Walter Zenga Questions Juventus Forward Line: No 15-Goal Striker
Juventus head to Sassuolo tonight with a rebuilt forward line and an old question still hanging over them: who is going to score the goals?
Kick-off is at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST), but the debate started long before the Bianconeri’s bus rolled into Reggio Emilia. Randal Kolo Muani has arrived from PSG, Nick Woltemade from Newcastle United, yet Walter Zenga looks at this Juve and sees a team without a true penalty-box predator.
“They don’t have a centre-forward who can score 15 goals per season,” the former Italy goalkeeper and coach said on Sky Sport Italia, cutting straight to the point.
New faces, old doubts
Reports in Italy suggest Luciano Spalletti will start Kolo Muani through the middle, with Kerim Alajbegovic, Nico Gonzalez and Francisco Conceicao buzzing around him in support. It sounds dynamic. It sounds mobile. It doesn’t convince Zenga.
“Kolo Muani is not a Number 9, that kind of hitman who can score 15 goals per season, and neither is Woltemade really,” he argued.
That line hits hard because it taps into something deeper at Juventus: an identity issue in attack. The club have invested in versatile forwards, runners, link men. The classic reference point in the box? That’s gone.
Vlahovic gone, Milik stuck, questions remain
Zenga didn’t stop at the new signings. He turned the spotlight back on the decisions that led Juve here.
“To think that Arek Milik has been out injured for two years and is still on the Juve books,” he said. “Above all, to think that they had a striker like Dusan Vlahovic who left for reasons we don’t know, but which are presumably tied to his agent and the contract.
“In theory, Juve had two strikers in the squad there with the potential to score 25-30 goals between them.”
It’s a brutal reminder. Vlahovic, the marquee No 9, is gone. Milik, once seen as a reliable alternative, has been sidelined for two years and remains on the payroll. Juve, in Zenga’s eyes, have traded certainty in front of goal for tactical flexibility and financial manoeuvring.
Spalletti forced into invention
As if the structural doubts weren’t enough, Spalletti travels to Sassuolo with an injury list that would unsettle any coach. Manuel Locatelli, Jeremie Boga, Weston McKennie, Andrea Cambiaso, Kenan Yildiz, Khephren Thuram, Jeff Ekhator and Juan Cabal are all out.
That many absentees usually strip away options. For Spalletti, they might do the opposite: push him into something bold.
Considering the profiles of Kolo Muani and Woltemade, Zenga expects exactly that. A tweak. A reshaped system. Perhaps even a full tactical experiment from a coach who has never been afraid to redraw the pitch in his own image.
Spalletti has built title-winning teams by reinventing roles and unlocking unusual partnerships. Tonight, with no orthodox 15-goal striker and half a team in the treatment room, he may have to do it again.
