Juve Next Gen, the secrets of the Under 23 team who haven’t lost in 10 games in Serie C

Experience shows that a second team sows in the first part of the season and generally reaps in the second. Sometimes going through difficult moments, which are precisely functional to growth. Juve’s Next Gen, in its sixth season in Serie C, has also come out on top this year: for a few weeks (also due to some games to recover) it was down in the standings in the play-out zone, now it is instead trying to improve your position for promotion battles. In between, ten consecutive useful results, as had never happened before: the record, under Zauli’s previous management, had been set at eight results; Brambilla’s team reached double figures and only stopped in Perugia, in a stadium that awakens bad memories for Juventus fans.

Some differences between this year’s project and that of past seasons are linked to the structure of the squad. The average age has remained very low this year too, but due to the needs of the first team some of the main references in the squad have disappeared. Suffice it to say that the three top players in the team’s backbone – namely Huijsen, Nonge and Yildiz – soon made the definitive transition to the big boys, significantly lowering the quality of the Next Gen. On the other hand, Brambilla worked more on the players who exploited the opportunity of the spaces and, in the long term, they have emerged thanks to a constant return. From Muharemovic to Savona in defence, to Rohui on the wing, to Hasa: all boys in their first year in Serie C with consideration as starters.

This year’s market has had a different impact between last summer and January. Last summer Chiellini got his hands on players who will be able to give a lot in the future, such as Salifou and Comenencia: in their first year in Italy, but already within the dynamics of Juventus Next Gen. Stivanello (on loan from Bologna) also did well ) and Damiani, who has proven to be an excellent reinforcement like Guerra: the latter has confirmed expectations, and is a reference for young people. During the repair market, however, the Juventus sporting director revived the season of some of his own youngsters who were not doing well on loan: above all Sekulov, returning from Cremonese, who is the player who has given the greatest impetus in 2024.

In this sixth year of the project, Next Gen also found itself facing a different group than in the past: the central Italian group hosts many more teams with a tradition behind them. Adapting to the group was a bit difficult, but also in this sense the team has grown a lot over time: managing to cope with longer away games with less effort and often in such warm contexts. The experience was useful for growing and demonstrating that we were increasingly ready for the big leap into the first team: during the season there was the opportunity for Cerri to debut in Serie A, for Scaglia and Daffara to go with the first team to complete the goalkeeping package, and again for Mancini and Muharemovic to breathe the scent of football that counts.