The lineup that Luciano Spalletti will present against NEC Nijmegen on Thursday evening is, by Tuttosport’s own characterisation, a genuine puzzle — one whose final decisions will be made only on Thursday morning, with one eye already fixed firmly on Sunday’s league match against Atalanta. Juventus want to approach the international break — the longest of the season — with two convincing victories. Two performances that, in some sense, begin to erase the wounds of Reggio Emilia. Europe and the league cannot be treated as separate compartments.
Woltemade: Starts — but Won’t Have a Full Match in His Legs
The most significant selection news of the morning is Spalletti’s intention to give Nick Woltemade a first start in the Juventus shirt. The caveat is explicit and important: the German does not have a full ninety minutes in his legs. His last competitive start for Newcastle came on 24 May — the irrelevant final-day defeat to Fulham. His last competitive goal came a week before that, on 17 May, in a 3-1 victory over West Ham. At the World Cup, he appeared only in extra time against Paraguay in the match that eliminated Germany on penalties. The competitive rust is real.
Spalletti wants to see him from the first minute regardless — because he needs to understand how reliable and credible Woltemade can be over the medium and long term. He can replace Kolo Muani as the single striker, or play alongside him: an option not to be excluded, given Spalletti’s conviction that the two can coexist. In the latter scenario, Woltemade would operate a few metres behind the Frenchman — on the trequartista line — utilising the positional intelligence he described himself in his debut interview as one of his defining qualities. The hour of Woltemade, in both the literal and the figurative sense, has arrived.
Grabara: First Juventus Appearance — “Elastic and Soft, Like a Footballer in Goal”
Behind Woltemade’s striking debut, another first is taking shape between the posts. Kamil Grabara — the Polish international who arrived from Wolfsburg on a loan with purchase option of €11.5 million after Perin’s permanent departure to Palermo — will make his first Juventus appearance against NEC. Not because Vicario has fallen short in the opening weeks — the Italian has performed well and quickly established his reliability after a difficult year at Tottenham. The rotation is healthy and planned: three competitions demand two goalkeepers capable of playing, and Grabara is being prepared for exactly that role.
Spalletti’s endorsement of the Polish goalkeeper was delivered immediately after his arrival and carries genuine substance: “I consider Grabara a true first-choice backup — I am surprised by his ability to be so elastic and soft. He is like a footballer in goal: skilled at immediately changing his attitude and capable of playing with his feet when required. Managing to bring home two goalkeepers of this level was not straightforward.” Wojciech Szczesny, who knows Grabara from the Polish national team environment, has also spoken warmly of him — an endorsement that carries particular weight in terms of professional peer assessment. Against NEC, we will finally see whether the backup Spalletti has described with such warmth can deliver on the promise in competitive football.
