When Luciano Spalletti took to the microphone this past weekend for his pre-match press conference ahead of Juventus playing Lecce, he opened the door to Dusan Vlahovic returning to the starting lineup for the first time since the big Serbian striker picked up an adductor injury that kept him out for close to four months. With how Jonathan David has struggled for large swaths of the time Vlahovic was out injured and Loïs Openda has basically fallen off the map as the 2025-26 season has gone on, seeing
Juve’s No. 9 return to the fold in a much larger role for last Saturday night’s trip to the Via del Mare — and beyond — was a notable thing for Spalletti to say.
Same goes for what Spalletti has said about Vlahovic — and Juve’s striker situation as a whole — in recent weeks, too.
Vlahovic, of course, scored for the second game running this past weekend, scoring all of 12 seconds in against Lecce in what proved to be the only goal of the night in Juventus’ 1-0 win over Lecce that sent the Bianconeri into third place. It was one heck of a way to return to the starting lineup for the first time since late-November, and certainly a goal that could prove to be vital in Juventus’ final push to qualify for the Champions League.
It was the kind of thing in which the manager had plenty of praise for his player.
Here is what Spalletti said about Vlahovic after Juventus’ win over Lecce this past weekend:
“We missed Vlahovic terribly because we don’t have someone else with his characteristics. A winning team needs a physical, strong centre-forward. Even if he’s not that tall, he still needs to be able to hold off defenders, deal with the physical duel.
“Jonathan David can score goals, but when it comes to the duel, the physical impact, that is where he struggles.”
And here is what Spalletti said before Juventus’ draw against Hellas Verona two weekends ago:
“(Vlahovic) can give us a big hand in the remaining matches this season and we don’t have someone else with his characteristics.”
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Spalletti is a big fan of what Vlahovic brings to the table. And, in turn, is totally willing to put a whole lot of faith in Vlahovic even though the Juventus No. 9 certainly has his faults — which, I’ll add, were also on display after his stunning start to the win over Lecce.
We have proof of that already from Vlahovic’s month of full of health as Spalletti was settling into life in Turin late last year. In Spalletti’s first four games in charge at Juve, Vlahovic started them all. He then was an unused sub in Juventus comeback win over Bodø/Glimt in the Arctic Circle before returning to the starting lineup for the next two Serie A fixtures against Fiorentina and Cagliari, the latter in which he suffered his adductor injury and was forced to come off at the half-hour mark.
Vlahovic is the kind of striker that Spalletti wants leading the line. He is the kind of striker that Spalletti wanted Juventus to sign in January when he himself was out injured for more than three months.
That’s why when you see transfer rumors like this about Vlahovic’s future …
… you tend to believe that one of the biggest fans that he currently has at the club is the man who fills out the starting lineups each match day, and therefore he will let it be known to the bosses if he wants a certain player to stick around or not. Knowing Spalletti’s admiration for Vlahovic, it’s just another piece to the potential puzzle of contract negotiations between Papa Vlahovic and Juventus’ front office.
At the very least, it seems pretty easy to figure out who will be lining up and leading the line against Fiorentina (whenever that game actually does take place). With what Spalletti keeps saying, it seems pretty obvious.
