To try to revitalize the investment of over 50 million, first Thiago Motta and then Tudor deployed the Dutchman in all positions in midfield and attack, without success. The Cremona “shock” worked, but it is not certain that it will be repeated in the long term
Change whatever you like. At Juventus, to try to make the 53.1 million spent to snatch Koopmeiners from Atalanta, the maximum was taken to excess, obtaining the opposite effect. In thirteen months, the Dutchman occupied 6 different roles on the pitch without ever managing to make an impact. From his beginnings as an attacking midfielder in Thiago Motta’s 4-2-3-1 to the move to move him back to the defensive line in Cremona, 56 games and 3,692 minutes played have passed, but in this tourbillon of tasks and functions Koop ended up getting lost and gradually crushed by the weight of the investment made for him.
juve, all koopmeiners roles
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First of all, we were saying, it was the attacking midfielder: arriving with a baggage of 15 goals and 7 assists in the last Atalanta season, the Dutchman is deployed by the Italian-Brazilian behind Vlahovic, counting on him to be able to replicate in Juventus those insertions and those conclusions from outside that had made him known throughout Europe. A precarious preparation (after the controversial farewell to Bergamo), some gross errors in front of goal (in Genoa he hit the crossbar almost from the goal line) and an annoying rib fracture ended up affecting his start: Koopmeiners wrapped himself up and Thiago Motta’s solutions to relaunch him ended up having the opposite effect. Beyond the two matches played, against Milan and Atalanta, by false nine to alleviate the attack emergency, the former Juventus coach tries to reduce his range of action, but little changes even when he is deployed by midfielder. The only (sporadic) attempt that seems to give some signs of awakening is on the two occasions (against Cagliari in the Italian Cup and Monza in the championship) in which Koop acts as median in front of the defense, but they remain an isolated episode. As well as the two circumstances in which the Italian-Brazilian tries to bring him closer to the goal, decentralizing him from right attacker. Nothing to do: Koopmeiners continues to change positions, but the only thing that remains unchanged is his underperformance.
koopmeiners defender, only in emergency?
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Destiny does not change with Tudor’s arrival on the bench: the former Atalanta player continues to have no impact in the midfield of the Croatian’s 3-4-2-1, just as when he is brought back as a right-wing attacking midfielder. An endless wandering here and there on the pitch, with the performance remaining mediocre and the pressures ever increasing. “I’m a midfielder”, Koopmeiners vented after the last Champions League match away to Real Madrid, in which he returned to being the playmaker in front of the defence. “In some matches I played in a position that wasn’t mine, too advanced, but I consider myself a midfielder – he explained -: I like to build play, manage the ball in midfield and look for the right pass”. “For me he is a midfielder/midfielder, his history also says so, but he has often played too central defense and he can also be put there to get the action started well”, Spalletti winked at him in the presentation press conference, anticipating “Zini’s” surprise move. Which could be repeated in the Champions League against Sporting due to Kelly’s unavailability. Sixth role, therefore, but this time the experiment seems interesting even if it would need time and collective work to bear fruit. As the new Juventus coach explained, in fact, the team tended to start and finish the action on the same side of the pitch, while to take advantage of his insertions from behind, more sudden changes of pitch would be necessary. In any case, whether he is a few meters ahead or further back, for Koopmeiners the time for change should soon end: to find himself, the Dutchman would above all need stability.
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