Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast. Does he play Samuel Elling Junior? That brings us on nicely to Samuel Elling Junior because he had his first start for Juventus in this 2 -0 win against Atalanta. The first Englishman to start for 30 years for Juventus since David Platt in June 1993.
Speaker: And he had a fantastic, fantastic performance. He was lively and he scored really the decisive goal in this game. Blauwitsch's second goal came deep, seven minutes, eight minutes into injury time and he was ill and junior that broke the debt block.
Speaker: In the second half, he won the ball back with his work rate and his press in, and then he played it to Rabio, who then played it back across the box, and Illing Junior.
Speaker: inning junior scored and I think that he's been one of the positives of this season for Juventus has been some of these youngsters that are getting a chance and they're coming through the next gen and have shown that they do have potential for the future if they are developed.
Speaker: correctly in the future. And I think he definitely has potential. So we'll do a little profile on Illing Junior. He joined Juventus in 2020. He came from Chelsea. He spent nine years in Chelsea's youth academy between 2011 and 2020. And
Speaker: He was in the same age group as Armando Broja, who's at Chelsea now, an Albanian striker. But he left four events because he felt he would have more chances in their next -gen team. He's been really one of their bright spots in the Primavera team last season. He got 10 goals and seven assists from 26 games. That allowed him to get his chance in the first team. Of course, he really has done well when he's played for the first team this season. He came on in that
Speaker: defeat to Benfica in the group stage, the 4 -3. And thanks to him, really, they launched a late comeback and almost got a point. They ended up losing 4 -3. He got an assist in that game and nearly set up an equalizer as well. I mean, he's a winger. He's a winger. That's his natural role. But as is the case of Allegri, Allegri has been playing him left wing back quite a lot. But he's actually shown that he's actually very, very tactically versatile because
Speaker: If you saw him in the Atlanta game, his defensive coverage, his work rate gets up and down, but he also seems to be very switched on in the way that he traps back and gets in position. We saw that with the way that he won the ball for the goal that he scored. He's actually done really, really well at left wing back, but he is naturally a winger.
Speaker: He's quite tall, he's powerful, he's quick, he goes both outside and inside and he's got a goal for it. His three seasons at youth level for Juventus, 19 goals and 20 assists. I like him.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I like him, too. I think he's been one of, like, this, Allegrian the kids. It's been really interesting to see, Fagioli, Miretti, this kid. I think that's good news for Juve, because with Rovela and Cambiaso being as good as they've been this season in the Serie A, that's great news for them. But, no, he's a really, really interesting player, and I like the fact that he's,
Speaker: Yes, he's a winger, but he's actually been really good as a left wing back as well. And I like his technique. I think he comes across as a very mature and intelligent player and person in how he behaves on the pitch. I like him because he's unpredictable as well. With Kostitch,
Speaker: He's predictable. Costic is the most predictable player that you will ever get. He just crosses it as soon as he gets it. It doesn't matter where he got it. You can't argue with the assists that Costic has got over the course of the season. I think that obviously he's going to guarantee you a number of goals through his goal contributions, through what he does. But I think that sometimes in certain games against certain teams, against certain level of opponent and proposition, he can be predictable.
Speaker: whereas Illing junior especially as an impact player as a sub and that's where I think he'll probably come on as he'll be a sub I think for this severe game because you know Legri is a pragmatist you know I think he is unpredictable and he gives you that that x -factor and he's because he's so young he's 19 he still hasn't been hasn't had that coached out of him and I think that
Speaker: I hope it isn't coached out of him but I think he's a useful weapon and I think he can be a useful weapon for the rest of this season for Juventus. He will play his part between now and the end of the season.
