Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli seems to be back to playing at his best this season under Thiago Motta.
The last two campaigns were frustrating for the Italian, who suffered in a much more pragmatic system under Max Allegri, with Thiago Motta quite the opposite in his vision of the game.
So far, the Italian has been one of Juve’s standout players and a comparison has now emerged with Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes.
This comes from former Serie A player Mozart Santos, who spoke to EuropaCalcio and stated that the Newcastle man isn’t better than Locatelli and neither is signing from Aston Villa – Douglas Luiz.
He said, as relayed by TuttoJuve: “I particularly like Locatelli, I consider him a modern midfielder and a fundamental starter for Thiago Motta’s Juventus. Douglas Luiz? I had many doubts when the club bought him, investing so much, from an important championship, but very different from Serie A such as the Premier League.
“I don’t see Douglas Luiz as complete enough to take Locatelli’s place in Juventus’ midfield and I think he will struggle a lot to assert himself.”
Speaking of Guimaraes and how he compares to Locatelli, the former Brazilian player said:
“The same goes for Bruno Guimaraes (who has previously been linked to Juve), a midfielder who has shown great things at Newcastle and in the Brazilian national team, but who I consider inferior to the Italian midfielder himself. If I were Juventus, I wouldn’t invest any more money in that department and I would always play Locatelli.”
Guimaraes is certainly a quality midfielder who has shown enough at Newcastle to prove how good he is, but it’s no surprise the Italian media feel Locatelli is better.
Part of the reasoning will be how poorly Douglas Luiz has done since arriving at Juventus, seemingly helping drag down the perception of his compatriots at the same time.
