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The Juventus coach is looking for solutions for a more lively team: what could change for the league match against Genoa
Thiago Motta is fishing for solutions. A targeted fishing, of course, not a trawl. The difficulty of his Juventus in converting the huge amount of play produced in the first seventy meters of the pitch into concrete scoring opportunities is not a story of the last few days. And the coach, at Continassa , is working on the necessary adjustments. Last week the McKennie option came into vogue , with his dynamism and his innate ability to slip into the penalty area. Now the rumors leaking out from the Juventus headquarters signal the rise in Douglas Luiz 's stock . A guy who uses his hook and line, rigorously mimed, to celebrate, as happened ten times last season at Aston Villa .
Douglas Luiz, a walk-on at Juve
The Brazilian was the last player to land in Turin this summer, thanks to his commitment to the Copa America with Brazil, and so far he has only made one appearance as a starter and played a total of 137 minutes on the pitch. To stick with the fish metaphor, in his first few weeks at Juventus, Douglas Luiz looked like a freshwater fish thrown into the Juventus sea. And not just because of an athletic delay, although true, but one that has now been largely worked off with the extra work he has undergone during the last international break, spent at Continassa. It is also a question of language, habits, rhythms and technical demands. The former are so distant from the lifestyle he absorbed in Brazil and his recent experience in Birmingham. The latter are so distant from Unai Emery's instructions in the frequent 4-4-2 used in the last Premier League. The almost two months as a Juventus player, then, served the 26-year-old from Rio de Janeiro (also) to get into a completely new role and context, on and off the pitch.
Douglas Luiz asks for more space
More and more signs, however, lead us to think that his moment is imminent. The moment in which the verdeoro midfielder can find his place in the bianconeri midfield with conviction and continuity, after the taste of a fleeting starting role at Empoli. Maybe, why not, as early as Saturday afternoon, when Thiago Motta's creature will be on stage at Marassi in front of Genoa . His presence would perhaps not be decisive in raising the speed indicator of the bianconeri's maneuver, but the foot and the thinking of Douglas Luiz would ensure greater verticality to the team's plots. With the consequent possibility of feeding more frequently and more precisely, alternatively, the high wingers of the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-1-4-1) of the Italian-Brazilian coach and Vlahovic himself, until now "forced" more to close rather than attack the depth. Work in progress, as they would say across the Channel.
Juve, Genoa's view
In view of the match against Gilardino's rossoblù, meanwhile, the Juventus technical staff has recovered captain Gatti , who is about to take up his place in the centre of defence alongside Bremer, with the probable return of the increasingly convincing Kalulu on the right lane. Where, barring any surprises, Savona will represent a solution during the match, after overcoming the ankle discomfort that had affected him in training in recent days. Absent, on the other hand, are Milik and Adzic, who will most likely also mark a visit against Leipzig and Cagliari, the last commitments before the October break, while the Champions League could represent the right stage for the return to the field of Conceiçao, another solution that Thiago Motta can't wait to be able to "fish" to resolve his September constipation. The last two training sessions at Continassa, in any case, will be decisive for the choice of the eleven against the Grifone. With Douglas Luiz a candidate for a leading role and with Perin who, likewise, has legitimate hopes of repeating his role as starter at Empoli.