Marco Tardelli knows the Juventus midfield from the inside — a position that defined his playing career and helped him lift the World Cup in 1982. When La Gazzetta dello Sport asked him to assess the emergency created by the simultaneous loss of Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram, the former Bianconero was, as always, entirely direct.
“The Captain Is Replaceable — the Player Is the Problem”
Tardelli’s first and most important clarification dismissed one of the more superficial dimensions of the Locatelli debate. “The captain is replaceable — the armband passes from one arm to another and that is fine. The problem is that Locatelli is an important player.” What Juventus must find is not a figure to wear the armband. What they must find is a player capable of performing the function Locatelli has performed — as an orchestrator, a positional anchor, a personality within the dressing room. Those qualities are far harder to manufacture than a captaincy transfer.
His verdict on the scale of the problem was appropriately unsparing: “It is a big problem. A large one.” Losing two starting midfielders simultaneously in the third week of the season — forcing Spalletti to completely redesign a department he had already spent the summer trying to reinforce — is, by any measure, a seriously damaging blow.
“McKennie First — He Has Shown He Can Do Multiple Things and Is Very Reliable”
The first name Tardelli offered as a solution was Weston McKennie — and the assessment was grounded in the direct evidence of recent seasons. “McKennie is certainly someone who has shown at Juventus over the years that he can do multiple things and is very reliable.” It is a recognition not of the American as a like-for-like replacement for Locatelli — their profiles are entirely different — but as a player whose familiarity with the club, its demands, and its system gives him an advantage that no external signing can replicate. In a moment of emergency, knowing the environment is worth considerable tactical equivalence.
“Koopmeiners — I Like Him Very Much. This Is His Opportunity”
On Teun Koopmeiners, Tardelli was equally direct — honest about the disappointment of recent seasons whilst identifying a genuine opportunity in the current circumstances. “He has not produced what everyone was expecting until now. But I like him very much.” With Locatelli and Thuram both unavailable for months, Koopmeiners can no longer be managed as a peripheral figure or a substitute option. He must become one of the players around whom the new midfield is constructed. That challenge — unwanted in its circumstances but real in its opportunity — is precisely the kind of test that a player of genuine quality seizes and a player of superficial quality retreats from.
“Douglas Luiz? There Are Many Things at Juventus I Have Not Understood. Many…”
The passage that will generate the most discussion was the most oblique. When asked why he had not included Douglas Luiz among his first choices, Tardelli delivered the football equivalent of a diplomatic non-answer that says everything: “Mah — because lately there have been many things at Juventus I have not understood. Many.” He did not elaborate. He did not need to. The subtext — that the Brazilian’s status within the club, his prolonged uncertain summer, and the repeated signals that he would be moved on followed by the late-season rehabilitation represent a sequence of confused signals — was clear without being stated. In practice, Douglas Luiz will be one of the players Spalletti turns to immediately. But Tardelli’s raised eyebrow in his direction is its own form of commentary.
“From Adversity, Energies Can Emerge — Spalletti Is Very Good”
The interview’s most encouraging passage came from personal experience. Tardelli recalled periods during his own playing career when a squad seemed pursued by misfortune — and when precisely those moments of adversity galvanised rather than diminished the collective response. “You can find energies in the misfortune, in the difficult moments — energies you perhaps did not think you had.” It is what Spalletti must now try to generate: not the artificial positivity of a manager managing expectations, but the real competitive anger that turns adversity into fuel.
On Spalletti himself, Tardelli was generous and considered: “He is a very good coach, capable of dragging the dressing room along. You must understand his ideas and methods fully in order to follow him.” And then, finally, the last and most pointed line: “Certainly the transfer market did not help him.”
