For 2 1⁄2 weeks now, Juventus players have been training and training and training some more. The new methods of first-year manager Thiago Motta have certainly already been noticed by the players who have been worked quite hard by the entire coaching staff.
But Friday evening will see something different than the two-a-days grind that comes with the first couple of weeks of preseason. Yep, on Friday, Juventus will get to take the field against somebody other than their own teammates and play their first friendly of the summer.
It comes at a time in which the squad is still very much shorthanded and even more in transition as Cristiano Giuntoli is probably doing nothing but being on the phone behind the scenes. You get the sense that the squad we see walk onto the field at the Max-Morlock-Stadion against Nürnberg will be quite different than the one we see opening up the 2024-25 season against Como a few weeks from now more a multitude of reasons.
The ultimate reason besides Juventus playing games again — sure, these next few won’t count for much when it comes to wins and losses — is that there’s very much a newness to everything even though the squad feels far from a completely finished entity. This is the first time we will see Motta on the sidelines and what he has been able to do with his limited squad No matter how your favorite player (if he is there) plays, what Motta offers up will be the No. 1 takeaway regardless because this is very much now his team and his project to build from the ground up over the next few weeks, months and years to come.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. (11 a.m. EST and 8 a.m. PST) at the Max-Morlock-Stadion. It will be streamed live in the U.S. on the CBS Sports Golazo Network. Other viewing options can be found here.
Thiago’s tactics
Even with far from a full squad at his disposal, this is the big one.
That’s because this is the first time we will get to see something from Motta’s squad outside of training videos that are edited to show you something but not show potential opponents too much in terms of what the team is doing on the training field. Those videos of Motta’s first days as Juve manager have been very good and I’ve obviously enjoyed them. But, even in a friendly environment, this is our first true sight of what Motta’s Juve will potentially offer up come a few weeks from now against Como at the Allianz.
So now we get to see what Motta has been trying to get across in training.
The caveats are there — the opponent isn’t anything special (or even in the top flight of German football), the squad is extremely shorthanded with a ton of players from the Next Gen squad, a host of important players are either back in Turin just starting up training or still on their respective holiday breaks. It’s all there and all very much
But, again, this is the first glimpse of what Motta and the squad he has at his disposal so far this summer have been working on. It’s clearly not gong to be anything close to the finished product, but it most definitely the start of something that we hope turns into the real deal.
Anticipation for Adžić
Vasilije Adžić might have already had your attention even before he stepped onto the training fields at Continassa a couple of weeks ago. For that, I salute you because you are either wanting to see what he could actually do or went down a massive YouTube rabbit hole when trying to find highlights of him in Montenegro.
But Adžić is now here.
And Adžić is now a very interesting one to keep an eye on.
From what we know, he will be somebody who bounces between the senior team and the Next Gen squad. Just for how long that might be the case is anybody’s guess at this point simply because we’ve seen that happen a handful of time before mostly for depth reasons rather than to have somebody contribute at both levels on a regular basis. So, at some point, Adžić will either get valuable experience with the Next Gen squad without being in a pressure-packed environment OR he will be a regular call-up by Motta because he’s done nothing but force Juve’s new manager to do so.
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Many hope that Adžić will be the first diamond in the rough that Cristiano Giuntoli discovers in a random league from a small country that ends up being a big-time talent. Considering that he has been handed the number that Samuel Iling-Junior wore last season and has already been training with Motta the entire preseason, they’ve already gotten a good look at what the 18-year-old is capable of doing at this point of his very young career.
Or, for now, we can just go with what he said during his first meeting with the Italian press since coming to Juventus in between training sessions on Wednesday. When asked what kind of player he is, the young Montenegrin had a simple reply:
“I’m Adžić.”
We’ll just go with that for now because that’s a very good answer. And it’s pretty easy to figure out that Adžić will be one of the more anticipated appearances whenever he does end up taking the field against Nürnberg on Friday.
