From Rouhi to Mbangula, small but already big: Motta and the Juve recipe

They play as starters even against the big teams and if they make mistakes they stay on the pitch. Thiago considers the young players in the squad to be equal to the more experienced ones

Defining Juventus as a team with a European soul, just on the eve of a tricky away match like the one in Leipzig , may be a gamble. The first test in the Champions League , against PSV , was passed with flying colors, but the road to an international degree still seems long. And yet, it is also true that some traits of the creature that Thiago Motta is shaping seem to have a breath that goes beyond national borders. The constant intention of producing play by building from the bottom, rather than fossilizing on the destruction of the opponent's plots, is only one. Another, however, concerns the naturalness with which the new Juventus coach relies on young players, whether they are the fruit of work in the youth sector or in the scouting area, it makes little difference.

Juve, Thiago Motta is not afraid to launch young players

The use in the first team of boys born largely after the turning point of the year 2000, in reality, only covers a minimal part of the reasoning. Because it is one thing to grant a gratifying presence "among the big boys" in the minutes of recovery of a game that is safe and another to consider in all respects elements of the team the aforementioned youngsters. Thiago Motta, in this first month and a half of the season, has shown strengths and weaknesses, but certainly cannot be pointed out as a coach who does not believe in budding talents. His debut on the Juventus bench was accompanied by the ownership of Mbangula , born in 2004, his second appearance since the use from the first minute of Savona , born in 2003. That both, then, repaid the coach with a performance of substance, even topped off with a goal each, is more a consequence of the premise than a coincidence of fate. Because Thiago Motta truly believes in his young players and just as truly, in his eyes, they appear as options to take to the field from the first whistle or during the match.

Juve, Yildiz and his 'brothers'

The examples, in this sense, certainly do not end here. Savona himself, for example, was not used as a starter just “one time” against Verona, but was granted precious continuity with the 90 minutes collected also in front of Roma first and Napoli then, opponents of another and high rank. And the discussion, as they say, reaches up to the present day. That is, to the recent away match at Marassi, where on Saturday afternoon Thiago Motta launched Rouhi , born in 2004, for the first time as a starter. Confirming that he wants to focus on young people above any physiological error and any schizophrenic evaluation: the Swede, in all honesty, was not the author of an impeccable performance against Genoa, and yet the Italian-Brazilian coach guaranteed him an important load of confidence and awareness by keeping him on the pitch until a quarter of an hour from the end, with the result largely in the bag.

It is easy to imagine, still at the dawn of the season, that the list of young players on the path to development – ​​technical and, why not, economic – is not complete. Anghelé has already experienced the emotion of his debut, in the coming weeks it will also be the turn of the Montenegrin Adzic . Without forgetting that the virtuous work carried out in Next Gen has already produced players like Fagioli and Yildiz. In other words, the latter, “simply” the new number ten of Juventus, as well as the symbol of the new course.