Spalletti: Douglas Luiz understands he cannot hold the ball too long; Sarr is comfortable with any tactical system

At 02:45 on September 14 Beijing Time (CEST), Juventus will face Sassuolo away in Serie A's 4th round. On the eve of the match, Juventus head coach Luciano Spalletti attended a press conference. This article is the second part of that press conference.

Good afternoon, coach. I'm curious about Douglas Luiz: would you say he's one of your most unexpected, brilliant, and surprising signings?

No, Douglas Luiz is not a gamble at all; he's an undeniably top-level player in football. He has already proven himself to be a strong, elite player in many places. He may have just needed to regain confidence in his abilities, which has helped him fully recover his best form.

When he first arrived, he tended to hold the ball too much and sometimes liked to dribble. Now he understands that the faster the ball moves, the more opportunities he'll have to touch it, because his primary activity area is in front of defense and in the penalty box—and as the ball circulates, it will eventually reach him. If he frequently runs to the wing to help create numerical superiority locally, as we've shown before, he'll find the ball passes him four or five times without him touching it once. When he tries to run back to his defensive pivot position, there's no one there to pick him up—he has to sprint back on his own. At that point, he easily loses control of the game, and loses the rhythm and frequency of ball possession he could control with his feet.

He does excellent work combining long and short passes. He not only has outstanding stamina but also exceptional physical fitness—despite not being tall, he's strong in duels, can hold off opponents, competes hard, and is willing to run for his teammates until his last breath. So this is Douglas Luiz, and these are all the best qualities he naturally possesses. I don't play a special role in that.

Good afternoon. First, can you give us an update on the injured players' recovery? Also, I'd like to ask about Aquilani. I think his coaching path has been very smart and methodical: starting with the youth team, then the reserve team, performing brilliantly in Serie B last season, and now making a big step up to Serie A. Given that you've coached him before, did you sense back then that he would become a great coach? What do you think of his impressive coaching performance now?

Let me start with Aquilani then. Yes, I did anticipate at that time that he would become an excellent coach, because he was a player with outstanding qualities during his playing days. When he was at Roma, he was the type of player who could illuminate the entire team with flashes of inspiration, because he had a unique understanding of ball possession, and even though he was still very young then, he showed very strong characteristics on the pitch. Those characteristics are very evident in his tactical choices.

Now, the tactical solutions he provided to his team as a player are still clearly visible in the teams he coaches: you can see he has a very clear vision of his football philosophy. I'm not surprised by this at all, and I naturally extend my sincere congratulations to him.

Regarding the injured players' recovery... who exactly are you referring to? McKennie and Cambiaso will likely be very difficult to field tomorrow—very difficult—because tomorrow is match day. But the general idea is this: tomorrow morning we'll do a final fitness test on Cambiaso, and for McKennie, we'll ask him to prepare directly for the next match on Thursday, because we don't want to take any risks.

We'll assess Cambiaso, and he'll be on standby. However, the logic behind building this squad is having two strong players at every position. When I select the starting eleven, I know in my heart that there are eleven other starting-level players on the bench, because that's how football works.

This means that even if we lose a player to injury, we're fully capable of bringing in another starting-level player and giving another player the chance to be the protagonist of the match. It's not just about losing a starter, but more about gaining the opportunity to find more protagonists. This is a fundamental shift in perspective: not "we lost someone," but "new players are ready." We feel this strongly, and it was the original intention behind building our squad.

So we must face the match with full confidence, because a strong squad is never determined by "absent injured players," but by the "quality" it demonstrates on the pitch. You'll see the quality we show, and this depends on the strong desire of our players to prove themselves and their desire to convince all Juventus fans that the players we've chosen are fully capable of playing for this club.

Good afternoon, coach. I'd like to follow up on my colleague's question and ask about your initial impressions of working with Pape Sarr over the last few days. What kind of contributions can he bring to midfield? How many minutes of fitness has he recovered so far? Also, I'd like to ask about Owusu: given the current injury crisis, will he become a permanent member of the first-team squad from now on?

Pape Sarr is a very interesting and promising player, as we've mentioned several times before, because he can thrive in any tactical environment. He's a very versatile player with exceptional running ability; you can always see him appearing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. When you think the team's tactical framework can't advance to a certain position, you'll find that Pape Sarr is already there, because he has strong attacking runs and abundant stamina.

As he covers the pitch, he also demonstrates very high tactical quality—he knows how to compete, has excellent technical details, and is skilled at timing his runs and finishing. We're confident we have a strong player, and if needed for tomorrow's match, he will likely start showing this to everyone from tomorrow onwards.

Owusu is a promising young player with many outstanding qualities. He still needs to gain more match experience and better understand himself, but in terms of physical fitness, he's clearly a tough "physical presence." When you collide with him in a duel, he causes many problems. When he shields the ball, it's very difficult for others to win it back; he has rhythm, can run, and covers a lot of ground. He just needs to learn to anticipate better during play—because on the football pitch, when everyone sees your intentions, the game becomes difficult; but being able to understand changes in the situation at the first moment gives you a decisive advantage you can maintain until the end.

Diterjemahkan oleh AI.

Situs web AF kini hadir! Lihat berita lengkap, komentar, detail pertandingan, dan statistik di komputer Anda. Kunjungi: www.allfootballapp.com