shots on target and 26 total shots. Polish, if possible, would be even more complete. And not only for the experience of the 32 trophies raised in his career. In this Liga season he has 79.3% of successful passes, 48.3% of duels won and 40.4% of aerial ones and a score of 11 goals with 25 shots on target and 54 total shots. Spalletti spoke clearly, now it’s up to the management to try to please him.
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