After Sunday’s debacle against Sassuolo, Juventus’ Europa League opener against NEC Nijmegen on Thursday felt a little scary. The Dutch club were a high-level Cinderella, coming into their first European competition in 18 years. It was absolutely the type of team that has given Juventus fits in matches continental and domestic in the last five years. Add in that two of NEC’s starting forwards had played roles in some of Juve’s worst European moments over the last few years — Dusan Tadic had starred
for the Ajax team that eliminated Juventus in 2019 and Tjaronn Chery had been a starter on the Maccabi Haifa team that had embarrassed the team in 2022 — and you felt like this match could pile on the pain.
But it didn’t happen. Instead, Juve — coming out in a new formation and with a couple of players finally coming off the injured list — completely wiped the floor with their visitors, taking advantage of a pair of enormous goalkeeping mistakes and seeing four summer signings open their accounts for the season. The result was a 5-0 keelhauling to vault the Bianconeri atop the League Phase table after one round.
It was a fantastic start to the team’s Europa League campaign and, hopefully, a pivot point for a team that hadn’t found its stride in the season’s opening weeks.
Most everyone looked good on the J Stadium grass on Thursday night, but just how good? Let’s take a closer look.
KAMIL GRABARA – 6.5. Positioned well on all three saves, and kept the defense well organized through most of the game, although everyone lost the plot a little bit in the middle of the second half as the team took their foot off the gas and were lucky not to get stung back. Oh, and let’s not forget the assist on the opening goal!
PIERRE KALULU – 6.5. Second on the team with three tackles and looked overall a lot better than he had in his last couple of matches. Added in a key pass on the other end.
FEDERICO GATTI – 7. Four clearances led the team, and he completed 96.4 percent of his passes. Got into it a little bit with Bryan Linssen midway through the first half after the striker hit him in the back of the head, sending a bit of a message to the Dutch forward.
JHON LUCUMÍ – 7. Had a great ball for the assist on Randal Kolo Muani’s goal, and two key passes overall to go with four defensive contributions. He’s quietly been excellent since he joined the starting lineup.
ZEKI ÇELIK – 6.5. Only let down by some wonky passing (he completed just over three-quarters of his attempts) but made a good run to get free for an easy goal and had two tackles and two interceptions defensively.
PAPE MATAR SARR – 6. Completed 98.1 percent of his passes and brought a lot of energy to the press. Also had the pass that released Weston McKennie on the sequence that led to Kerim Alajbegović’s goal to make it 2-0.
DOUGLAS LUIZ – 6.5. Completed 95.7 percent of his passes and added in some good defensive stats, with two tackles and four overall defensive contributions. Cementing his new place in the team well, all he needs now is to score.
WESTON McKENNIE – 6.5. Clearly some rust as he only completed 73.7 percent of his passes, but ran like he usually did and led the team with four tackles in only 60 minutes on the field. Excellent job collecting Sarr’s ball and squaring it to Alajbegović for his first assist of the season.
NICO GONZÁLEZ – 6.5. Made good on the absolute howler by Nikolas Polster to open the scoring and made a great run into the channel that turned into the penalty for the third. Worked his tail off, making a pair of tackles on the track back as well.
KERIM ALAJBEGOVIC – 7. C0-led the team in dribbles (2) and took his debut goal for Juve fantastically, lashing a violent finish into the net from the top of the box. Completed all 16 pass attempts. He looks like such an exciting find.
NICK WOLTEMADE – 6. Put all three of his shots on target and dispatched his penalty with aplomb. His holdup play was quite good, although his overall passing left a little to be desired.
SUBS
BREMER – 6. Completed 95.8 percent of his passes and quieted things down a bit in the middle of the back three after the team had eased off a bit.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS 6. Good enough day in relief in the midfield, tallying a key pass and keeping the ball moving when Juve were in possession.
FRANCISCO CONCIEÇÃO – 5.5. His effort was absolutely there, making three tackles and getting into some tantalizing positions in the box, but his end product simply isn’t there right now, and he’s way too reliant on getting the ball to his left foot.
RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 7. Finally the results from a lot of effort. Made a great run down the left channel to assist Çelik’s goal before getting one of his own when Polster again came flying off his line only to whiff at the ball. Let’s hope this gets him some confidence.
AUGUSTO OWUSU – NR. Had one moment where he could’ve slipped in either Conceição or Çelik but mishit his pass. Chalk it up to a rush of blood to the head on his senior team debut. I’ll be interested to see how much more he plays.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
A Tuesday rumor that Luciano Spalletti was planning on moving to a three-man back line set off a lot of discourse — certainly so here on BWRAO — and it proved correct as the game began. Zeki Çelik moving to the right side and Weston McKennie joining him as left wing-back certainly had an effect on how the attack worked, pushing forward a bit more and creating more ways for González and Alajbegović to get themselves loose behind the striker. Starting Pape Sarr was also a huge shot in the arm. His industry and physicality was far more effective as protection for Douglas Luiz as opposed to Teun Koopmeiners on Sunday.
The tug-of-war between back three and back four was a hallmark of Spalletti’s early days after he took over for Igor Tudor, and while tactical flexibility is always a good thing, Spalletti is going to need to decide whether this return to a 3-4-2-1 constitutes the new Plan A or whether it was something that served the purpose of this game and that the 4-2-3-1 that has been his career’s hallmark is how he wants to go. He can’t float between the two and expect the team to have an identity.
The 3-4-2-1 does fit the roster well. The combination of Alajbegovic and González behind the striker is a good one, and Kolo Muani can also play behind Woltemade in this formation. Kenan Yildiz can easily be added into that mix when he returns from his foot surgery. It keeps the double pivot in midfield, which is pretty much necessary given the depth situation in midfield, and allows Çelik to return to his natural side while McKennie pulls another piece out of his Swiss Army knife to play the left.
This could work — but Spalletti needs to decide and stick to that decision.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juventus welcome Atalanta to Turin on Sunday before the new, extended international break starts. When league play resumes on Oct. 11, they’ll take a trip to Cagliari, then continue the Europa League campaign in Spain against Celta Vigo.
