Manuel Locatelli’s flowing tears may kickstart Juventus’ revitalisation

Manuel Locatelli never has been one to hold back the tears. He sobbed after he scored his first Serie A goal back in 2016, when he became a European champion with Italy in 2021 and again when injury forced him out of a game against Inter last year. As Giorgio Chiellini brought down the curtain on his own 17 seasons at Juventus, he noted: “Locatelli has been crying since yesterday. I told him to stop.”

It happened again yesterday, Locatelli weeping into the arms of Daniele Rugani after delivering the Bianconeri a win over his former club Milan at San Siro. Juventus had struggled early on against opponents who began the weekend on top of the Serie A table, before a red card to Malick Thiaw on the brink of half-time shifted the balance in their favour. Locatelli finally broke the deadlock with a deflected strike in the 63rd minute.

That turned out to be the only goal of the game, adding a little slice of symmetry to the midfielder’s career. Seven years ago to the day, Locatelli scored his second-ever senior goal in the second half of this same fixture, sealing another 1-0 win for his team. The only difference was that back then he played for Milan.

His then manager, Vincenzo Montella, described him at the time as a predestinato, a person destined for great things. Whether Locatelli, now 25, has yet lived up to that billing might be a subjective assessment. The only trophy he has claimed in club football is the Supercoppa he raised with Milan later that same year.

Could this be the season to add another? Locatelli was one of several Juventus players to acknowledge title aspirations in preseason. “Of course, fighting for the Scudetto is an objective we give ourselves,” he said at the start of August. “We are in a rebuilding phase, but we have clear ideas on what we need to achieve this year. Getting back into the Champions League is fundamental. After that, dreaming doesn’t cost a thing.”

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He was more cautious on Sunday, stressing that “we need to take one step at a time”. Perhaps Montella’s sense of destiny was actually something far more specific. “This goal really was just meant to happen,” continued Locatelli. “I spoke to my family about the coincidence [with the date] before the game. [Adrien] Rabiot asked me to make sure I scored in the right goal this time.”

The Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, maintained his line that “Inter, Milan and Napoli are the favourites to win Serie A”. Champions League qualification is indeed the more urgent imperative for a team that is excluded from all European competitions this season as a result of a false accounting scandal.

Yet that ban, quietly, might also be a reason to believe. Unlike their rivals, Juventus can focus all their energy on the league. Serie A has foregone a winter break this season to create a schedule with just one full midweek round – which already took place last month. Only when Juventus enter the Coppa Italia at its last-16 stage in January will players have to worry about playing more than once a week.

It takes more than fresh legs to win a league title. Sunday’s game was expected to give us an insight into whether Juventus had the quality to stand toe-to-toe with a Milan side that began the weekend on top of the table. Thiaw’s red denied us a complete answer.

In the 40 minutes played with full teams, Milan held more than two-thirds of possession. Juventus showed little attacking ambition but surrendered few opportunities to their hosts. The approach was one we’ve seen from Allegri’s teams before: sit in a low block and give their opponents scarce options for advancing the ball up the pitch.

Milan fell into their own familiar pattern of asking Rafael Leão to come up with a solution. Their best chance arrived in the 14th minute, when he bought space to send in a low cross for Olivier Giroud, who timed a run brilliantly but was thwarted by Wojciech Szczesny.

Thiaw’s red card was fully merited. Timothy Weah, one of four Americans starting this fixture – a first in Serie A history – had released Moise Kean down the right for a rare Juventus counter. Thiaw got too close and, realising he was out of position, used both arms to drag the attacker down. A clear denial of a goalscoring opportunity, despite Fikayo Tomori’s protests.

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Even with 11 against 10, a Juventus victory never looked like a foregone conclusion. Milan subbed off Christian Pulisic for Pierre Kalulu, filling the gap left by Thiaw but failing to rebalance the front half of their team, becoming even more over-emphasised in their left-sided bias. Juventus seemed unprepared for a scenario in which they would have more of the ball.

Locatelli’s goal was his team’s first shot on target. It came from almost 30 yards out and beat Antonio Mirante only because Rade Krunic’s attempted block caused it to change direction after the keeper had already dived. Without that stroke of luck, the game might easily have ended in a draw. Mirante, in as a replacement for the suspended Mike Maignan, made some smart saves late on.

On the sidelines, Allegri was a fury, hurling his jacket and tie aside and leaving the audience wondering how long he could keep his shirt on. “Playing against 10 men you need to stretch out the pitch and turn it into an airport,” he said at full time. “The ball needs to fly long with added security measures. You can’t be making passes and tackles in tight spaces.”

In the end, though, the result was all that mattered. Juventus had not scored a goal in their last three league meetings with Milan and arrived in less than ideal shape for this game with both of their two leading scorers – Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa – fit enough only for second-half introductions off the bench.

News that Nicolò Fagioli, Serie A’s best young player last season, would be suspended for seven months after betting on football matches, must also have had some impact beyond the obvious aspect of making him unavailable for selection. He watched from the stands on Sunday, and Locatelli said that the team “must stay close to him”, carefully acknowledging the importance of punishment and rehabilitation for those who make mistakes.

Locatelli, who scored his first goals for Milan at 18 years old, but ultimately did not stay there, spending three seasons at Sassuolo before he joined Juventus in 2021, understands as well as anyone that careers can have different chapters.

“Life is incredible,” he posted to Instagram after the game. “The 22 October will always be a special date for me.” Will it be remembered as a significant one, too, when we survey the top of the Serie A table in the spring?