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Massara’s surprise moves leave major doubts: a goalkeeper on loan is not the Juventus way

Juventus are still missing four key pieces in the transfer market for a side that wants to get back to winning ways.

Juventus’s new management has made some headway, but with two weeks left before the start of the league season and a little over three weeks before the transfer window shuts, the squad still has several major gaps. On the positive side, Giovanni Carnevali’s patient work has finally, after a year, untangled the talks needed to bring Randal Kolo Muani back to Continassa, while reports from Marco Ottolini persuaded everyone to move for Jeff Ekhator. Then came Frederic Massara, whose arrival gave the market a real shake-up and provided the disruptive spark, leading to the surprise signings of Zeki Celik and Kerim Alajbegovic.

That is the encouraging part. The less encouraging side is much harder to overlook, because Juventus still have not fixed their biggest problems, some of them long-standing ones: a goalkeeper, a defender who is comfortable on the ball and can start moves from the back, a deep-lying midfielder and a penalty-box centre-forward.

Can Juventus really go for a goalkeeper on loan?

Juventus are still carrying Di Gregorio, Perin and Pinsoglio as their goalkeepers. The issue is that second-choice and third-choice keepers Perin and Pinsoglio are both out of contract in a year, while first-choice goalkeeper Di Gregorio, whose deal runs until 2029, satisfies neither Spalletti nor the club and is close to being an outsider in Turin, not least because of the sensational case involving his agent in July. So far, Juventus have found neither a solution for Di Gregorio nor a new first-choice goalkeeper. Alisson and Dibu Martinez were the main targets, but both options have faded away, while other names, such as Vicario, are not fully convincing either. The latest idea is to take Suzuki on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, if the French club first buy the Japanese goalkeeper from Parma. But can a club like Juventus really aim to rebuild a winning side with a goalkeeper, one of the most decisive roles after what happened last season, arriving only on loan?

With Lucumi, it would be goodbye to the low block

At the back, the pairings in a back four from right to left are: Kalulu and Celik, Bremer and Gatti, Kelly and Rugani, Cambiaso and Cabal. But, just as in goal, the quality of some of these players does not fully convince Spalletti. For the kind of football the Tuscan coach wants his side to play, for instance, a player such as Lucumi would fit better than Gatti: the Bologna defender is used to operating around 10 metres higher up the pitch than the former Frosinone player and is stronger in the build-up phase, while Gatti gives his best in a low block and in one-against-one defensive situations. The latest reports suggest the gap between Juventus and Bologna has narrowed for the Colombian, whose arrival could then lead to the exit of one among Gatti, Rugani and Kelly.

Locatelli is not enough

In midfield, with 4-2-3-1 as the reference system, the current Juventus squad has far too many central midfielders, seven in total: Locatelli, McKennie, Thuram, Koopmeiners, Miretti, Douglas Luiz and Arthur. The first three are almost untouchable, while Juventus are ready to listen to offers for Koopmeiners and Miretti. Then there are the two Brazilians, who remain a question mark: in theory, they would be the first two candidates to leave, but surprisingly one of them could still end up staying. What remains difficult to understand, though, is that after years and numerous changes in the boardroom, there is still no true deep-lying playmaker capable of trying to follow first Pirlo’s path and then Pjanic’s. Locatelli certainly made major progress over the last year, but can he really be the deep-lying regista of a Juventus side that wins again? Here too, as in the other departments, the same point keeps coming back: there are many players, but the quality level is not especially high.

And Vlahovic’s replacement?

There is strength in numbers in attack as well: for the four attacking roles in the 4-2-3-1, Juventus currently have as many as 10 players available: Alajbegovic, Kolo Muani, Ekhator, Nico Gonzalez, Boga, Conceicao, David, Milik, Yildiz and Zhegrova. But here too, to repeat the same point, there are many doubts: Nico Gonzalez will be sold, with only the destination and fee still to be decided, while David, Milik and Zhegrova are also on the market, despite the goal against Chelsea. Then there is the long-standing centre-forward issue: Kolo Muani is a good option to bring back, but he is a mobile attacker and not the physical central striker Spalletti would ideally like to have. Put simply, despite having 10 forwards in the squad, Vlahovic’s replacement is still not there.

A goalkeeper, a defender who can build from the back, a deep-lying playmaker and a centre-forward: these were supposed to be Juventus’s first priorities, but for now the club has focused on other areas of the market instead.