Manuel Locatelli was on the receiving end of boos from sections of the Juventus crowd during an in-house pre-season friendly against the club’s Next Gen side on Tuesday, but reports in Italy suggest that the jeering was nothing personal.
Juve’s senior side played a 60-minute friendly against the Next Gen squad in front of 40,000 supporters at the Allianz Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, ending in a 4-0 victory for Thiago Motta’s first teamers.
Why some Juventus fans booed Locatelli
While Khephren Thuram and Timothy Weah impressed with impressive goals, Locatelli was briefly subject to boos from sections of the Juventus supporters.
There had been a brief period of the pre-season workout where fans felt the team were not playing with enough intensity. During those moments, Locatelli had also misplaced a couple of passes and some supporters felt that he had not been controlling possession well enough.
That led to momentary jeers from some in attendance, however, large sections of the stadium also responded with applause and positive chants in an effort to drown out the negativity.
La Gazzetta dello Sport add that nothing compromised the relationship between the fans and players during Tuesday’s in-house friendly.