Juventus, Woltemade and Kolo Muani can only play together in two ways
Neither of the two is the penalty-box centre-forward desired by the manager, but they could be used at the same time
Nick Woltemade, born in 2002, has 177 club appearances and 48 goals in his career, plus 12 caps and four goals for his national team. Randal Kolo Muani, born in 1998, has 333 club appearances and 97 goals, along with 32 caps and nine goals for his national team. Juventus are starting again with the German and the Frenchman in a bid to win again, or at least hit the minimum target of qualifying for next season's Champions League, an objective they failed to reach last season. It will be up to the former Newcastle player and the former Tottenham player to make people forget Dusan Vlahovic, who ended up at Besiktas when his contract with Juventus expired.
With Woltemade and Kolo Muani, Juventus have fixed up their attack, which, alongside a large number of wide players, also includes Jeff Ekhator and Arek Milik as centre-forwards. Neither Woltemade nor Kolo Muani probably fits Luciano Spalletti's ideal centre-forward profile exactly, as he would have preferred a more classic penalty-box centre-forward, while both the German and the Frenchman like to drift across the entire attacking front. Even so, both Woltemade and Kolo Muani will also have to adapt to playing as a focal point in the middle of the penalty area.
Spalletti and the ‘target man’ centre-forward
Speaking today, Spalletti was clear: "Woltemade has physicality, so heading and finishing inside the area are things that, whether he likes it or not, he will have to learn by heart, because he loves dropping deep to play football." The same goes for Kolo Muani, whom Spalletti had goaded amid all the praise after the chance he missed away to Frosinone on the opening day of the league season ("There must be a reason why he hasn't played for two years").
Under Spalletti's 4-2-3-1, one of Woltemade and Kolo Muani will lead the line for Juventus. With Serie A, the Europa League and the Coppa Italia all on the schedule, rotation and minutes should not be a problem. There will be room for both.
Woltemade and Kolo Muani together on the pitch: here is how
The real question is this: will it be possible to see them play together? The answer is yes, but only in two scenarios.
The first would see one of the two play as the centre-forward and the other as a second striker, with two wide players on either flank. Juventus could use this solution both from the start and during the match, with the German and the Frenchman also able to switch between the two roles, although the German may be more suited to operating a few yards behind his strike partner.
The second option would be a front two, with Woltemade and Kolo Muani as the attacking focal points alongside two wide players and two central midfielders, in a 4-2-4 that Spalletti could use only during the match, above all if Juventus needed to chase the game after falling behind in the closing stages.
