Kolo Muani's Crisis at Juve: Spalletti's Backing, Role, Expectations, and Fitness Under Scrutiny

The Frenchman, who cost €38 million plus €12 million in bonuses and was pursued for almost two months in the summer, is still without a goal in Serie A and showed clear difficulties against Milan. However, the Juventus coach is determined to start him away at Sassuolo. 'David and Openda, get out of this body!' Joking aside, some Juve fans, seeing Kolo Muani's initial performances in his second stint in the black and white shirt, have considered an exorcism to try and break the curse that seems to have afflicted all Juventus strikers in recent years. They arrived with huge expectations, only to become unrecognisable on the pitch: lightweight, timid, making glaring errors in front of goal and booed (as the former PSG man was last night) by the Allianz Stadium crowd. But what is happening to the Frenchman, whose bandwagon Spalletti has no intention of abandoning? Juve, Kolo Muani Struggles: The Stats — Against Milan, Kolo Muani touched the ball just 32 times, winning only one out of five aerial duels attempted and only two out of eleven on the ground. He failed to dribble past an opponent in any of his three attempts and didn't manage a single shot on target. After the stick approach following the Frosinone match ('we know his value, but he needs to realise he hasn't played for two years and there's a reason for that,' he had stung), this time the Bianconeri coach opted for the carrot, taking full responsibility for the decision. 'I got on his bandwagon by choosing him and wanting him as a striker. By the end of the season, you'll be talking about him differently,' Spalletti clarified with a hint of pride, convinced that it's more a problem of approach and mentality than a positional issue (as suggested by the mere 14 duels won out of 54 contested in the first 270 minutes of the league, a symptom of difficulty playing with his back to goal). 'Like Dzeko, he has everything to become an absolute top player, but he must learn not to be satisfied with scoring one or two goals or playing a good match: he needs to dig deep into his full potential,' the Juve coach implied. Kolo Muani Lacks Sharpness — However, there's another aspect that certainly shouldn't be underestimated: the protracted negotiations to bring Kolo Muani back to Turin, which began in June and concluded only on 2nd August with the official announcement of his €38 million plus €12 million in bonuses acquisition from PSG, likely affected the striker's physical condition. Dropped from the squad on 18th July, he was forced to train with the youth team for at least two weeks, thus missing out on proper pre-season preparation. In short, he needs time and minutes to regain his sharpness. Whatever the reason for his crisis, Spalletti is not abandoning the bandwagon and is determined to give him another start in Sunday's upcoming away match against Sassuolo. And, as he hinted before and after the Milan match, he will also work on a possible partnership with Woltemade, which would allow him to roam more freely and have fewer 'dirty balls' to clean up. Perhaps, however, as often happens with strikers, a goal (which he hasn't scored for 173 days) might be all Kolo needs to break his duck. Without resorting to exorcisms... This article was originally written in Italian by La Gazzetta dello Sport editor. The English version has been generated using AI translation tools. If you notice any translation errors or have suggestions, please contact us at iniziativegazzetta@rcs.it