Once the final whistle sounds Saturday night at the Allianz Stadium, Luciano Spalletti will hopefully have a chance to breathe a little bit. He has been Juventus’ manager for all of a week now, but he’s about to manage his third game over that span because the schedule is unrelenting in the year 2025.
And what an interesting matchup Spalletti has on the cusp of the November international break.
With a win domestically and (sigh) a draw in the Champions League to his name sice taking over for Igor Tudor
a week ago, Spalletti now turns his attention toward being part of the Derby della Mole for the first time.
That’s right — Juve’s final game before the November international break arrives is the Turin derby, as Spalletti will again get a quick introduction about what this city rivalry is like with all of a week of experience on the job. Saturday night’s matchup at the Allianz Stadium comes as Spalletti closes in on actually having five training sessions with his new club under his belt — something that is going to quickly change with the arrival of the international break. But it’s also a matchup that, while Juventus has owned in terms of wins, is always going to be one of the most intense fixtures of the season because of the simple fact that it’s a city derby that has the tendency to be a tight affair no matter how each team is playing coming into it.
Of course, it’s not like Juve have played well on the whole this season. That is why Spalletti has taken over for Tudor, who is probably back in Croatia hanging out and maybe thinking about what he wants his next coaching move to be. The first two games under Spalletti have given some encouraging signs if only because things had gotten so poor and uninspiring under Tudor. But in these first 180 or so minutes with Spalletti, there have been some encouraging signs that he can hopefully get things turned around in the right direction.
It’s a small sample size, sure. But considering how bad things had gotten with Tudor, this team feels like it’s hungry for anything to start going right with their new manager to potentially build upon.
The catch in all this? Here’s the amount of points each club has recorded over their past six games …
- Juventus: 8
- Torino: 9
No, that’s not a typo, folks. That’s the God’s honest truth. For as much as Torino struggled during the first month of the 2025-26 season, they’ve been able to turn things around under first-year manager and former Juventus primavera coach Marco Baroni. And it’s come at the same time as Juve’s length winless run that ultimately cost Tudor has job and why we’re now talking about Spalletti as the club’s new manager.
Juventus have dominated this matchup over the years. That’s not breaking news to pretty much anybody who has paid attention to it. Whether it’s 1-0 or 2-0 win or one that sees five or six goals scored, Juventus have rarely lost to their little brother from the other side of Turin.
So even with Spalletti’s limited time with Juventus, he will be the one who is looked at to keep the dominance over Torino going. And if he can do that, then Juve will be heading into the November international break with some positive vibes if nothing else. That’s not really something we could say all that often over the first two months or so of the season under Tudor.
For now, though, it’s about this team taking positive steps forward on a consistent basis whenever they take the field. No matter how small they may be.
TEAN NEWS
- Spalletti didn’t hold a pre-match press conference due to Juventus’ shareholders’ meeting also being on Friday, so there were no updates in terms of player availability for Saturday’s derby.
- But here’s who we know definitely won’t play against Torino: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal, Carlo Pinsoglio, Lloyd Kelly and the perma-injured Arek Milik.
- There is a chance, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, that Khephren Thuram could be rested against Torino. If that’s the case, then Weston McKennie would kick inside alongside Manuel Locatelli and Filip Kostic would likely come into the starting lineup, according to Gazzetta.
- The other possible decision Spalletti will have to make with his starting lineup will be between Francisco Conceição and Loïs Openda.
- As has been the case the last couple of weeks, Teun Koopmeiners — who has found a home playing on the left side of Spalletti’s three-man backline — is one yellow card away from having to serve a suspension. (Juve’s first game out of the November international break is against last-place (!!!) Fiorentina, by the way.)
- Juventus are unbeaten in their last 22 games against Torino in all competitions.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
If we’ve learned anything about Spalletti’s very short time as Juventus manager so far, it’s that the highest-paid player in the league is back to being a central component of his setup. So much of that previous sentence was something that none of us really considered a couple of months ago, let alone over the summer.
And who can disagree with that the way Juve’s No. 9 has played over Spalletti’s first two games in charge, right?
You ride the hot hand sometimes — and this is certainly one of those cases.
Yes, Dusan Vlahovic is back to being the main man in attack for Juventus. Well, I guess you could say co-star alongside Kenan Yildiz considering the youngster’s continued development into a budding star this season, but you can probably understand where I’m going with this.
Vlahovic is not only playing under Spalletti, he’s starting … and he’s playing as well as he has all season.
Bet you didn’t have that on your preseason bingo card, did ya?!
Here we are, though. Vlahovic has played incredibly well under Spalletti over the past week. There will always be the catch that it comes at a time in which other clubs are probably weighing up if they want to try and sign him on a free come the new year. But it also comes as reports are starting to pop that maybe, just maybe, Juve are thinking about sitting down with Vlahovic and his agent and discussing a potential contract extension beyond the 2025-26 season.
Bet you also didn’t have that last part on your preseason bingo card, too!
But here’s the thing with Vlahovic and his current form: Juventus need it. Like, really need it and need it to continue because their other strikers outside of Yildiz have been a rather disappointing group of performers. Jonathan David looks devoid of confidence and is playing as such. Same goes for Loïs Openda even as he’s played alongside Vlahovic of late. So that leaves Vlahovic for Spalletti to build the attack around along with Yildiz.
And, with how Vlahovic has played of late, it’s hard to think Spalletti should do anything else.
So that brings us to another thing we’ve brought up with Vlahovic ever since his big-money move from Fiorentina: Can he keep this really good run of form going? At this rate, who knows. We’ve asked ourselves that question a lot of times over his Juventus career — and a lot of the time the answer has been a pretty resounding “no.” He is a streaky striker if there ever was one, so now we get to see just how long this good run goes.
Yes, he is playing for his next contract. That is probably somewhere other than Juventus, but even if there’s a chance that it is in Turin, then he’s playing at least close to the player who is paid €12 million net a season right now. Let’s just hope he can keep that going because it would certainly help Spalletti solve one of Juve’s biggest issues of late.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 11 a.m. Central time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video, foxsports.com, Fox Sports app (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada; Amazon Prime Video; Fubo Sports Network Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
