Juventus’ Matchday 33 fixture against Parma getting postponed a couple of days following the death of Pope Francis on Monday allowed some of the squad’s banged up players to get another couple of days of rest in hopes of potentially playing at the Tardini on Wednesday.
For Kenan Yildiz, that was especially important considering the knock he picked up last week in training.
However, despite the extra rest, it still doesn’t look like Yildiz will be in the starting lineup for a fourth consecutive time under new Juve manager Igor Tudor.
The 19-year-old Yildiz returned to training with the rest of his teammates on Tuesday, according to ilBianconero, but could still start from the bench in Wednesday night’s matchup against 16th-place Parma at the Tardini. That was certainly the case if Juve-Parma would have been played on Monday night, but now it still looks to be the case two days later, with Tudor likely to Randal Kolo Muani in the starting lineup ahead of Yildiz and playing behind (or maybe alongside?) Dusan Vlahovic against Parma.
Teun Koopmeiners and Samuel Mbangula again trained separately on Tuesday and will not make the trip with the rest of the squad just as was the case earlier in the week for the fixture’s original kickoff time.
If Kolo Muani does end up starting in place of Yildiz it will be the first time the on-loan Frenchman will be in the Tudor’s lineup from the opening whistle since the 47-year-old Croatian took over for Thiago Motta last month. Kolo Muani hasn’t scored since his brace against Como on Feb. 7, a run of 10 games in all competitions. He has played a total of 47 minutes — all off the bench as Vlahovic has become a regular starter again — during Tudor’s time as manager with Juventus.
