Luca Toni knows exactly what a centre-forward is supposed to do — and the former Juventus and Italy striker who won the Ballon d’Or in 2006 speaks from a position of authority few can match when assessing the two men currently carrying Spalletti’s attacking ambitions. His verdict on Kolo Muani is warm and patient. His verdict on Woltemade is honest and pointed. And his vision of what a true nine should be reveals, gently but unmistakably, the tension at the heart of a Juventus attacking department that has been rebuilt for a different era of football.
“Kolo’s Goals Will Come — Trust Me. I Expect 15, Maybe 20”
Toni’s defence of Kolo Muani is unambiguous and immediate. “I like Kolo. At the start of the season he had some problems and received a lot of criticism. Probably too much — even though when you are the number nine of Juventus and have been paid a lot of money, that is part of the game. Against Atalanta he worked for the team and to me he seemed clearly improving. He is not a classical bomber — but he has always scored his goals. I expect at least 15 goals, maybe 20 across the whole season.”
The prediction is specific and backed by the logic of a striker who has seen players of Kolo Muani’s technical profile find their consistency after difficult starts. What matters for Toni is the underlying quality — and the underlying quality, he has concluded, is not in doubt.
“The Double Nine Formula? I See It as a Solution to Unlock Closed Games — Not a Starting Template”
On the possibility of deploying Kolo Muani and Woltemade simultaneously — a tactical question Spalletti has addressed in public and that Riedle, Marchisio, and others have discussed across the week: “I don’t think Spalletti particularly likes playing with two central strikers. The double-nine formula I consider more of a solution in the course of a match — to unlock closed and blocked situations. It is also a question of balance. Kolo Muani is certainly versatile and capable when playing wider or as a second striker.”
“Woltemade Doesn’t Send Me Wild — He Doesn’t Seem Vicious in Front of Goal”
The assessment of the German — delivered with the directness of a man who lived his entire career by the clinical standard he is now applying — is the article’s most pointed passage. “He doesn’t send me wild — because he doesn’t seem vicious in front of goal, and that has to be a centre-forward’s first quality. The kind of nines I like, however, are becoming increasingly rare. Now the fashion is for those who play for the team — and from that standpoint the German is good because he has quality and technique. But I prefer a striker who maybe misses a pass, but then in the penalty area blasts in everything he finds.”
It is the most concise possible summary of the gap between football’s traditional nine — the serial finisher who sacrifices collective fluency for individual predatory instinct — and the modern hybrid striker that Woltemade, like Kolo Muani in a slightly different way, represents. Toni is not wrong. He is simply expressing a preference for a player type that the contemporary game is producing less and less often.
“Vlahović Has 5 Goals in 7 Games at Besiktas — He Was a Real Nine”
The passing reference to Vlahović — 5 goals in 7 matches in Istanbul — landed with the weight of an implicit comparison. The player Toni describes when he talks about “a striker who blasts in everything he finds” is precisely Vlahović. Whether or not his departure was the right decision for the club — and the commercial and contract arithmetic suggests it was — what he provided on the pitch was the specific, serial, penalty-box goalscoring quality that Toni values above everything else. His replacement at Juventus is, on Toni’s own admission, something different. Whether different proves sufficient is the question the season ahead will answer.
