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Juventus, Di Gregorio is always a problem: now the new goalkeeper is an absolute urgency

Against Inter, an uncertain and clumsy display from Di Gregorio, as in the previous season. How are Juventus moving in the transfer market?

Until today, Juventus' pre-season had offered more than enough encouragement when it came to the issue of 'goals conceded', with Luciano Spalletti's side keeping a clean sheet in their first four friendlies: Basel-Juventus 0-0, Standard Liege-Juventus 0-1, Juventus-Nice 2-0 and Chelsea-Juventus 0-1. Michele Di Gregorio and Mattia Perin both impressed, helped by a defence that had given opponents very few chances to test them.

That changed today, when Juventus' 2-1 defeat in the Derby d'Italia in Perth, Australia, brought old ghosts flooding back and, with exactly two weeks to go before the start of the Serie A season, made it even more urgent for the club's hierarchy to act in the transfer market and get Spalletti a new first-choice goalkeeper as soon as possible.

Di Gregorio poor against Inter
In the defeat to Inter, for Inter's first goal, by Dimarco, Di Gregorio perhaps dives a fraction late, but the main blame lies with those who give the Inter player time to pick his spot and shoot unchallenged from inside the penalty area. For the second goal, by Diouf, however, Di Gregorio's blame is clear: from the Inter player's close-range but not unstoppable effort, the Juventus goalkeeper's attempted save is clumsy and uncertain, and the ball ends up in the net. Di Gregorio's failed attempted save immediately brought back still-fresh memories of the many uncertainties the 1997-born player ran into last season, and we can recall, for example, the matches at San Siro against Inter and at the Allianz against Como.

Goalkeeper SOS: what is happening on the transfer market
With three weeks left before the transfer window shuts, Juventus are still carrying Di Gregorio, Perin and Pinsoglio in goal. The issue is that the second and third-choice keepers, Perin and Pinsoglio, are out of contract in a year, while first-choice keeper Di Gregorio, whose deal runs until 2029, has failed to convince either Spalletti or the club and is now almost isolated within Juventus, not least after the sensational case involving his agent in July. So far, Juventus have found neither a destination for Di Gregorio nor a new first-choice goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, the main targets, Alisson and Dibu Martinez, have slipped away, while other options, such as Vicario, are not entirely convincing. The latest idea is to take Suzuki on loan from Paris Saint Germain, if the French club buy the Japanese goalkeeper from Parma. But do a club like Juventus really want to rebuild a winning team with a goalkeeper, one of the crucial roles given what happened last season, on loan?

Over the coming hours, we will see what solutions Carnevali, Massara and Ottolini can find for the position where Juventus most need to act. At the start of the transfer window, the goalkeeper position was an urgent need, almost an emergency. Now it has become a full-blown urgency.