Juve, a director for Spalletti: Bernabé or Hojbjerg

Luciano Spalletti’s best films were almost always shot by a classic director or a charismatic team man: from David Pizarro (Udinese, Rome) to Stanislav Lobotka, the conductor of his Napoli champion of Italy. During his time at Inter, the Tuscan coach reinvented Marcelo Brozovic as a playmaker, taking advantage of his quality and character. At Juventus Lucio arrived in the running in place of Igor Tudor and started with Manuel Locatelli, placed at the center of the Lady despite the ups and downs experienced in the national team. The Juventus captain’s role in front of the defense is not immediately under discussion, but in the future he could also be used as a midfielder or with different tasks: less geometry and more insertions. It will also depend on market conditions. To carry out the ambitious mission entrusted to him by John Elkann (“Spalletti must lead Juventus to win”, the nephew of the lawyer Agnelli reiterated yesterday) the former Azzurri coach will also need other ammunition in the middle of the pitch. January is far away, but not too far away. Discussions have already begun at Continassa and at the moment there are two midfielders who are more intriguing than others. The favorite for leadership, experience and ability to lead the team from the center of the ring is Marseille’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Not a pure point guard, but the great team man of the French coached by Roberto De Zerbi. The alternative to the 30-year-old Dane is Adrian Bernabé of Parma: he is more similar in characteristics to Pizarro and Lobotka of Spalletti.

Change the game

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“We must respect financial Fair Play, but if there are opportunities we will try to seize them”, guaranteed CEO Damien Comolli on the day of the presentation of the new coach. The French manager, from his past as an observer and sporting director, is aware that it is not enough to change the initials on the training suit when you entrust Igor Tudor’s bench to Luciano Spalletti. Question of principles and style of play. The Croatian would have liked an extra midfielder more similar to Khephren Thuram. While the coach from Certaldo, even more so after the happy intuition of Koopmeiners in the central defender version, needs to extend the coverage in the middle of the field numerically with a greater directing contribution. Better if a brain tuned to its game frequencies.

Guardiola sends them

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Hojbjerg and Bernabé interpret the role differently, but they have Pep Guardiola in common. Both the Dane and the Spaniard met the king of coaches when they were young: Pierre-Emile during his time at Bayern, when the Catalan coach saw something of Sergio Busquets in him. Adrian, on the other hand, was a protagonist in the Catalan guru’s Manchester City youth team for three years.

The Dane

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Hojbjerg, even just in terms of centimeters and structure (185 cm for 85 kg), is far from a clone of the various Pizarros and Lobotkas, but he is a technical and charismatic leader. So much so that De Zerbi entrusted him with the keys to his Marseille team, second in the Ligue 1 table behind PSG. The Italian coach struggled to give up on the 30-year-old Dane and for Juventus, although on excellent terms with Marseille, it won’t be a walk in the park to try in January. Hojbjerg is a praetorian of De Zerbi – 16 appearances and one goal in the season – and has a contract until 2028. There is no negotiation yet, but in the transfer market they are convinced that Juventus has the only player in their squad capable of changing De Zerbi’s plans: that Manuel Locatelli, a pupil during his time at Sassuolo. The ways of the market are infinite: we will talk about it later.

Spanish

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The 24-year-old Bernabé – 13 appearances and 2 goals in the season, the last on Saturday in the 2-2 comeback draw against Milan – is younger than Hojbjerg and also more similar to Pizarro and Lobotka, Spalletti’s playmakers par excellence. The Spaniard alternates between “long” and “short” play and, thanks to excellent technique, he comes out of busy situations well and handles the ball with serenity even under pressure. A good starting point for playing Pizarro in Spalletti’s Juventus. Parma rarely sells their best players in the winter: last year they rejected the court of Nottingham Forest for Ange-Yoan Bonny, who was then sold to Inter in the summer. Bernabé, however, has been at Tardini since 2021, has also played with the Emilians in Serie B and has a cheaper, shorter contract (expires in 2027) and therefore also susceptible to attack by the big Italian and foreign teams.