James Horncastle’s Serie A briefing: The year of Yildiz, Nico Paz the magician, and another tight title race – The Athletic
Luciano Spalletti has his own lexicon.
At one of his first Juventus press conferences, he highlighted an attribute possessed by Edon Zhegrova, the team’s effervescent and intermittent winger. Spalletti called it la zeppettina. Reporters looked at each other, puzzled. “And what exactly is la zeppettina?” Spalletti was asked.
In the dictionary, it’s a wedge — the sort of thing you might use to prop something up. How did it relate to Zhegrova’s game? What Spalletti had in mind was the way the player wedges his foot under the ball to produce little dinked passes.
Another favourite descriptor of Spalletti’s is scocca. Not too dissimilar in sound to scossa (an electric shock), it imagines the ball moving fast and true like an arrow released from a taut archer’s bow.
Spalletti, we shouldn’t forget, hails from Certaldo, in the rolling Tuscan hills. He is the town’s second most famous son. The other is none other than Boccaccio, the author of The Decameron, who, along with Dante and Petrarch, is considered one of the fathers of the Italian language.
Spalletti aspires to the same lyrical flourishes. He has, for instance, described his fleet-footed No 10 Kenan Yildiz as “that gunshot in the night”. Ciro Ferrara, the former Juventus centre-back turned TV pundit, had no idea what he meant by it.
The year of Kenan Yildiz
Let’s interpret. Kenan Yildiz, in Spalletti’s opinion, has that jolting thing that wakes Juventus up. He startles and provokes a rush of adrenaline.
In Bodo on Tuesday, he came on in sub-zero temperatures. Juventus were minus one, too, having gone behind from a corner. Instead of a gunshot in the night, Yildiz’s impact was as loud as a sheet of ice detaching from a fjord and sliding into the ocean with an almighty roar.
The 20-year-old was magnificent, his impact instant. Lois Openda’s equaliser, the Belgian’s first goal for the club, came when he swept in a blocked Yildiz shot. Yildiz then played a deft first-time cutback for what looked like Juventus’ second. Unfortunately, Openda, a fellow substitute, was offside in the build-up.
Complimented by Alessandro Del Piero in the Sky Italia studio, Yildiz wished it had stood. “How do you say it?” he asked, making a chef’s kiss gesture. “It would have been the cherry on top. La ciliegina sulla torta.”
Kenan Yildiz scored twice as Juventus beat Cagliari (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
When Bodo got back into the game from the penalty spot and a ninth draw of the season seemed written in the Northern Lights, Yildiz danced on the ice again. He skated through the defence, staying on his feet when his opponent lost balance, shifting the ball from his left to his right and back again. The shot he produced fell at the feet of Jonathan David, another player like Openda and Miretti in desperate need of a goal, who made it 3-2 in stoppage time. “He breaks games,” Spalletti said. “He breaks strategies.”
A need for rest was why Yildiz didn’t start in Norway, but his team is in continuous need of the young Turk. Juventus are leaning on a player barely out of his teens. Francisco Conceicao can beat his man and make things happen. Vasilije Adzic, whose winner in the Derby d’Italia would have had Spalletti reaching for baroque adjectives had he been in charge at the time, sure has promise. No one in Turin, however, can match Yildiz’s potential.
It’s why Juventus took the No 10 shirt off Paul Pogba and gave it to him. It’s why he was trusted with the captain’s armband away at Real Madrid.
On the 40th anniversary of Juventus winning the Intercontinental Cup to become de facto world champions, the 1985 team reunited at the training ground last Thursday. One generation meeting another. The current Juventus isn’t in the same stratosphere as the vintage that won everything. When Michel Platini shook Yildiz’s hand, it was a reminder of how much he has left to achieve. The gap between old and new.
All Yildiz can do is take it one game at a time and make his own name.
On Saturday, Juventus conceded first again. Their opponents, Cagliari, were winless in nine. It would have been a new low to drop points to them. Yildiz didn’t allow that to happen. By half-time, Juventus were 2-1 up. Yildiz scored a brace. The first with his right, the other with his left. Only Lamine Yamal and Desire Doue have been involved in more goals (21) this calendar year among his age group.