Di Gregorio in goal
If you are a big Michele Di Gregorio fan and were thinking of buying his jersey in the next few days, just go ahead and wait. That’s because his favorite number of 16 is still very much still occupied as Juve try and offload Weston McKennie. And it also means that Di Gregorio will make his unofficial Juve debut wearing the very non-goalkeeper kind of number of ...
... 29?!
Ah, yes. That classic goalkeeper number of 29. That’s a good one.
So while we wait for Di Gregorio to get a more suitable number before Juve opens up their season next month against Como, we will first get to see him prepare to be the next starting goalkeeper at Juventus.
That is a position that comes with massive expectations based on who has occupied the same position over the last couple of decades. When it comes to Di Gregorio, he has arrived at Juventus after quite the two-year run with Monza as he quickly became one of the best keepers in Serie A, with top goalkeeper honors being earned last season.
He’s got big shoes to fill after Tek Szczesny’s very good run as Juventus’ starter in goal after replacing Gigi Buffon in 2018. But we also know that Di Gregorio is going to be more than just a simple shot stopper in Motta’s system. This is where the attacks start, and his distribution skills are a big reason why Juventus went out and signed him this summer.
So, a lot like his new manager, the early days are here to show us how he’s adjusting to his new club and beign such a big piece of the new project in Turin. And if he’s able to do jsut as well as the guy he’s succeeding in goal as the months go on this coming season, then Juve will know they’ve got another long-term starter between the sticks.
Keeping up with Khéphren
Earlier this week, we got Khéphren Cam (Kam?) on Juventus’ social media channels. And to say that it didn’t get me a little fired up for what the second generation of Thuram has the ability to do would very much be me trying to tell you something that isn’t true.
I am here for Khéphren Cam. Give me all the Khéphren Cam you want.
The very short clip above is very much what I think we should come to expect from Thuram as he begins his career in Turin. He’s all gas and no brakes — he just goes, goes, goes. And there’s really no stopping him because he is just the kind of midfielder who will never stop running at any certain point.
Out of all of Juve’s summer signings thus far, Thuram is the one that I am probably the most intrigued by simply because he’s the kind of midfielder that you feel like Juve needs right now. You could say the same about Douglas Luiz as well, but Thuram is very much a young and up-and-coming midfielder who can do a lot of different things.
We’re obviously still waiting to see where Motta goes with his formation — 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1 seem to be the picks to click right now — but you just know that Thuram is going to be a big part of things no matter what. He’s got a massive amount of potential, and he’s young enough to very much grow into that massive amount of talent that he has.
For now, like Di Gregorio, it’s about getting up to speed at Juventus and adjusting to life with Motta as his manager. You can already see that Motta isn’t afraid to chat individually with his players, and Thuram is very much one of them. So while Thuram is familiar with Juventus the club because of his dad, this version of the club he’s literally known since birth is a ltitle different now. So let’s see what he can do because watching him cover a whole lot of ground all over the field is going to be fun to watch.
Where’s Beans?
Think for a few seconds about just how chaotic Nicolo Fagioli’s life off the field must have been about 12 months ago.
Now that you’ve got that out of the way, you can now think about how much more (thankfully) stable Fagioli’s life is.
It has been a busy couple of months for Fagioli since making his return to the field in the spring following his gambling suspension. The biggest thing was obviously being a part of Italy’s roster that flopped at the Euros. He was the first member of the Azzurri roster to check back in for preseason training — which, you have to believe, was a clear sign that he is ready to get the new season going after a disappointing and short stay at the Euros.
Well, Fagioli is now back in Germany as Juve’s training camp at Adidas HQ is coming to an end. And the vibes surrounding Fagioli are much, much different — in a good kind of way! — and how Motta might end up using him this coming season.
As Juve continue to chase Atalanta midfielder Teun Koopmeiners, there’s rumors that Fagioli could very well be deployed as a No. 10 if Motta goes with the 4-2-3-1 formation that many expect him to. If that’s the case, then it’s certainly an interesting development for a player who has shown he’s certainly capable of playing higher up the field because of his technical ability and willingness to put shots toward goal.
Now we just get to find out what feels like a much more mature — and definitely less chaotic — version of Fagioli can do with Motta helping him along the way. Sounds good to me.