When Juventus faced former manager Antonio Conte for the first time as Napoli manager, it was very much a case of seeing a work in progress. Conte’s first Serie A game at Napoli ended with him comparing his team to snow melting in the sun during his media rounds, and made you think the job ahead of him was going to be a massive one for a club that was an absolute turnstile for managers the season before.
That was in mid-September.
Now we’re in late-January and, well, Juventus’ second matchup with Napoli comes under a very different kind of guise to it.
As we continue to wonder if Juventus will ever fully leave the Land of Draws over the next few weeks, Thiago Motta’s squad head to Naples with Saturday night’s opposition now very much leading the league despite that notable season-opening slip-up. That melting in the snow has rarely been seen from Antonio Conte’s men, with Napoli set to provide Juventus with yet another measuring stick to see where things actually are as we prepare to see a busy month of January come to an end shortly.
Conte’s Napoli lead Serie A by three points over reigning champions Inter Milan — giving Juventini a 1-2 punch of less-than desirable options in terms of who will win the league again this season. And not only are they leading the league, but they’ve eclipsed Juve for the best defense in Serie A, as the Bremer-less days go on and constantly remind us just what things were like in August and September but now no longer are the case.
Just for added measure, Conte and Napoli are doing this under the very obvious point that they’re doing this without Victor Osimhen after his falling out with the club and have just sold Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain for €70 million, a massive profit after signing him for all of around €12 million just 2 1⁄2 years ago.
The team that is currently leading Serie A looks quite different than the one that ended their title drought of three-plus decades two seasons ago. And Conte, unsurprisingly, is taking full advantage of his team having no European football and playing just one game a week.
The one team in this matchup that does have European football this season is still very much in an uncertain state as they head to southern Italy. Are they the team that put forward one of their best performances of the season last weekend against Milan? Or are they the team that did just about the opposite of that against Club Brugge in the Champions League? Most of the results this season would tell you Juve’s more of the latter than the former, but there’s that performance against Milan just dangling out in front of all of us like a carrot just hoping it might be something we see more often.
There is no doubt that Napoli will be a step up from a Milan that was both hampered by injuries and suspensions as well as still very much adjusting to life under a new manager. Napoli’s “new” manager has them thinking Scudetto again — which, as I would like to remind you, was not exactly something the club had done all that often for the previous three decades before winning the title two years ago.
“We are ready to face this important challenge,” Motta declared during his pre-match press conference.
We are going to find out soon enough — and on Napoli’s home turf, no less.
If Juventus play like did the last time they lined up against Italian opposition, then you certainly have to believe that is the case. But if it’s like what we saw midweek against Club Brugge, then it might look a lot like what we’ve seen in the last couple of trips to Naples.
TEAM NEWS
- The only three players out injured for the trip to Naples are the long-term absences: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik. At this point, it really is anybody’s guess — at least from those of us on the outside — when Milik will actually return to the field and make his season debut.
- New Juventus striker Randal Kolo Muani, whose move to Turin was officially announced Thursday, is in the squad. (We’ll probably be talking a little more about him in a minute.)
- Fellow January signing Alberto Costa is also in the squad that has made the trip south to Naples, but is not expected to start against the current league leaders.
- Another January loan signing, Chelsea defender Renato Veiga, is expected to arrive in Italy on Sunday with his medical exams to take place on Monday morning, according to reports.
- With Danilo’s departure from Juventus expected to be announced soon, Manuel Locatelli has taken over as the main player to wear the captain’s armband. It’s a process in which Motta described as “he became captain naturally.”
- What’s going to be a key, according to Motta, for Juventus against Napoli? He said the following: “We want to implement our style of play and attack them with balance in order to cause them problems.”
- Nicolo Fagioli remains the only Juventus player who is one yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
There is a new striker finally in town.
And if you believe those who try and predict the starting lineups, said new striker in town could very well get the starting nod all of a couple of days after officially signing with Juventus.
Therefore, we will now talk about that new striker in town.
-Photo by ANP via Getty Images
That’s right, my friends. The arrival with Randal Kolo Muani has now coincided with the 26-year-old Frenchman jumping right into the starting lineup against the team that has been the best in Italy through the first 21 matchdays. Is that a surprise? Maybe. Is it a sign of how things are when it comes to Juventus’ attack right now? Yeah, probably.
But even with the highest-paid player in Serie A, Dusan Vlahovic, now with a couple of appearances off the bench since coming back from a minor muscle injury, it looks as though it will be the new striker getting a starting spot against Napoli.
Now, that is something considering the profile of Kolo Muani is very much different from that of Vlahovic, who last scored in Serie A on Dec. 14 against Venezia.
So what will Kolo Muani give Juventus that Vlahovic might not be able to replicate? Well, for one, it’s pace up front, which in turn should certainly make him a little more dangerous while trying to press Napoli’s backline when Juve don’t have the ball. (And we all know how Vlahovic feels about pressing compared to scoring goals.)
There’s certainly some curiosity when it comes to Kolo Muani and how he fits into this Juventus puzzle for the second half of the season. There are rumors that Motta could have more of a 4-3-3 look compared to his usual 4-2-3-1, which could be a positive shift in more ways than one. No matter what it ends up being, Kolo Muani leading the line seems like it has a pretty chance of happening.
At the very least, with Kolo Muani in there, the chances of seeing what kind of goal dance he cooks up with countryman Khephren Thuram will go up. And that, my friends, seems like something I would like to see not just because it would mean Juventus just scored a goal.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.
Where: Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Naples, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+fuboTV, foxsports.com, Fox Sports app (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found hereand as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
