Figures show that Massimiliano Allegri has given more minutes to his young players than any other coach in Serie A over the course of this season.
“There have been approximately 4,000 minutes from players who came through the Next Gen and we should be proud of that,” the Bianconeri coach said after his team’s Derby d’Italia victory over Inter on Sunday evening.
The exact figure comes to 4,709 minutes, not including the 1,192 minutes of Moise Kean, who graduated straight to the first team from the U-19s in 2016.
The amount of playing time granted to Juve players born after the year 2000 has already doubled last year’s total, with the likes of Fabio Miretti, Nicolo Fagioli, Matias Soule, Samuel Illing-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea already established in the first team.
According to Tuttosport, a large portion of the recent success of Juve’s young players has been credited to the work of the club’s Next Gen sector, which was largely advocated for in the years prior to its foundation.
The decision came in 2018 to allow Serie A to field “second teams”, with Juventus Next Gen officially launching in the year 2020.
In the 2017-18 season, the Bianconeri only gave three minutes of first team football to any of its U-23 players, which rose to 1,009 over 2018-19, and eventually reaching 1,927 minutes last season.
This year’s figure has already surpassed last season’s twice over, with plenty of action scheduled before the conclusion of this campaign.
The 4,709 minute figure is also more than 1,000 more than Seire A top four challengers Roma and Atalanta, who have both previously been considerable contributors to the development of young Serie A talents.
With a need to reduce expenditure on player contracts and a considerable amount of turnover expected in the summer transfer window, Juventus will be pleased by the over-performance of some of its young stars this year.