Kolo Muani is not a center forward and playing with two strikers is a privilege for a team built based on wingers. Yet the (nervous) Tuscan coach must find a solution to the crisis.
Twenty-two shots of which ten on target to give birth to a goal and hit the crossbar. Juventus in Cagliari returned to playing the part of Spalletti’s Juventus, a score that even resulted in defeat a year ago in Sardinia and which ultimately ruined the Bianconeri’s Champions League qualification hopes. Possession of the ball, invasion of the opponent’s half of the pitch, handfuls of crosses and attempts to finish to achieve almost nothing. A problem that Juventus has been carrying over from last season, but which now cannot find the same justifications as in winter and spring.
A year ago the problem was the absence of Vlahovic, injured. Today the attacker exists, he was paid 50 million euros and was pursued for a long time with the consent of Spalletti himself. Therefore, there are no alibis or explanations and when the Tuscan coach describes the Frenchman as a strong striker, but who must play differently from his characteristics, he is actually pronouncing an indictment against himself and his managers.
In Cagliari Kolo Muani scored a goal (his first in the league since the beginning of the year), hit the crossbar which seems more like a mistake than a feat, touched a large quantity of balls in the opponent’s area and finished badly. On one occasion he even preferred to rush and leave the ball (mistakenly) to his teammate rather than attempt a finish that seemed quite comfortable. A question of instincts that if you don’t have them, no one can give them to you.
How to get out of the stalemate? Having said that Kolo Muani cannot change his way of being, at most try to adapt it to the needs of the team, the feeling is that Spalletti must put something of his own into it. At times things improved when he deployed Woltemade at the same time as the Frenchman, doubling the hitting force and filling the opponent’s area better. The two-striker formation, however, hides pitfalls because Juventus was built to give the best of themselves on the wingers who would be overabundant playing with two up front.
In short, the task is not simple: dismantling and reassembling the project and team while also dealing with injuries. Time is starting to run out, also because we cannot forget that Spalletti hasn’t been coaching Juventus since yesterday, but for a year now and has the failed Champions League campaign last May behind him. This is why the nervousness in Cagliari and some sentences about its prospects are understandable.
