Spalletti: Inter Remains the Benchmark in Serie A
Luciano Spalletti did not bother dressing it up. On the eve of a Derby d’Italia played on the other side of the world, he looked straight at the cameras and called it as he sees it: Inter, not Juventus, are still the benchmark in Serie A.
“These are the sorts of games that help you understand a lot about the mentality of the team and whether or not we're working in the right direction,” he said in Perth, where Juventus and Inter meet on Saturday at 12.00 BST (21.00 local time). For a pre-season friendly, it carries a heavy weight. The coach wants answers.
Inter still the standard
Spalletti’s respect for the Nerazzurri was blunt, almost admiring.
“Obviously, Inter are a very strong team like Chelsea, so we will need to be a team in every moment of the game because Inter will find advantages if we're not compact.”
That line tells you everything about where he thinks Juventus stand. Inter remain “the strongest side in our league” in his eyes, the side to chase, the level to reach. Perth may be far from Turin and Milan, but the rivalry travels well. So does the pressure.
For Spalletti, this is not just a glamour stop on a summer tour. It is a live audit of how far his rebuilt Juventus have come – and how far they still have to go.
Yildiz to get more minutes
One of the key pieces in that rebuild is Kenan Yildiz. The young attacker lit up stretches of last season and is now being handled carefully in pre-season. Against Chelsea in Hong Kong, he only played a limited role. That will change against Inter.
“He will play more than he did in the game against Chelsea,” Spalletti confirmed.
Juventus have been managing fatigue and workloads in training, with “three or four players” held back on Friday as the tour’s demands begin to bite. The coach did not hide the strain.
“It's not easy to organise these sorts of events. They take extra effort and we'll have to discuss it over the next few days to see how we've recovered.”
Yildiz, though, is central enough to the plan that Spalletti is already weighing his league role.
“I will see after the game tomorrow whether he will be a starter (in the league), but I think I will let him play for a half, or almost a half.”
It is a small but telling window into his thinking: this is a dress rehearsal, and Yildiz is auditioning for a major part.
Transfer talk: Circati on the radar, but not on the list
The market, as always with Juventus, hovers in the background. Links to Parma centre-back Alessandro Circati have surfaced, but Spalletti drew a clear line between admiration and intention.
“He's a promising young player who has shown a lot of great qualities and he could also be of interest to any club,” he admitted.
Then came the cold reality.
“But right now, we only have a couple of strong routes in our sights and those do not concern him. We can't create alternative situations at the moment because we have a very large squad.”
The message is sharp: Juventus like Circati, but they are not moving for him. Not now. Not with this squad size and these priorities.
Life after Vlahovic: goals by committee
Up front, the picture has already changed dramatically. Dusan Vlahovic is gone, replaced by Randal Kolo Muani and Jeff Ekhator, with Kerim Alajbegovic also added to the attacking mix. The obvious question followed: who scores the 20 goals a season now?
Spalletti pushed back against the obsession with a single talisman.
“I think we've signed players who collectively will be able to exceed those numbers. It's not important to have somebody who scores 20 goals.”
He knows what is coming. Europa League on Thursdays, Serie A on Sundays. A long, heavy season with little room for sentiment and even less for a fixed XI.
“This year, the season will be characterised by the fact that it will be played on Thursdays and Sundays, it will be difficult to always play with the same players. The Europa League engages you even more than the Champions League.”
No classic, bruising No 9? Spalletti shrugged that off as well.
“Even without a physical centre-forward, we have Ekhator who has a few of those characteristics, Kolo Muani commands the area. It's a bit of an open situation, but with the players we have available, with what we've done on the market, we'll be able to make up for it through everyone's collective work.
“Alajbegovic is somebody who can score goals. We want to help Kolo Muani's numbers. We're quite calm for the moment.”
Calm, but not complacent. This is a bet on variety over singularity, on movement and rotation over a fixed reference point. Inter, with their settled core, will test that idea immediately.
Bastoni, old wounds and a new tone
No Juventus–Inter build-up is complete without a flashback to controversy. The last time these two sides met, Alessandro Bastoni’s dive and his celebration after Pierre Kalulu’s wrongful sending off sparked outrage and endless debate.
Asked whether any bitterness remained, Spalletti refused to pour fuel on the fire.
“It will be simple, we will continue to do what we did after that game. We didn't create any big aftermath, we didn't talk about the players' behaviour on the pitch.”
No revenge narrative. No public score-settling. Just a pointed reminder of where his focus lies.
“We just want to play a good game against the strongest side in our league and learn as many things as possible to get to their level.”
That is the crux of it. Juventus, historically the giant, are now the hunter. Inter are the yardstick. Perth is the latest checkpoint.
On Saturday, under Australian floodlights, Spalletti will find out if his words about mentality and collective strength have started to take root – or if the gap to Italy’s “strongest side” still looks uncomfortably wide.
