Giuntoli asks for patience, but the Juventus coach will only be able to count on Gatti and Kalulu for the next matches. Unless we resort to experiments…
The last… of the defenders. Juve returns from Riyadh disappointed by their elimination in the Super Cup and with a numerical emergency in defense that needs to be resolved quickly. The decision not to call up Danilo for Saudi Arabia for market reasons made official the fact that Juve’s central defenders are only two left: Gatti and Kalulu. And, reading between the lines of Giuntoli’s words, the situation is destined to remain so for a while.
Juve, the wall has collapsed
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Unless he resorts to experiments like Locatelli (already tested against Cagliari in the Italian Cup) or Savona, Thiago Motta will be forced to put more stress on his only two central defenders: Kalulu (1,977′) already leads with 100 minutes of advantage over Vlahovic ranking of the players most used in the season, Gatti (1,835′) is just below the podium. Perhaps also for this reason (but not only) the defensive performance of the Bianconeri in the last abundant month has literally collapsed: from the 1-1 in Lecce to the 1-2 with Milan, Juve kept a clean sheet only on two occasions ( against Manchester City in the Champions League and with Cagliari in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup), scoring a total of 10 goals in 8 matches. Excluding the two cup matches and Monza (1), in the other matches the Juventus defense has always conceded two goals. An enormity in general, even more so if you consider that, in the previous 18, he had taken a total of 12. With 11 clean sheets.
Giuntili’s strategy for the defender
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“The defender is an emergency”, admitted Giuntoli before the match in Riyadh against the Rossoneri, however inviting the environment to be patient, because “in January it depends a lot on the others, we must wait for the needs of the other teams first”. On the other hand, after having invested over 200 million in the summer, Juve now has no budget to run for cover on the transfer market. In short, he cannot afford to do as he did three years ago, when in January he snatched Vlahovic from Fiorentina with millions (70 plus bonuses). And it is forced, therefore, to wait for the agents to work alongside the clubs (Jorge Mendes with Benfica for Antonio Silva) or for some club to review their beliefs in light of the results (Feyenoord for Hancko if they were to exit the Champions League or Milan for Tomori, if the gap from fourth place in Serie A does not decrease). The field, however, does not wait for the needs of others. And Motta finds himself facing the very complicated January calendar with the last two… of the defenders.
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