Luciano Spalletti attracted a lot of media attention when he formed a very strong team at Napoli, which won the Scudetto in 2022/2023.
A Scudetto many people did not see coming to Napoli, but rather Inter Milan, AC Milan, or Juventus.
After one season at Napoli and one Scudetto, he left the club and became the manager of the Italian national team, but has now returned to club football with a new challenge at Juventus.
His average term as a coach is relatively short at 1.5 years, and his Juventus contract runs until the end of this season, so it remains unclear whether he will stay in Turin beyond this season.
Across his 1039 matches as a coach, he averages 1.8ppm and a 1764:1154 goal ratio.
In this Luciano Spalletti at Juventus tactical analysis, we will take a look at Luciano Spalletti’s 3-5-2 tactics at Juventus, as they sit in fifth place with 36 points, trailing league leaders Inter Milan by six points.
Can he get Bianconeri on a purple patch and a run of form to compete for the title this year?
Luciano Spalletti Tactics & Philosophy
Luciano Spalletti is a big fan of the 3-5-2 formation, and he believes systems no longer exist in football; it is about the spaces left by the opposition.
He was one of the first to pioneer goalkeeper involvement in build-up play and helped revive the false-9 role with Francesco Totti at AS Roma.
Luciano Spalletti Build-Up Play
Something Juventus have struggled with in the past is their build-up play.
They have not had consistent build-up play that can, game after game, advance them forward confidently.
Spalletti likes to draw the opposition in his build-up, then exploit the space behind them with chipped passes and high balls to start the switch play or transition.
This season, Teun Koopmeiners and Manuel Locatelli are playing essential roles in helping the build-up.
Spalletti has the full-backs and midfielders swapping positions coming in and out of wide zones, so they can look for passes on the width to beat the opponent’s press.
As below, we see Andrea Cambiaso move inward, and Khéphren Thuram move to the width; it depends on the side they are trying to build up.
This way, Thuram or whatever midfielder is playing at the time has more space on the width as they overload the middle of the pitch.
Now you see the end product of the first image, the ball is switched to Thuram after overloading the middle, and he has all the space and time on the width to move the team forward.
It is swapping a technical player on the width to give you better passing opportunities across the pitch.
What this allows is for the creative players to drift in and out of those unoccupied spaces that the midfielders have drifted wide for.
Players like Kenan Yıldız and Miretti can now roam around freely and look to sit into pockets as the battle for the middle of the pitch is overloaded and a mess.
You see Koopmeiners drift wide, and Yıldız marked with space in behind to turn and run or look to progress the ball into attacking transition.
Luciano Spalletti Defensive Tactics
Spalletti is sticking to his five-defender block when it comes to defensive formation.
It depends on the attackers in the lineup: either a mixture of a 5-4-1, like below, or possibly a 5-3-2 with one full-back moving in and out of the midfield, making it an interchangeable 4-4-2 hybrid.
Although he is playing them in a five-back, it is not a defensive block that is sitting back and hoping their midfielders can win the ball.
It is a high line and a very aggressive defensive line.
Once they see you turning around to reset play with your centre-backs, it is an aggressive step-up and fast.
The three opposition players marked in red are offside within a second of the opposition passing backwards and must keep running to stay onside.
Luciano Spalletti Attacking Tactics
Many of Juventus’ goals this season have been counterattack goals, winning the ball back from the press and looking to get to the goal fast.
A standout tactic they have been using is to get their midfielders heavily involved in the attack.
By looking to play into the attacker and saving the midfielder’s run forward, as the defender draws to the attacker with the ball, there is now an extra player being marked by nobody, making a vertical run.
As in the image below, the ball is played into Weston McKennie, but look at Pierre Kalulu, who was in midfield here, running into the now-open space behind.
Midfielders are a massive part of Spalletti’s system; he wants the perfect, curated midfield more than anything else.
One of Juventus’ biggest problems over the past few years has been a lack of a consistent goalscorer; there is no main man relied on to put the ball in the back of the net.
As we see again here, it is the midfielders and full-backs moving forward with speed when they see an opportunity for a counter.
Now they are in the place where the striker and winger would be.
Luciano Spalletti Team Selection
Something Italian fans constantly complain about is Spalletti’s team selection for the Italian national team.
Juventus is certainly not at the same squad level they were many years ago, but there are some great players in the current squad.
Tied back to the comment that they do not have a reliable, consistent attacker, their top scorer this season in Serie A is Yildiz with six goals, putting him in 12th place for the league’s top scorer.
This is not a good thing for Juventus, but given their league position, it shows that Spalletti is picking his teams based on flexibility and versatility.
For example, his past four games have featured a different attack lineup every single time.
Sometimes three attackers, sometimes two, and it is rotating players.
There have not been widespread complaints about his squad selection this season, but it is something to keep an eye on and track alongside Juventus’ performances.
Conclusion
So far, Spalletti’s term as Juventus coach has been good.
I would not say it is superb, but it certainly is not bad either.
They have conceded 16 goals in 19 matches, tying them for the fourth-fewest in Serie A, and have scored 27 goals, tying them for the fourth-most in Serie A so far.
They are not far off the top, and Champions League qualification looks pretty certain, presuming they can keep this level of form for the rest of the season, but some teams are right below them by a few points.
Spalletti is bringing out exciting tactics at Juventus, compared to the dreadful ones of the past few years.
He only has until the end of this season on his contract, so it will be interesting to see if he signs a renewal or jumps ship and takes these tactics elsewhere.
