Juventus director Pavel Nedved insists Moise Kean can provide the goals they lost with Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit and he is in favour of Scudetto play-offs in future to ‘improve the product.’
They visit Genoa at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT), you can follow all the action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
Kean starts this evening with Dusan Vlahovic and Paulo Dybala, though his characteristics and tactical role have never quite been developed or identified.
When told that Juve cannot expect Kean to score the goals they lost with Ronaldo’s departure for Manchester United, the vice-president disagreed.
“I might not ask Kean for 35 goals like Ronaldo, but he should be able to provide 25, as he has great potential,” Nedved told Sky Sport Italia.
“If we play him near the opposition area, he knows how to score goals. I ask a lot of him and we expect all the forwards to contribute more goals next season, as this is where we’ve been lacking in our finishing.”
Considering Juve have the Coppa Italia Final against Inter coming up on May 11 and are already guaranteed a place in the Champions League for next season, will the squad be totally focused this evening against a desperate Genoa?
“We must always be professional, do our duty and not kid around. After tonight, nobody is denying our minds will be on Wednesday.”
Nedved was also asked about the discussions with players Mattia De Sciglio and Federico Bernardeschi, whose contracts are running down on June 30.
“There could be news soon, we worked on all the contracts that are set to expire.”
The top four are already locked down, so there are suggestions Serie A could introduce Scudetto play-offs to make the league more exciting.
“The time has come, we need to get people to love football again and bring in the 20-year-olds fans, those the age of my children. We want to bring them to the stadium and to do that we have to improve the product on offer.”