The top European clubs wanted Teun Koopmeiners after his heroics helped Atalanta reach the Coppa Italia final and win the Europa League.
He spent three seasons at Atalanta, and he was in fantastic form for them, so Juve was sure he would shine in their team.
The midfielder even performed well in front of the Bianconeri fans last season, and Juve had to get their hands on him.
Koopmeiners has now begun to struggle to replicate the form he showed at his former club in Turin, and Juve has struggled to get the best from him.
The Dutchman has to do better than he is doing now, but it seems unlikely that he will ever be a better player.
Douglas Luiz is another summer signing who has struggled since he moved to Juve in the summer, but the Brazilian is closer to doing well for the team.
Luiz does not get as much game time as Koopmeiners, and it seems the time has come to replace the Dutchman with the former Aston Villa man.
In the last few weeks, Luiz has looked sharper and seems to now have a better understanding of what Juve wants from him.
If that trend continues, Thiago Motta must make the bold decision to replace Koopmeiners with the Brazilian because the Dutchman now looks closer to being a flop.
Slowness, no dribbling, terrible technique, there’s no AM like this. He is more like a CM than AM or DM.
No wonder the team was terrible before Muani joined the squad. Neither Koop nor DV9 has solo capability. They are both very blunt.
Koop is ok. He has a bit different role at Juve comparing to Atalanta. Luiz is slowly getting better. It is still early to write him off the list
Juventus deserve great playmaker like Andrea Pirlo, not this guy.
Khephren Thuram has more assist than Koop.
Again. The system neuters both these players. And all modern football in general. System is now paramount. Mottas defense first, position less system doesn’t fit either of these players. Both inept defensively. (strike one) Luiz – not tactically sound. (Strike two for Luiz). Koop tactically sound but completely wasted by being asked to be a covering midfielder (strike two for Koop) We can see his class with technique when he has the ball, except that he rarely has the ball. That’s been the crux of his problem – he rarely has the ball at his feet. How many shots has he taken on goal all season? Maybe a handful? The offense just clogs up in the final third. Zero tactics of trying to pull the defenders out of shape/low blocks other than moving the ball all the way back to the goal keeper. Zero runs of the front line back into the half space between the CBs and midfield. Zero runs from the midfield attacking the back line. The attack looks just like allegris. Play the ball out wide and have the winger swing something in (Allegri: Cuadrado/kostic. Motta: Yildiz/concecaio) Mottas only wrinkle is that he asks his wingers to stand on the ball. Wait for the defense to come back into position, then take their defender on one on one. Concesaio does this so often it’s almost laughable. They never attack when they have the defense out of balance or try to overload with attacking players because Motta is scare to death of counter going the other way. So he waits til his system is set and by that time the oppositions defense is set. This is why we see constant stagnation from the offense. We literally went from Allegri. To Allegri 2.0. 4 of kolos goals were (freak rebound, two over the top long balls, a freak deflection and a pen) They weren’t part of an organized attack. Motta is the problem and I’m starting to think so is Giuntoli. If he knows his manager. And his system. Why isn’t he getting him players that fit his system. Koop and Luiz do not fit his system at all. And sad to say. That position less system crap is for teams with low resources that are trying to overachieve. Your not going to see Messi/mbappe/vini jr/wirtz/salah rotating into left and right back to cover a defender on a forward run like Motta has had Koop do all season. You’ve got a F1 race car on a dirt road. Don’t expect it to be riding smoothly.
Great analysis… 100% agreed.
Agree. Motta needs to change and make better use of his players’ abilities. However, Vlahovic is unfortunately not enough for Juventus, Cambiaso’s defensive form is terrible, etc. We have a lot of problems.
Agree. Great writing.
This is bullshit. Koop plays average.
But okay, if we are strict, only Muani at Juventus performs according to expectations. In this case we can also say that:
– Vlahovic is lame, he’s not even worth 1 million euros and maybe he’d be good for Monza,
– Yildiz is just an eternal promise and cannot decide big matches,
– Cambiaso is only good for conceding goals,
– Even Thuram is a much better midfielder than Luiz.
– Di Gregorio can’t be compared to Buffon, but he’s perhaps even a worse goalkeeper than Shchesny.
– Locatelli is not enough for an Italian champion team
– We still don’t have a UCL-level centre-back.
– We don’t have a Serie A-level full-back.
etc, etc, etc
Yildiz has been great against inter and city. Mottas wingers have to pull a rabbit of the hat against defence. Theres hard to shine.
I see only one solution ..#Motta out ..it is easier to change a manager than motta change his system. How many times I read that there will be some changes in system but only changes I noticed are players out of position etc