For all the criticism of Juventus for flop signings and premature sales, Yildiz’s acquisition from Bayern Munich in 2022 is the last gift of the Andrea Agnelli era. It is a gift that keeps on giving.
“There’s the desire on everyone’s part to do it,” Juventus’ head of football strategy Giorgio Chiellini said when asked about Yildiz’s contract over the international break. “For now, we calmly wait.”
Juventus can afford to be a little patient. Yildiz’s current deal doesn’t expire until 2029. But a reward for his form and elevated status within the team is expected to be top of the priorities of Juventus’ new incoming sporting director, once he is announced.
Too little, perhaps, is made of Serie A having a couple of the world’s best young players at the moment. What’s even more precious is the role Yildiz and Como’s Nico Paz play. They are like baby pandas: rare and endangered No 10s, a position always on the verge of extinction and in need of its own Save The Trequartista charity.
Kangaroo Paz delights Alberto Moreno
At the Sinigaglia on Friday, Paz lifted a delightful ball over the top of the Sassuolo defence. It was so inviting that the smallest and oldest player on the team, Alberto Moreno, ran in behind and headed it, sort of, past the goalkeeper. Moreno had not scored in over a year. Now 33 and on the margins of the team, the former Liverpool full-back probably wondered whether he’d ever find the net again.
It explained why his post-match interview next to Paz was so ebullient. The way he spoke about the assist, it was as if Paz had given Moreno a chat-up line that worked on the girl of his dreams. “EL MAGO!” the veteran said in his gravelly Spanish accent, his grin as wide as the lake.
As well as a magician, Paz was the league’s joint-top scorer going into the weekend, having added a fifth for the campaign in the 5-1 demolition of Torino a week ago. He also has the joint-most man of the match awards in Serie A this season.
Unbeaten since the end of August, Como are within three points of the Champions League places (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
His coach, Cesc Fabregas, thinks the Tenerife-born Argentina international should be among the goals more and Moreno agrees. Celebrated for his curlers and twists and turns, Paz is apparently “an animal in the air” in training. “He’s small but jumps like a kangaroo,” Moreno said before laughing.
This was evident in a different way when Paz tried a bicycle kick in the 2-0 win over Sassuolo that was so spectacular it got the Hollywood stars in attendance, Chris Pine and Michael Fassbender, out of their seats.
Unbeaten since the end of August, Como are within three points of the Champions League places and, given how close it is in Serie A, only four points from the league leaders.
Juventus are just behind them and Dusan Vlahovic’s injury against Cagliari means they are probably even more dependent on Yildiz to help them stay in touch. This is because no sooner do things look like improving for Jonathan David than they take a turn for the worse.
Spalletti returns to Napoli next weekend as the champions host Juventus (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
After hearing fans behind the dugout shout “enough’s enough” and “he sucks” at the Canada international, Spalletti turned around and defended Vlahovic’s substitute. “What do you want?” he shrugged angrily. “Tell me! What is it you want?”
Next weekend, Juventus go to Napoli, a return for Spalletti, while Como play Inter. Both their forthcoming opponents won on Sunday. Inter, in particular, needed it to quieten everything down. Over in Madrid in midweek, Inter coach Cristian Chivu had been late for his post-match media engagements.
Where was he? Haranguing his players in the dressing room after consecutive defeats in the Derby della Madonnina and then, in stoppage time, to Atleti. “I smoked three cigarettes, one after another,” Chivu revealed.
As in every big game apart from the trip to Roma this season, Inter contrived to lose a game they deserved at least to draw. Prompter for his media duties after a 2-0 win in Pisa, unfortunately the press conference had to be abandoned at the Garibaldi as the fire alarm went off. “Somebody’s smoking. This time it’s not me,” Chivu winked.
The title race takes another turn
We move from No 10s — Inter’s victory was largely inspired by their captain and striker Lautaro Martínez, who wears that number — to 1-0s in the weekend’s big games.
