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Juventus: the reasons behind the injuries, the contradictions of the transfer market and Spalletti, who now has to discover new answers in attack.

After three matchdays, the injury list is already long and the attack is finding it hard to click: the coach’s role is proving crucial.

Juventus currently have more injured players than points in the standings: nine compared to seven. That is the balance after the club’s opening three league fixtures. In the medical room, with issues of different severity and recovery periods of different lengths, are Yildiz, Thuram, Locatelli, McKennie, Cambiaso, Boga, Ekhator, Cabal and Sarr. On the field, Juventus have beaten Frosinone and Parma, and then drawn with AC Milan.

Nothing sums up the scale of the challenge facing Juventus this season, and the contradictions of yet another year zero in the club’s recent history, better than the close of the transfer window and this very unusual beginning to the campaign.

Injuries and fitness coaches

Start with the injuries. The causes are different, ranging from traumatic problems, as in Yildiz’s case, to pre-existing muscular issues, as with Thuram, and then smaller physical problems carried over from previous experiences, as with Sarr. Even so, when everything is considered together, there may be a common thread. One possible explanation for why Juventus have, in recent years, recorded the highest average number of injured players in the whole of Serie A may also lie in the constant changes at Continassa.

Just as Paratici, Cherubini, Giuntoli, Comolli and Carnevali have taken turns in senior positions, and Allegri, Sarri, Pirlo, Allegri again, Motta, Tudor and Spalletti have alternated on the bench, Juventus have also lived through a turbulent period of continual turnover in the role of fitness coach. After Simone Folletti’s five-year spell from 2014 to 2019, the club have since moved from one name to another: Losi, Ranzato, Bertelli, Folletti again, Colinet, Licini, Pertusio, Ragnacci and now Sinatti. Such repeated changes certainly do not help.

In desperate search of stability

Juventus are chasing stability and continuity at every level, from the boardroom to the dugout and then onto the pitch. Spalletti’s confirmation, strongly backed by Elkann and Chiellini, fits into that strategy. The arrivals of Carnevali and Massara were also intended to create the basis for lasting stability and to begin a new cycle.

The contradictions

The current directors, appointed only a few months ago, are now experiencing first-hand all the contradictions produced by the constant upheaval Juventus have gone through in recent years. A few examples are enough to explain it: the goals and assists from Nico Gonzalez, Koopmeiners and Gatti, players who remained in the summer only because the right bid never came in. Then there is Kolo Muani’s awful start to the season. He was first signed by Giuntoli, then pursued by Comolli, and finally taken up again by Carnevali, bringing to an end a long chase that so far has delivered nothing in front of goal, with the added burden of Spalletti’s digs. Finally, there is an attack that is failing to score while almost all the forwards who left Juve are finding the net at their new clubs, namely Vlahovic, Openda and Licina.

The gap with Inter and Roma

The bottom line is that both the management and Spalletti have a great deal to reflect on. There is a lot of work ahead, just as there is considerable potential within the squad. At this point, after the club hierarchy have done their part in the transfer market, it is now above all up to the coach to identify solutions, perhaps even fresh ones that go beyond the now well-established 4-2-3-1 shape, in order to improve the team’s output in the final third. The defence is solid: the gap with Inter and Roma at present lies entirely in attack, in the number of goals scored rather than those conceded.