Why Tacchinardi says Juventus already need a striker to replace Woltemade
After Juventus were held 1-1 at Cagliari, former midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi argues Nick Woltemade is the wrong profile to play alongside Randal Kolo Muani, and that Juventus must sign a new centre-forward in January.
Juventus drew 1-1 away at Cagliari on Sunday, rescued by a second-half equaliser from Randal Kolo Muani, and for former Bianconeri midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi the result exposed a problem that a loan signing made less than two months ago has not solved.
Speaking to Sportmediaset, Tacchinardi said Juventus dropped two points despite creating numerous chances and dominating possession, and argued the performance showed the team is still not ready to take what he called the next step forward.
He pointed to two specific conclusions from the match: that Edon Zhegrova needs to start ahead of Francisco Conceição because he was, in his words, far more efficient, and that Kolo Muani struggles whenever he is left isolated as the lone attacking focal point.
The mismatch at the top of the attack
Woltemade came on in the second half at Cagliari and helped Juventus crowd the penalty area as the hosts pushed for a winner, but according to Tacchinardi he was never genuinely threatening in front of goal.
His reading is that the German is not what Kolo Muani needs beside him, describing Woltemade as a forward who is not a classic number nine in the traditional sense.
That distinction matters tactically. Kolo Muani is at his best drifting into pockets, combining short and linking play between the lines rather than occupying the penalty box as a fixed reference point. If his strike partner shares that same instinct to drop and roam, Juventus lose the vertical presence that usually stretches a defensive line and gives a team a focal point to aim crosses and through-balls at.
Tacchinardi's conclusion is blunt: Juventus should go into the January window looking to sign a centre-forward, because Kolo Muani needs a partner who occupies space closer to him in a different way than Woltemade currently does.
A loan deal with no permanent route
Woltemade's situation adds weight to the argument. He joined Juventus on loan from Newcastle and has started only one match all season, scoring from the penalty spot against NEC Nijmegen in the Europa League.
Crucially, Juventus do not hold an option to make the move permanent, which means the club is effectively fielding a trial run rather than a long-term solution at centre-forward. If Tacchinardi's assessment of the positional mismatch is accurate, that lack of a buy clause becomes more significant: Juventus could reach the end of the season still searching for a proper foil for Kolo Muani, having used a loan slot on a player who, by this reading, does not solve the underlying problem.
That context also explains why Tacchinardi is raising the alarm so early in Woltemade's spell in Turin. A player two months into a loan would normally be given time to adapt before being written off, but the absence of a permanent option changes the calculation: every month Juventus persist with an imperfect pairing is a month in which the squad gap does not actually close, since the loan itself expires without a path to a lasting fix.
Why the wide positions matter too
Tacchinardi's comments were not limited to the strikers. His point about Zhegrova over Conceição speaks to the same underlying issue: if Kolo Muani is going to keep dropping deep rather than staying high as an out-and-out forward, Juventus need wide players capable of getting into the box themselves to compensate, or of delivering the kind of service a more traditional striker would otherwise attack.
A more efficient winger, in Tacchinardi's framing, can partly offset a front line that lacks a fixed point of reference, by arriving late into central areas or by finding crosses when the strikers are both pulling short.
None of this amounts to a condemnation of Woltemade as a player. He is a recent arrival still finding his role, and his only start produced a goal, albeit from the penalty spot. But Tacchinardi's argument is about fit rather than quality: whether his style of movement complements Kolo Muani's, and on the evidence of the Cagliari draw, his answer is that it does not.
Juventus now face a stretch of fixtures in which that pairing will continue to be tested, with the January transfer window looming as the point at which the club will have to decide whether to back the loan arrangement as it stands or pursue the more traditional centre-forward Tacchinardi says the squad is missing.