5 Things you need to know about Juventus ahead of the Serie A season

1. First up in our Serie A previews for the upcoming season are Juventus, led by Luciano Spalleti who is looking to recreate the magic that brought his Napoli side to the Scudetto back in 2023. Last season was a rollercoaster for Juventus with Igor Tudor starting the season off well with three wins in a row including a famous 4-3 win over Inter Milan in Turin, it all went downhill after that however with five league games in a row without a win eventually costing the Croatian his job at the end of October. Spalleti was appointed and immediately had Juventus playing far better football but their inconsistency was holding them back from challenging for the league, by the end of May it looked like Champions League football was all but secured but a defeat at home to Fiorentina and a draw to Torino on the last day meant they missed out on the top 4 by two points. They made it to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia where they where knocked out by Atalanta losing 3-0 in Bergamo, the Champions League tie against Galatasaray looked dead and buried after a 5-2 loss in Turkey left Juve with a mountain to climb in Turin for the second leg. A mountain that they so nearly climbed getting to extra-time despite Lloyd Kelly getting wrongfully sent off in the 49th minute, two Galatasaray goals in extra-time ended what would have been one of the great Champions League comebacks but it did show the capability of this team under Spalleti. What can they achieve this season?

2. How has Juventus’ transfer window gone so far? Juventus have been relatively active in the market so far bringing in Randal Kolo-Muani from PSG after his successful loan spell a couple of seasons ago, Lois Openda’s loan last season was with a mandatory buy option so that has gone through this season but after his disastrous season last year he immediately been loaned to Lyon, Kerim Alajbegovic has been brought in from Bayer Leverkusen following a successful World Cup with Bosnia on the wing, Jhon Lucumi has been brought in from Bologna as a centre-back option, Jeff Ekhator has come in from Nice as a young striker option, Guglielmo Vicario has come in on loan from Spurs as a goalkeeper, finally as of now Zeki Celik has come in on a free transfer as an option for right-back. In terms of outgoings there are a few to take note of with Timothy Weah going to Marseille, Openda going to Lyon as stated above along with Dusan Vlahovic and Filip Kostic leaving following the end of their contracts in the summer. Do Juventus need anything else before the window closes? I think they need a striker.

3. How has Juventus’ pre-season gone so far? Juventus kicked off their pre-season with a 0-0 draw against Basel in Belgium in the middle of July, after that came a 1-0 win over Standard Liege with Fabio Meretti scoring the only goal of the game. Next up came a 2-0 win over Nice with Douglas Luiz and Justin Oboavwoduo scoring both goals for Juventus, following that came a high-profile 1-0 win over Chelsea with Edin Zhegrova scoring his first goal for the club after coming in last season. A few days later they lost 2-1 to Inter with Francisco Conceicao scoring Juve’s only goal of the game, Juve’s last pre-season game was a 2-0 win over Palermo with Kenan Yildiz and Arkadiusz Milik scoring the two goals for Juventus to round out their pre-season. Plenty of games to build up to the new season so Spalleti will be hoping to start off strong against Frosinone on Sunday.

4. Who are the players to watch for Juventus this season? The first player to watch for me anyway is Randal Kolo-Muani, he was absolutely abysmal on loan at Spurs last season but at Juventus the season before he was absolutely sensational so I can understand why Juve have gone in for him again this summer. The question is whether or not Juventus will get the same Kolo-Muani that they got a couple of seasons ago? Spalleti will certainly be hoping so. The next player to watch this season has to be Kerim Alajbegovic who’s come in this summer from Bayer Leverkusen, he had a breakout World Cup for Bosnia and Herzegovina that had the likes of Chelsea after him so I’d be very excited if I was a Juventus fan about this signing. Even at just 18 years of age he looks a class act on that right-wing so I’m looking forward to watching him this season. The final player to watch this season has to be Kenan Yildiz, we all know by now that he’s a top player but towards the back end of last season there was signs something wasn’t quite right with him for some reason, he brought that form into the World Cup with Turkey which was a complete disaster getting knocked out in the group stage. Juventus have shown him faith by giving him a new contract so they’ll hope he repays them by having a brilliant season this year, I suspect he’ll get right back to form at the start of this season. Am I missing anyone that’s going to shine for Juventus this season?

5. Predictions for Juventus this season? The Serie A is almost impossible to predict every year with how volatile the league is but I’d imagine the minimum expectation on Spalleti this season is to get back into the top 4 whether that’s through league position or the Europa League, the question then is whether or not Juventus are in a position to challenge for the title this season if Inter somehow fall apart under Chivu? It’s hard to know but there is real potential in this team with the likes of Yildiz, Thuram, Bremer, Alajbegovic, Kolo-Muani etc to do something special. The Napoli team of 22/23 that won the league is one of my favourite teams of all time so we know Spalleti has the ability to win the league out of nowhere when nobody predicts it, I can see them going very far in the Europa League but I think the Serie A is one step too far for this side. I’m open to being proved wrong tough.