Douglas Luiz’s performance against Lecce offered Juventus more than a goal and an assist for Weston McKennie. It suggested that Luciano Spalletti’s longer-term work at the club is beginning to take shape: the Brazilian is being asked to become the player through whom Juventus organise their football.
Luiz was at the centre of the contest, recording 94 touches and completing 64 passes. He produced two through balls, found six successful long passes, created McKennie’s goal and added one of his own. Those numbers described a player constantly involved, but they also reflected a specific coaching intention. Spalletti had been considering Luiz as a deep-lying conductor since the summer and continues to develop that responsibility.
The Juventus coach sees qualities that go beyond simple possession. “He can play,” Spalletti said. “He can move the ball on more quickly rather than taking four or five touches, and he can see the next action in advance. He has the eyes, the mind and the foot; it is only a matter of becoming used to a slower rhythm.”
For Spalletti, turning a midfielder into the reference point of a side is hardly a new exercise. Across his work from Empoli to Russia, Udine, Rome, Milan and Naples, the coach from Certaldo has repeatedly found players whose careers changed once they were entrusted with setting the pace from midfield.
A familiar role in Spalletti’s teams
The first was Alessandro Pane, known as “the little professor”. When Spalletti took charge of Empoli for his first full season as a senior coach in 1995-96, in Serie C1, he placed Pane in front of the defence as the side’s organiser. It became the foundation of an exceptional partnership, with Empoli achieving successive promotions all the way to Serie A.
The connection endured after Pane’s playing days. He later joined Spalletti’s coaching staffs at Roma, Inter and with the Italy national team, evidence of a relationship that began around the demands of that central midfield role.
At Udinese, after replacing Roy Hodgson in 2002, Spalletti made David Pizarro indispensable. The Chilean, then 23, had arrived three years earlier as an attacking midfielder and had already begun to operate deeper under Hodgson. Under Spalletti, however, Pizarro became one of Serie A’s leading playmakers.
Known as Peq, Pizarro was suited to an approach built on careful circulation but also sudden forward passes. He controlled the rhythm of Udinese’s game, and Spalletti valued him so highly that he pushed for Roma to sign the Chilean when he moved to the capital.
A similar change occurred at Zenit St Petersburg. When Spalletti arrived in December 2009, Roman Shirokov had largely been used as a central defender under Dick Advocaat and had not done so consistently. Spalletti moved him into midfield, where the 29-year-old became a key figure able to manage possession and inject verticality.
Shirokov went on to enjoy the strongest years of his career under Spalletti, although the relationship later broke down badly. One story from that period held that the player deliberately struck his coach with the ball in training. Shirokov joined Krasnodar on loan in 2014, shortly before Spalletti left Zenit.
Inter brought another conversion. In the 2016-17 campaign, Spalletti quickly concluded that his squad lacked the specialist midfielder required to lead his system. Marcelo Brozovic had not fully established himself either as a central midfielder or an advanced one, but Spalletti identified him as the solution.
The Croatian was reshaped into the pivot of Inter’s midfield, a role that became central not only during Spalletti’s time but also for Antonio Conte and Simone Inzaghi after him. The foundation remained one of the most significant marks of Spalletti’s spell in Milan.
At Napoli, the work was more revival than invention. Stanislav Lobotka had started only 14 matches across the previous season and a half and had been pushed to the margins. Spalletti restored him as the centre of the side’s play, with the Slovak dictating the tempo in a manner reminiscent of Pizarro at Udinese.
Lobotka became one of the defining figures in Napoli’s 2023 Scudetto campaign. Spalletti had, in fact, been aware of him before taking the Napoli job: Pane, the midfielder who had been his first playmaker at Empoli, had recommended him during Spalletti’s Inter years.
That thread now reaches Juventus. Luiz still has to make the role his over time, but the match against Lecce showed why Spalletti believes he can. In a season shaped by coaching choices and the search for reliable reference points, Juventus may have found their midfield story in a Brazilian learning to direct the game rather than simply contribute to it.
