It was a hell of a slog, but Juventus pushed their way to a 2-0 victory against a pesky Pisa side on Saturday. It wasn’t anything like the encouraging performances against Bologna and Roma, but an encouraging win
from this standpoint: winning when they haven’t played particularly well hasn’t been a habit the Juve of the last few years have made.
It’s the kind of thing we haven’t seen with any consistency over the last few seasons, but it was a welcome sign that Juve were able to push through their long-standing habit of playing down to weaker opposition enough to bring themselves three points. It certainly wasn’t the greatest performance by any stretch of the imagination, but ultimately, they were effective enough to bring home three points in the first of an important stretch of games against provincial opposition.
Who slogged the best, and who needs to pick up their game as Juve head into the new year? Let’s take a closer look.
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6. I usually don’t give a grade when the opponent doesn’t put a shot on target, but Di Gregorio made a couple of important interventions on crosses and once dashed out of his box to deal with a dangerous through ball.
PIERRE KALULU – 7. Did some great work defensively, making four tackles and two clearances while blocking a shot, and of course making the nice run for the goal. Would’ve been a little higher had his completion percentage (79.7) been higher.
BREMER – 6. Made a couple of uncharacteristic missteps, but overall was his usual imposing self. Does still need to knock off the rust though.
LLOYD KELLY – 6.5. Led the team with six clearances, and very nearly opened the scoring with a smart shot that banged off the post. He’s a completely different player than he was the second half of last season.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 6. Made a pair of key passes and fed Weston McKennie to make the final pass in the sequence that opened the scoring. A decent match overall.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6.5. Completed 90 percent of his passes, including one key pass, and put a shot on target, but his biggest contribution was, as usual, his defense, making four clearances, a pair of tackles, and an important blocked shot right at the end of the first half.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Not quite the level we’d been seeing the last few weeks. He had two key passes but misfired on a full quarter of his overall attempts, and his presence in the middle simply wasn’t there.
WESTON McKENNIE – 6.5. Put in a good ball for Kalulu’s goal, and led the team with five tackles. Ran everywhere, and popped up on both wings. Another solid performance out of the big Texan.
KENAN YILDIZ – 6. Scored an easy tap-in and led the team in dribbles (3), but wasn’t able to impact the match as a whole, largely because he was often double- and triple-teamed.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5. Perhaps unlucky that he had a shot on the break blocked in the first half, but really didn’t make an impact otherwise. Had more defensive interventions than offensive ones.
LOÏS OPENDA – 5. Didn’t have the opportunity to use his pace to impact the defense, and wasn’t able to get his teammates much involved either, only attempting eight passes overall.
SUBS
EDON ZHEGROVA – 7. Made a huge difference once he came on, discombobulating the defense with his dribbling and putting two of three shots on target.
JONATHAN DAVID – 5. Awful control receiving passes today. Even his assist was on a ball that he really ought to have been able to shoot himself as opposed to deflecting it into Yildiz’s path. Looked apprehensive in shooting positions.
FABIO MIRETTI – NR. Big impact in five minutes, pulling out an absurd bit of skill to set up the clinching goal in stoppage time.
FILIP KOSTIC – NR. Didn’t have a lot to do, taking only three touches and not attempting a pass.
JOÃO MÁRIO – NR. On to see things out and give Yildiz a little rest.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
With Francisco Conceição out and Bremer back in the fold, Luciano Spalletti went with the seemingly obvious solution to try to integrate Teun Koopmeiners into the side by putting him back into the attacking midfield slots.
It didn’t work.
Somehow, Koopmeiners has completely devolved from the player Juventus thought they were buying two summers ago. His only real utility at this point has been in the back three, but even there he can be a liability against better attackers, and he shouldn’t be back there when the best center-backs are available. Spalletti needs to either find a way to spark the Dutchman or start making plans to move the team on without him.
Besides Koopmeiners, there wasn’t much in the way of problem with Spalletti’s team selection. The team’s struggles were a combination of offensive underperformance and the fact that Pisa, in spite of their place in the table, have been an incredibly difficult team to break down all year. But Spalletti’s changes again made the difference. Zhegrova unlocked the attack and allowed Juve to finally spread the Pisa defense out a little bit, while David, despite his generally ineffective play, was able to bring a different threat than the speed-based Openda to compliment what Zhegrova did.
As we mentioned before, the mere fact that we’re talking about an ugly 2-0 win instead of a goalless draw or, worse, a smash-and-grab loss, speaks to the work Spalletti has done with Juventus since he arrived. For the team to play the way they did—and there were points in the first 15 minutes of the second half that you wouldn’t have been surprised if Pisa had scored—and still come out with three points is a mark in favor of Spalletti, who has imparted a mental strength to go along with good tactical and on-field management that has let Juve put these iffy games into the win column.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juve begin 2026 with a home game against Lecce on Saturday, then finish out the andata with a trip to Reggio Emilia to face Sassuolo the following Tuesday.
