The pattern is now undeniable and statistically established. Against Genoa on Wednesday night, Kerim Alajbegović started alongside Kolo Muani in the untested attacking combination Spalletti had designed specifically for Ostigard’s aerial weaknesses — and was substituted at half-time having touched the ball barely at all. First Ehizibue, then Baldanzi dominated the Juventus first half. Alajbegović was among the worst on the pitch.
This is the third time in Serie A that Alajbegović has started and been removed at half-time by Spalletti. Lazio, Atalanta, and now Genoa. Each time, the reason is the same: a pure technical choice, no injury involved. The manager simply does not see enough.
The Numbers — A Season in Fragments
The statistical picture Tuttosport assembles is the most revealing document of Alajbegović’s first major European season. In Serie A: 33 minutes against Parma, 64 against Milan, 87 against Sassuolo, 1 against Lecce. Against Cagliari, 45 minutes but from the bench as a substitute. Against Lazio, Atalanta, and Genoa: started, hooked at half-time in all three. Zero goals in Serie A. One assist.
In Europa League, marginally better: two starts and one goal across the three matches played.
The trajectory the club had imagined — a new Yıldız arriving from Salzburg, a young talent ready to explode in Turin — has not materialised. The reality is a 19-year-old who is finding the intensity and physicality of Serie A significantly harder than the Salzburg environment allowed him to show, repeatedly insufficient for 90 minutes at the level Spalletti requires, and now carrying the additional psychological weight of three visible half-time substitutions in front of a fanbase already at breaking point.
“Too Little Incisiveness” — the Consistent Spalletti Verdict
The manager’s reading is described as constant and unambiguous: Alajbegović’s attitude on the pitch does not convince. The specific failure mode against Genoa — asked to provide technical support to Kolo Muani in the build-up, touching the ball barely at all as Ehizibue and then Baldanzi tore through Juventus’s structure in the opposite direction — is the most acute version of a problem that has been present since the opening weeks. The Golden Boy 2026 finalist who arrived as one of the most anticipated signings of the summer has not yet been able to show that version of himself consistently enough for Spalletti to trust him with a full match.
The “la Juve vuole mettere la freccia a sinistra” piece linked in the sidebar confirms the three left-back names Tuttosport has identified for January — consistent with the Raum, Tagliafico and Nagida threads already in the session. And with Alajbegović now also under serious pressure as an attacking outlet, the January window’s reconstruction priorities become even more urgent.
