Spalletti wants Juventus to turn one good night into a habit
Luciano Spalletti says Juventus must repeat the signs shown in beating Napoli when they travel to face an unbeaten AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League, with eight players missing through injury.
Luciano Spalletti has told Juventus that Sunday's 2-0 win over Napoli means little unless it becomes a pattern, warning that a repeat performance in the Europa League trip to AZ Alkmaar is essential or the club risks losing the ground it just gained.
Juventus travel to Alkmaar unbeaten in this season's Europa League, having won two and drawn 2-2 with Stade Rennais, according to Football Italia. The result against Napoli lifted a side that had been searching for rhythm domestically, and Spalletti framed the Dutch trip as the first real test of whether that lift can be sustained.
"That match showed clear signals, it is important to recognise their power and repeat them with more emphasis and consistency in future, otherwise we go straight back to square one," Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia. "From here on is the opportunity for real growth."
An injury list that forces the hand on rotation
The squad Spalletti has to work with is heavily depleted. Weston McKennie, Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Nico Gonzalez, Francisco Conceicao, Zeki Celik, Khephren Thuram and Kamil Grabara are all unavailable, according to Football Italia.
That list touches almost every area of the pitch, which strips Spalletti of the option to simply repeat his best XI and instead forces genuine reshuffling rather than cosmetic change.
Some of that disruption is framed as opportunity. Spalletti pointed to the chance to rotate players before the upcoming Serie A fixture at Fiorentina, noting that four changes were already made from the Napoli win for this trip. McKennie's absence is attributed to a fitness issue rather than a longer-term problem, with Spalletti expecting him back for the weekend in Serie A. In his place, Pape Matar Sarr steps into the starting line-up.
Spalletti described McKennie in terms that reveal why his absence matters beyond the team sheet: a player who embodies a competitive mentality and covers ground across the pitch. Replacing that profile is rarely a like-for-like swap, and Spalletti's framing of Sarr's task, asking him to reproduce the level he showed in big matches at Tottenham, suggests he sees the Senegalese midfielder as needing to supply a similar physical and mental presence rather than a tactical carbon copy.
Juan Cabal and Lloyd Kelly returning to full fitness gives Spalletti two more defensive options, though he was careful to frame their return as conditional: both, he said, still have to demonstrate the right attitude before trust translates into consistent selection.
Why Alajbegovic's movement matters
Spalletti's praise for Alajbegovic offers a clue to the attacking pattern he wants more of. He described a player who combines effectively with teammates and can cut inside from a wide starting position to create something unexpected, the kind of movement that generates a goal-scoring moment out of nothing. That inward run, shifting from a wide channel into the half-space between full-back and centre-back, was central to the spark Juventus showed against Napoli, and Spalletti's comments suggest he wants it as a repeatable mechanism rather than a one-off moment of individual quality.
That distinction, between a team that can produce a good passage of play and a team that can reliably reproduce it, is the core of Spalletti's message. A single standout performance proves a ceiling exists; building a season around it requires that ceiling to become a floor.
A different kind of away test
AZ Alkmaar present a specific tactical problem. Football Italia reports the Dutch side are unbeaten at home in 17 UEFA matches stretching back to October 2023, a run that speaks to a settled identity and a crowd that amplifies it. Spalletti was explicit that Juventus cannot approach the match with the usual aim of controlling possession and tempo from the first whistle.
"We can't come here and think of controlling the match, we need to raise the level, recognise the importance of the gestures made during the game, and repeat them more consistently, even constantly," he said. "AZ Alkmaar have a clear identity, they know what they want to do, they all know what they need to play there. Juventus still need to fully understand that."
That last line is the clearest statement of where Spalletti thinks his side still falls short: not in raw quality, but in the collective understanding of what the team is trying to do on a given night, match after match.
A result in Alkmaar that extends the unbeaten European run would be useful. Spalletti's bigger concern is whether Juventus can carry the habits of one good performance into the next one, and the one after that, rather than treating each positive display as an isolated event.
The Fiorentina fixture in Serie A follows at the weekend, with McKennie expected to be available again.