Juventus, a look at their difficult moment: the seven things that are not working

The goalkeeper issue has been solved, with Vicario already showing in these opening games that he can offer more than Di Gregorio. But the match against AC Milan and, above all, the one against Sassuolo, have exposed some limitations and question marks. The Bremer-Lucumí partnership still need to build an understanding and get their movements in sync, while Gatti is pushing hard for a place on the bench, but he belongs to a style of football, one built mainly on a low block, that Spalletti does not like. Out wide, Celik has brought a burst of energy, while Cambiaso, partly because of injury, remains the same enigma he has been for the past two and a half seasons. They have still not rediscovered the versatile joker who had attracted the attention of some foreign clubs. Then there is Kalulu, who mixes good performances with worrying lapses, as happened at the Mapei Stadium.

This is the most problematic area and the one hit hardest by injuries, with the lengthy absences of Locatelli and Thuram. Spalletti is left with only Douglas Luiz, who made a good start to the season, Koopmeiners, the returning McKennie (after his muscle problem) and Sarr. Juventus' problem is that Douglas Luiz and Koopmeiners spent much of the transfer window surplus to requirements (and hugely expensive ones) in an unsuccessful attempt to sell them, McKennie is feeling the effects of two non-stop years, between the Club World Cup and the World Cup, and the latest signing Sarr was surplus to requirements at Tottenham and arrived in Turin having practically not had a proper pre-season. So this is a midfield shaped above all by circumstances (the impossibility of selling the Brazilian and the Dutchman, the difficulty of buying better) and only in part by the choices made by the club's hierarchy and the manager.

Juventus have no shortage of options out wide, both for depth and quality, so much so that they can even think about coping with Yildiz's lengthy injury absence, the most technically gifted player in the squad. The revived Zhegrova (though left out of the UEFA list...), the rediscovered Nico Gonzalez (though the same applies to him as was said about Douglas Luiz and Koopmeiners), the consistently positive but not very effective Conceicao in front of goal, the emerging talent Alajbegovic and the reliable Boga (though now injured) give Spalletti plenty of solutions. Maybe even too many, to the point that they have also led to a few errors of judgement with his substitutions: against Sassuolo, bringing on Zhegrova was clearly the right call, given the Kosovo international's brace, but there are still doubts over taking off Conceicao and Nico Gonzalez at the same time, for Zhegrova and Woltemade. The player who probably should have gone off was Kolo Muani, a ghost. Spalletti stuck with him instead and, after the match, explained that he intends to keep showing faith in the Frenchman.

The real problems lie up front. First of all because, apart from Milik, who is out of the UEFA and Serie A squads, neither of the two potential starters is a genuine centre-forward. Kolo Muani is not, because he likes to drift around a proper No 9, as he did, and well, in his first months at Juventus playing with Vlahovic. Woltemade is not either, because despite his height and build he prefers to play as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. As for Kolo Muani, disastrous at the start of this league season, it has to be asked why as many as three Juventus directors went after him: first Giuntoli, who first brought him to Turin on loan, then Comolli, who failed to bring him back to Continassa, and finally Carnevali, who signed him for a significant fee. For now, it's an unrequited love.

"He is an extraordinary manager, one of the very best. Changing manager is not in my nature, we must try to plan and build, we need to give time and be patient, knowing that we will have to swallow some bitter pills". Carnevali said that about Spalletti the day after the defeat to Sassuolo. Spalletti still has the backing of the ownership, Elkann thinks the world of him, and the club's hierarchy, but the sense is that the grace period will not last forever. Almost a year on from his arrival in Turin, Spalletti's Juventus still have no identity, no real personality and no ability to manage the different phases of a match, qualities they had at times hinted last season, before the final collapse, they could learn and apply. The start of this season, however, has set Spalletti back by a year and at this point he too must start asking himself some questions, including about the system of play.

Injuries, a lot of them and some serious, have hit Juventus hard at the start of the season. The causes vary, from traumatic injuries (Yildiz) to pre-existing muscular problems (Thuram), and then minor knocks carried over from previous experiences (Sarr). Still, taking everything into account, there may be a common thread. One reason why Juventus, in recent years, have on average been the team with the most injured players in the whole of Serie A may also lie in the constant changes at Continassa. Just as there have been boardroom changes involving Paratici, Cherubini, Giuntoli, Comolli and Carnevali, and changes in the dugout with Allegri, Sarri, Pirlo, Allegri again, Motta, Tudor and Spalletti, the role of Juventus fitness coach has also been caught in a turbulent spell of constant upheaval. After Simone Folletti’s five years between 2014 and 2019, from 2019 to today there have been: Losi, Ranzato, Bertelli, Folletti again, Colinet, Licini, Pertusio, Ragnacci and now Sinatti. That kind of churn cannot help.

The appointments of Carnevali and Massara, along with Chiellini and Ottolini, were made to lay the foundations for long-term stability and start a new cycle. The current executives, appointed only a few months ago, are now seeing first-hand all the contradictions created by the constant upheaval Juventus have been caught up in over recent years. A few examples make the point: the goals and assists from Zhegrova, Nico Gonzalez, Koopmeiners and Gatti, players who did not leave in the summer only because the right offer never arrived; Kolo Muani's dreadful start to the season, signed by Giuntoli, then chased by Comolli and finally signed again by Carnevali, a long pursuit that for now has brought nothing in front of goal, with the added weight of Spalletti's barbs; finally, an attack that is not scoring while almost all the forwards who left Juve are finding the net with their new teams (Vlahovic, Openda, Licina, Adzic and David).

"In football there are cycles, there are periods when you are at the top and others when you are in difficulty. Our objective? It is to win, talk counts for little or nothing. We have to seek the maximum result: there is still a lot to do to compete for the Serie A title and the Europa League, although it is not an easy competition, can be and become an opportunity for us. We cannot think that Juventus have become a club of a lower level than what they are. We are in a cycle, there will be difficulties and also chances to return to the top," Carnevali said again this morning on Radio Rai. Right now, the sense is that mentally accepting a level below their own history is the main trap Juventus have struggled for years to escape.