Walter Zenga Critiques Juventus' Attack and Striker Options

Walter Zenga has sounded the alarm over Juventus’ attack, insisting that even after the arrivals of Randal Kolo Muani from PSG and Nick Woltemade from Newcastle United, the Bianconeri still lack a true penalty-box predator.

Juventus travel to Sassuolo tonight at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST), but the build-up has been dominated less by tactics and more by doubts.

Injury crisis and a patched-up attack

Luciano Spalletti’s squad is creaking. The Juventus coach heads into the game without Manuel Locatelli, Jeremie Boga, Weston McKennie, Andrea Cambiaso, Kenan Yildiz, Khephren Thuram, Jeff Ekhator and Juan Cabal. That is the spine, the width and much of the creativity stripped out in one go.

Reports suggest Spalletti will respond by starting Kolo Muani up front, supported by Kerim Alajbegovic, Nico Gonzalez and Francisco Conceicao. On paper, it looks fluid, mobile, hard to pin down.

Zenga is not buying it.

“They don’t have a 15-goal striker”

Speaking on Sky Sport Italia, the former Italy goalkeeper and coach cut straight to the point.

“Kolo Muani is not a Number 9, that kind of hitman who can score 15 goals per season, and neither is Woltemade really,” Zenga said, questioning the logic behind Juventus’ transfer moves.

For a club built on ruthless forwards, it is a stinging verdict. Zenga then widened his criticism to the way Juventus have handled their striking options over the past few years.

“To think that Arek Milik has been out injured for two years and is still on the Juve books,” he noted. “Above all, to think that they had a striker like Dusan Vlahovic who left for reasons we don’t know, but which are presumably tied to his agent and the contract.

“In theory, Juve had two strikers in the squad there with the potential to score 25-30 goals between them.”

The message is clear: Juventus once had the firepower. They chose another path.

Spalletti’s next experiment?

Kolo Muani and Woltemade are both versatile, both comfortable drifting wide or dropping off the front line. Neither fits the classic poacher mould that Zenga craves. That profile gap could drag Spalletti back towards one of his tactical laboratories.

Considering their characteristics, Zenga expects the Juventus coach to tinker again, to find a system that squeezes goals out of movement and combinations rather than a single ruthless finisher.

Spalletti has never shied away from reshaping a team around what he has, not what he wishes he had. Tonight in Sassuolo, with an injury list stretching across almost every department and no guaranteed 15-goal striker in sight, he may have no choice.