The Bianconeri coach on the eve of the match against Lazio: “It’s wonderful to think we’ll have him on the team for as many years as possible. Kelly and Conceiçao are still to be evaluated.”

“My contract renewal after Yilidz’s? If I can earn it like Kenan did, maybe it will be possible. I often talk to Elkann on the phone, I feel very close to him and he is very involved: with him by our side, we feel very strong.” Luciano Spalletti toasts the extension of his number ten until 2030, but remains tight-lipped about his own contract (“I’m coming to the end of mine, but there are games to play that could change everyone’s mind, and right now I’m focused on those”). However, he makes one thing clear about the future: “One of the best qualities a coach can have is the ability to get players bought. You need strong players with personality and quality. People from Juve, with important goals. The coach can commit, but he determines who is on the field. If I were to be the coach again next year, we would work with the club to do important things, not make useless investments.“ Yildiz, as CEO Damien Comolli pointed out, is only the first piece of an ambitious project: ” Kenan’s permanence,“ continues the Bianconeri coach, ”is a good sign for the whole of Juventus. Yildiz is a 20-year-old leader and transmits strength to the team: champions make the team shine and influence the collective. Kenan has that burst of speed and that lightning-fast one-on-one that gives you great advantages to immediately create something important. He is a young, clean-cut, and cheerful guy: he jokes with everyone. Knowing how to get along with people and understand them is a very important quality.“

Yildiz renews and, above all, returns to the spotlight after his fatigue in Parma and his time on the bench in Bergamo, which cost the team elimination in the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia: ”Yildiz is available for tomorrow’s match against Lazio, Conceicao we’ll see. Boga and Holm? They are strong and can give us a hand. Jeremie can start on the left, but also cover other positions: he can dribble past players and has good footwork, he showed personality in Bergamo. I’ve known Holm for longer because my wife is from Spezia and I often followed him when he was there in the past.“ Kelly is also in doubt: ”I’ll decide tomorrow. We’re talking about a very strong defender who is not yet exploiting all his qualities: for example, he has a powerful left foot that could even take free kicks.“ From defense to fluid attack, always on the shoulders of Joanthan David and the versatile Weston McKennie. ”Once upon a time, the center forward was the end point, now he is the starting point. The striker opens up space for others to get involved, like we do with McKennie. Then, of course, the number nine in the opponent’s half must also know how to finish. Conceicao, on the other hand, needs to grow and learn to recognize the ball that can change the course of a game: the ball obeys the idea before it obeys the foot. Instinct cannot always give you the right solution.”

EYE ON SARRI—  After being eliminated from the Coppa Italia and ahead of next week’s Derby d’Italia, Spalletti does not want any jokes against Lazio. “We play against the future every time, we must not be influenced by what lies ahead. We must have a strong mentality that cannot be broken.“ The former coach does not trust Maurizio Sarri, the last coach to win the Scudetto with Juventus: ”If you let Sarri’s Lazio have the ball, they develop more things. There are games that make you feel a little incomplete, but we always try to have more possession. Watch out for Maurizio’s Lazio, they are stronger than their current position in the table.“ Spalletti concludes with a joke about the player-result debate: ”Players and results, there are also those who balance the two… From my point of view, the more you keep the ball, the more you bring the game to your side, but you have to evaluate each situation, it’s not just about that.”