The glass is half full — and in the context of what Juventus showed against Inter in Perth on Friday, it is considerably more than most had dared hope for from a side still ten days from the opening of the competitive season. The debuts of Kerim Alajbegovic and Randal Kolo Muani in black and white were, taken together, the most encouraging ninety minutes of the pre-season — and the tactical picture that emerged from those 45 minutes answers several of the questions that have been asked since the summer’s two biggest signings were confirmed.
The Goal That Was Not a Goal — and Why It Does Not Matter
There is a familiar saying about missing the point — focusing on the finger that points at the moon rather than the moon itself. In Alajbegovic’s case, the finger is the chance he squandered inside the penalty area — an instinct for self-restraint when directness was required, a moment of uncharacteristic hesitation where a powerful, curling shot was the obvious answer. The moon, however, is the performance that surrounded that single moment: the movement, the linking play, the intelligence, and — most importantly — the first concrete answer to the tactical question that has occupied every Juventus discussion since his arrival.
Can Alajbegovic coexist with Kenan Yıldız? The heatmaps from the Inter match provide the clearest answer yet.
Two Wide Players Who Are Not Actually Competing
Yıldız’s movement pattern against Inter was exactly what Juventus supporters have come to know across two seasons: wide on the left, pressing forward along the touchline, then cutting inside in the final third to create from a central position. He is, fundamentally, a wide attacker who arrives centrally — a false left winger in the truest sense.
Alajbegovic’s movement was entirely different. He started from a similar left-sided position, but instead of staying wide and attacking the touchline, he drifted continuously into central areas — playing with his back to goal, offering link-up play, exchanging combinations, and providing the kind of technical involvement between the lines that defines a classical number ten. His role against Inter was, as Spalletti subsequently confirmed explicitly in his post-match remarks, that of a trequartista — precisely the position the manager has been obsessing over since before the window even opened.
The conclusion is therefore straightforward: Alajbegovic and Yıldız are not competing for the same space. They complement each other in the same way that, in a 4-2-3-1, a left winger and a number ten belong to different functional categories even if their starting positions appear superficially similar.
The Action That Showed His Role in Full
The clearest illustration came in the lead-up to Francisco Conceição’s goal. Alajbegovic received the ball with his back to goal, held it intelligently under pressure, played a sharp combination with Miretti, and the move ended with the Portuguese winger finishing. It was a number ten’s contribution in the purest sense — invisible to the casual observer, essential to everything that followed.
Kolo Muani: The Difference Is Already Visible
Alongside the Alajbegovic analysis, the article also provides the first frank comparison between Kolo Muani and Jonathan David in the same system — and the verdict could not be more decisive. In 45 minutes against Inter, Kolo Muani — still significantly behind in physical preparation, having only recently joined the group after beginning the pre-season with PSG’s Under-19 squad — created more danger, offered more physical presence, and generated more meaningful situations than David across the entire match.
The physical weight, the ability to protect the ball, the running into space, and the moment launched directly by Alajbegovic that almost produced a penalty — all in half an hour, undercooked and under-prepared. The contrast with David’s performance in the same match, in which the Canadian was described as “wandering” by Tuttosport’s match ratings, was stark.
Spalletti knew what he was signing in both players. Perth, in all its complicated imperfection, has already begun to confirm he was right.
