Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Luciano Spalletti revealed that Douglas Luiz has done enough during Juventus’ pre-season to earn the right to fight for his place at the club in 2026-27.
Luiz joined Juventus from Aston Villa for a reported €51.5m (£44.1m) transfer fee in 2024 but initially struggled to nail down a first-team spot with the Serie A giants.
The 28-year-old made just 27 appearances during his debut season at Juve, with only six of those coming from the start, totalling just 877 minutes of action.
He spent the first half of the 2025-26 campaign on loan with Nottingham Forest before returning to Villa Park on a temporary basis for the second half of the season.
Since going back to Italy, Luiz has been handed regular minutes by Spalletti in pre-season, while also finding the back of the net in a 2-0 victory over Nice.
Luiz started and played the first 45 minutes of Juventus’ win over Palermo in the final match of their summer tour on Tuesday, with his 97.7% pass accuracy (42/43) the highest total of the players who started for the Bianconeri.
He still has three years left on his contract with Juventus, and Spalletti believes he can play a part in his plans next season.
“We’ll evaluate it, but Luiz will probably stay this season. I made him play regularly so that I could get to know him better,” Spalletti said.
“He has undoubted quality, but we need to consider how he covers the pitch.
“He can play with a more attacking or defensive team-mate, is versatile in his construction and through balls. He knows how to play football, so I am satisfied.”
FT | Finisce con un successo il nostro Summer Tour @EASPORTSFC#JuvePalermo
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) August 11, 2026
Spalletti’s comments came after watching his team bounce back from their only defeat in pre-season against Inter last time out with a 2-0 win against Serie B side Palermo.
Kenan Yildiz opened the scoring just before the break before substitute Arkadiusz Milik sealed the win with a composed 86th-minute finish.
It was a game that Juventus finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.92 from their 18 shots, though only six of those were on target, compared to Palermo’s 0.70 from their 11 attempts at Mattia Perin’s net.
Spalletti is preparing for his first full season in charge of Juventus, having replaced Igor Tudor last October, going on to lead the team to a sixth-place finish in Serie A.
Though that was enough to qualify for a spot in the Europa League, it was the second time in the last four seasons that Juventus have failed to finish inside the top four of the Italian top flight after 11 consecutive campaigns of doing so.
It also saw Spalletti fail to finish inside the Champions League places in Italy for the first time since 2008-09, when he led Roma to a sixth-place finish, though the Italian feels more comfortable with his squad this time around.
“I liked the fact that this match was played at a high tempo, so it was a useful friendly, even if we lost the ball a few too many times due to our haste,” Spalletti added.
“We’ve got to find our balance, but we did see a team that was more confident. I saw some positives in the defeat to Inter too.
“But it’s good if there was something we didn’t like, it lets us be more determined and humble.”
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