Roma were knocked off the top by Milan on Saturday and prevented from taking it back by Napoli on Sunday, as the lead in this mad league changed again. Roma were, by Gian Piero Gasperini’s admission, off the pace.
Their Europa League commitments on Thursday meant they had two fewer days to prepare than Napoli. Manu Kone, the most physically imposing midfielder in the league, along with Napoli’s absent Frank Anguissa and Atalanta’s Ederson, played with a knock sustained in the 2-1 win over Midtjylland. In all, Gasperini felt he could only make three changes from one game to the next.
On one level, it showed. Evan Ferguson came back into the team and was so ineffective up front that he was out at half-time. In fairness to him, service was in short supply. On the other, Roma were on top when Rasmus Hojlund led a lightning-fast counter-attack and teed up the only player on the pitch capable of keeping pace with him, David Neres.
Roma felt there was a foul on Kone in the build-up. Twenty-seven were called on the night, but not that one. It was a wincingly physical game and Antonio Conte emerged from it with credit. Injuries have forced him back to basics. His tactical evolution over the past year has been shelved. Napoli are back playing 3-4-2-1, a Conte classic. They now want less of the ball and more of Neres, Hojlund and Noa Lang’s pace on the break.
This season, Napoli have dropped points against teams they’re expected to beat (Tiziana Fabit/AFP via Getty Images)
The champions have won every big game except the one against the team with whom they now share the lead in Serie A. Milan are in a groove and the pattern is simple enough in overview: goalkeeper Mike Maignan makes improbable saves, the team keeps clean sheets and, in Christian Pulisic’s absence, Rafa Leao does just enough to stoke the debate for another week on whether he really can become a prolific striker.
As was the case against Roma and Inter, it looked like Milan were going to need Maignan to stop a penalty in Saturday’s 1-0 win against Lazio. Seven and a half minutes went by while the VAR pored over a Strahinja Pavlovic handball in his own area. Max Allegri was sent off in the interim, his death stare captured magnificently by Giuseppe Collu’s ref cam.
😂 What the ref sees when Allegri thinks there’s a penalty about to be given against #ACMilan 🤬 pic.twitter.com/MxrJ8sdFm8
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) November 29, 2025
“I didn’t insult him,” Allegri said. “Absolutely not. All I said is ‘every time you’re here there’s always a big palaver’ because he was in charge against Cremonese.” That was Milan’s only defeat of the season, all the way back on opening night. When Collu’s mic went live to allow him to explain the on-field review to San Siro, his delivery was absolute cinema.
The travelling Lazio fans cheered when he acknowledged Pavlovic had handled the ball. So much so, he had to raise his voice to make his caveat heard: an earlier foul by Lazio defender Adam Marusic rendered it irrelevant. Free kick Milan. San Siro erupted and Allegri’s trusty steed won by a nose again; a third 1-0 in four games.
Level on 28 points, Milan and Napoli continue to beat their title rivals and drop points against teams they’re expected to defeat. Level on 27 points, Roma and Inter do the opposite.
Last but not least, we should briefly turn our attention to the other end of the table, where Fiorentina are still winless and overwhelmed by their worst start for 99 years.
Purple pain
After Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to AEK Athens, Edin Dzeko felt the fans didn’t help by booing the team during the game.
“You can say we’re crap. That ain’t a problem,” he said. “You can say we’re doing badly. Yes, it’s true. You can say maybe we don’t deserve to wear the shirt. That’s probably not a problem either. But if I play at home, I want a fan to help me, not whistle every time we lose the ball. It’s tough out there. If we’re all in this together, we have got to get out of it together.”
Fiorentina have yet to win a league game this season (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
After Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Atalanta, a team now managed by Raffaele Palladino, the coach who left Fiorentina in the summer after a sixth-place finish and a falling out with the board over strategy, Dzeko went over to the travelling support, grabbed a megaphone from the ultras, and tried to relay the same message in person.
Frankly, even someone as verbose as Spalletti would be speechless in the situation Fiorentina find themselves in.
