Following the first Big Match of the 2026-27 season, Juventus are still very much short-handed and now on the cusp of the fixture list getting very, very busy. The start of the Europa League is on the horizon, and that means the Thursday-Sunday grind is nearly upon us (for at least one week before the three-week September international break arrives).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So what is the thing you maybe don\u2019t want to see show up on the schedule before all of that?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ah, that\u2019s right \u2014 a trip to a stadium in which some incredibly frustrating results and\/or performances have taken place over the last half-decade (or more).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yep, it\u2019s time to make the trip to the Mapei Stadium again, my friends. You know, the site of where Juventus have lost two of their last three meetings with Sassuolo, albeit with a lot of the players from those previous misgivings now playing their football somewhere else. But when it comes to this latest trip to Emilia-Romagna on Sunday night, it comes at a time in which Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti is dealing with quite the injury crisis. As they step onto the bus to begin their journey to Sassuolo, Spalletti could be looking at a squad list where as many as nine senior team players are out injured, including the most recent one that involves captain Manuel Locatelli going under the knife to repair his meniscus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That is not what you want to hear as the schedule starts to get busy \u2014 for a week at least before the first international break of the season arrives and we then get to sweat out potential injuries involving players on national team duty for the better part of three weeks. Nearly a third of Juventus\u2019 roster is hurt right now, and that is something that is the last thing you want to see happen as we sit here about to see Matchday 4 take place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Seriously, it\u2019s been all of three weeks into the new season and the number of injured players is pushing double digits already. That\u2019s a lot! That\u2019s something I can\u2019t remember happening so early into a new season \u2014 and I\u2019ve been writing about this kind of stuff for quite a while now around these parts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yet, we keep rolling. Or try to. And that is the message that Spalletti is understandably trying to convey right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201c(Locatelli\u2019s) absence, though, spreads responsibility across everyone because he\u2019s always attentive to everything,\u201d Spalletti said during Saturday\u2019s pre-match press conference<\/a>. \u201cThis week I\u2019ve seen a team that\u2019s very willing to fight against whatever it comes up against, a team that\u2019s trained very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So what does that all mean?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have to go out and win games,\u201d Spalletti continued \u201cWe have to impose ourselves by playing like Juventus and raising our level even further. We have to go beyond anything that happens to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So now it\u2019s a third provincial side in the first four games on the schedule. Sassuolo have not been good defensively so far this season, allowing five goals in their opening three games. And when you look at the teams on Sassuolo\u2019s schedule thus far, they\u2019ve looked a little like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That is not exactly a murderer\u2019s row of opponents for Sassuolo. Not by a long shot, folks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All of this to say, when you\u2019re a struggling striker like Randal Kolo Muani is, this looks like the potential kind of get-right game that you\u2019ve been hoping for ever since things started to get a little too frustrating for you. Or maybe it\u2019s the kind of trap game for a short-handed Juventus that sees them drop points in a frustrating kind of fashion like we\u2019ve seen form them all too often over the last few years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But what I do know is this: Heading to the Mapei is always going to be tricky. I say that even after Juventus went to Sassuolo last season and throughly beat them 3-0 back in January in their first matchup against the Bianconeri since coming back to Serie A. You are never going to fool me, Mapei Stadium! I know how you work!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And with Juventus dealing with the kind of injuries that they are, too? I really have no idea what kind of shape they\u2019re in at the moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So that means there could be plenty of uncertainty involving Juve entering Sunday night\u2019s test. With the Europa League waiting on the schedule a few days from now, this might have been the kind of fixture where Spalletti rotated a little bit and given some minutes to guys who hadn\u2019t played much to begin the season. But because of all the injuries, that\u2019s not possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In all likelihood, this is who Juve will have to roll with for the next eight days before the international break arrives and we get to worry about injuries happen but in national team kits. Maybe a couple of guys come back midweek, but the starting lineup probably isn\u2019t going to change much unless even more injuries take place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nobody wants that, though! For at least one week, let\u2019s just hope the injury list stays where it\u2019s at. And, at the very least, we can talk about Juventus getting back to their winning ways despite all of those injuries that Spalletti is having to deal with right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When the week began, this was going to be a place to do something I don\u2019t necessarily like to do in these previews \u2014 talk about a player I have just spotlighted a couple of weeks earlier. But as much as the new No. 9 at Juventus is struggling to find the back of the net to begin his second stint in Turin, all of the injuries have left Mister Spalletti with a little bit of a roster crunch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Or, in the case of the midfield, basically forced him to play a double pivot that we haven\u2019t really seen much at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Enter another one of the 2024 summer signings looking to have 2026 be the year he gets back to his best.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During his pre-match press conference, Spalletti was incredibly complimentary of a certain Dutchman by the name of Teun Koopmeiners. It is that same Koopmeiners who will be paired with Douglas Luiz against Sassuolo this weekend. And that is the same Douglas Luiz who Koopmeiners will be looking to replicate when it comes to making the start of the 2026-27 season be a new beginning of sorts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So what did Spalletti said about Koopmeiners? Here ya go \u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith Koopmeiners, there\u2019s now a deeper understanding. The difference for players is obviously having more minutes to play. He\u2019s liberated now, and much more relaxed. He\u2019s a complete player and I expect a great performance from him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Those are some classic words from Spalletti right there. Koopmeiners \u201cliberated,\u201d \u201cmore relaxed\u201d and now with \u201ca deeper understanding\u201d of things? Well, well, well \u2026 let\u2019s see how all of this plays out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In his last two games, Koopmeiners has scored a goal and provided the game-tying assist on Federico Gatti\u2019s game-tying header against Milan. That may not seem like much, but this is a player in Koopmeiners who didn\u2019t record a goal or assist in Serie A all of last season<\/em>. So, in a way, he\u2019s already doing better than he was last year? It\u2019s a very low bar, but the stats are the stats, folks!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But with Locatelli out for the foreseeable future \u2014 and as much as five or six months potentially \u2014 Juventus need Koopmeiners to show signs that he is, as Spalletti put it, \u201cliberated\u201d from his struggles of the past two years. He is not the same kind of midfielder as Locatelli, obviously, but at this point Juventus just need some stability in the center of the park more than anything. How he teams with Douglas Luiz will be big, of course, but just what Spalletti actually has Koopmeiners doing will be quite interesting to see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And if it goes well, then it will be a good start to life without Juventus\u2019 captain for the next few months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When: <\/strong>Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Where:<\/strong> Mapei Stadium, Sassuolo, Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Official kickoff time:<\/strong> 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 1:45 p.m. Central time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Television:<\/strong> CBS Sports Network, Telemundo (United States); TLN (Canada), TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Online\/Streaming:<\/strong> Paramount+<\/strong><\/a>, Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK, HBO Max (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia (Italy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other live viewing options can be found here<\/a>, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky<\/a>. Black & White & Read All Over]\u2018s match threads from your phone with the new SB Nation app. Commenting and interacting with your communities is easier than ever before with the Game Chat feature. The app is available currently in the U.S. on iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a> devices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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