Juventus have named their travelling squad for Saturday’s friendly against Arsenal, and former Gunner Wojciech Szczesny isn’t involved.
Earlier this week, we covered reports that Juventus could be without nine of their first-team players for the friendly against Arsenal on Saturday. It turns out the actual figure is much higher.
Juventus announced their squad on Friday, and as expected, Federico Chiesa, Leonardo Bonucci, Leandro Paredes, Angel Di Maria, Adrien Rabiot, Dusan Vlahovic, Alex Sandro, Bremer, and Danilo are all absent.
Chiesa, Bonucci, and Vlahovic are all injured, Paredes, Di Maria, and Rabio remain at the World Cup, and Sandro, Bremer, and Danilo only recently ended their participation in the tournament.
Juventus will also be without Mattia De Sciglio, Paul Pogba, Weston McKennie, Juan Cuadrado, Filip Kostic, Arkadiusz Milik, and Kaio Jorge for the fixture, for various reasons.
Most notably, former Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny won’t be available, as he’s clearly not yet ready following his World Cup appearance with Poland.
From the Juventus first-team squad listed by Transfermarkt, that leaves:
- Goalkeepers: Mattia Perin, Carlo Pinsoglio
- Defenders: Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani
- Midfielders: Manuel Locatelli, Fabio Miretti, Nicolo Fagioli
- Forwards: Moise Kean, Matias Soule, Marley Ake
The other 12 players in the 22-man squad in England to face Arsenal are youth players or B-team players.
https://twitter.com/juventusfcen/status/1603763125861330944
This is far from ideal for Arsenal, who would have wanted a test against a strong Juventus side, and are instead likely to face a reserve team.
But it will still be a good chance to build fitness and rediscover the old link-ups that were working so well before the World Cup break, as well as to reconnect with the fans. They’ll have to focus on that side of the fixture.