Recently appointed Juve manager Luciano Spalletti has the two-week break to tweak his tactics after a generally disappointing start to his reign.
Spalletti was thrown into a series of games after his swift appointment after the club pulled the trigger on underperforming Igor Tudor.
With a large number of players away from the Turin titans permits Spalletti to identify those on the fringe of starting, including some of the Juventus Next Gen graduates.
The Bianconeri are still within touching distance of Serie A leaders Inter Milan and lie just six points behind.
There needs to be some dramatic improvement across all departments by Spalletti. His frontline has yet to fire on all cylinders, the midfield lacks bite and creativity, while the defense has remained leaky since Thiago Motta’s exit.
Spalletti surprisingly followed Tudor’s one-dimensional tactics by fielding three at the back in his matches, but is expected to implement better strategies like his highly successful stint at Napoli that resulted in lifting the 2022/23 Scudetto.
Although their Serie A campaign is expected to pick up, especially with lesser opponents lined up before the start of the new year, Juve’s inefficiency in the Champions League is worrying.
They are languishing outside of a top 24 position in the 32-team league phase at the halfway stage of having played four games without registering a victory.
Juventus wins are a rarity
The only consistency shown by Juve under Motta, Tudor and now Spalletti is the ability to not lose. Yet winning is in Juve’s DNA, and is the only acceptable currency for any Juventus manager.
Although 10 players are away from the Juventus Training Center Continassa during the international break, Spalletti can surprisingly call on the services of France’s Khephren Thuram and US ace Weston McKennie, because the pair were snubbed by their international managers.
However, Spalletti granted his squad four days rest until tomorrow’s training while he prepares a new and improved tactical approach.
Andrea Cambiaso and skipper Manuel Locatelli have been called up by Gennaro Gattuso for Italy’s World Cup group qualifier at Moldova before hosting Norway.
Bianconeri strikers given a shot
Deadline day signing Lois Openda is part of the Belgium set-up, who would book their berth at next year’s World Cup finals if they beat Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein.
The unorthodox striker has yet to break his duck in a Juve jersey, and despite failing to adapt to Serie A is on the radar of Bayern Munich along with Jonathan David and Dusan Vlahovic.
David should feature in the 2026 World Cup, but his form for club and country has been pretty poor recently. The Canada hot shot has not bagged a Juve goal since his Serie A debut strike against Parma.
He has slipped out of favor under Spalletti, and as the club’s second highest earner behind Vlahovic. AC Milan are the latest club to be linked with the goal poacher, with Juventus already having decided to put him on the winter transfer list after just 13 matches.
Vlahovic, who experienced a recent hamstring injury, is another attacker that Juve hope to cash in on during the January transfer window. Tottenham Hotspur have recently emerged as favorites to swoop following the injury of last year’s Juve loanee Kolo Muani.
Filip Kostic, who has featured for Spalletti but rarely played under Tudor, has joined the Serbia squad alongside Vlahovic for the matches at England and against Latvia
Other Bianconeri players on international duty are Vasilije Adzic (Montenegro), Francisco Conceicao (Portugal), Kenan Yildiz (Turkey) and Edon Zhegrova (Kosovo).
Lightweight Juve squad
Yildiz and Vlahovic are in contract chaos with Juventus, as they both have a clutch of admirers but wish to start being in the mix to win silverware. From Spalletti’s start the signs indicate that the club will need to seriously strengthen their squad in January to become Scudetto contenders.
Spalletti signed a contract with Juve until the end of the season, with his objective to steer the club into the Champions League knockout stages and finish in the Serie A top four again.
Should he achieve these feats, the Bianconeri have the option to extend his contract for a further season. Raffaele Palladino, who had two informal chats with Juventus about the potential to become their head coach next year, has joined Atalanta.
Palladino no longer waiting in the wings
This offers Spalletti more breathing space with Palladino, who became the fourth new appointment in Serie A since the season kicked off, off limits for Juventus.
Spalletti is a versatile tactician, so he is expected to evaluate his arguably lightweight squad over the coming week to work out a new system away from the one he has employed in his first three games.
At Napoli his success was attributed to building the team around a marksman and a whizzy winger, frequently resorting to eye-catching 4-3-3 tactics.
His only striker that appears capable of regularly scoring is Vlahovic, although he can utilize Conceicao, McKennie or Yildiz as his go-to winger to create scoring opportunities and replicate his Napoli triumph.
Spalletti’s reign could take a nosedive should Vlahovic and Yildiz decide to leave in January, although the pair may hold out to sign for Barcelona next summer.
Yildiz replacement is eyed up
Bayern Munich winger Serge Gnabry is being monitored to fill Yildiz’s boots, with no forwards seriously considered to replace Vlahovic yet.
Juventus Next Gen standouts are being named in Spalletti’s squads, but as the new boss didn’t wish to lose games then their minutes were understandably restricted.
This could alter over the next few weeks, as the former Italy and Napoli manager will have plenty of time during the international break to see what some of the youngsters could bring to the team.
Spalletti is expected to rotate his squad more, revert to a solid back four and sharpen the shooting skills of his strikeforce. A big shake up is expected when Juve return to action.
Fiorentina next up for Juventus
Fiorentina, who surprisingly prop up the Serie A, host Juventus on 22 November. The club installed Paolo Vanoli as manager last week, replacing former Juve managerial target Stefano Pioli, so there could be an element of new manager bounce for the basement side.
Bodo/Glimt welcome the Bianconeri three days later, and like Juve have failed to win any of their Champions League matches.
Spalletti has a perfect opportunity to reel off back-to-back wins against such out-of-form teams before hosting Cagliari on 29 November, a team that has tasted five Serie A defeats this season.
With Spalletti expected to rotate his squad, something that Tudor rarely did and then blamed poor results on fatigue, there is the ideal opportunity to give fringe players a run out during the Coppa Italia visit of Udinese on 2 December.
Return to Napoli for Spalletti
Spalletti’s pivotal players will be expected to rest for the showdown at defending champions Napoli on 7 December, where ex-Juventus manager Antonio Conte is under the cosh.
Conte, who Juve tried to lure back in the summer, has suffered five defeats in all competitions this term and his side has failed to score in their past three matches. A defeat at the hands of Juventus could spell disaster for Conte.
For Spalletti to snatch victory at his former club, which he loves so much that he sports a Napoli tattoo on his forearm, could open the door to a return in the summer. Although he has to get things right at Juventus first to prove that his ill-fated time in charge of Italy was just a blip.
It is definitely back to the drawing board for Spalletti at Juventus, who has to win over the demanding plans, impress the club hierarchy and convince his squad that there are better tactics than Tudor’s dreary three-player defense and loan target figure.