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What's the story?
Maurizio Sarri has confirmed that Juventus' new signing Matthijs de Ligt will have a role to play in the upcoming International Champions Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur.
In case you didn't know...
Earlier this week, the Dutch international signed for the Serie A champions for a reported fee of €75 million. De Ligt had been linked with moves to Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona before completing his move to Juventus.
During the defender's time with Ajax, he made 117 appearances and scored 13 goals in all competitions. In last season's Champions League, De Ligt was also part of the Dutch team which knocked out Juve in the quarter-final.
In addition to their new signing, Juventus have also included the likes of Adrien Rabiot, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon in the squad which travelled to Singapore.
The heart of the matter
Given that the 19-year-old had just joined the club, De Ligt has not had the opportunity to train with his team-mates. However, Sarri is confident that fans will have a chance to see him play in a Juventus shirt for the first time tomorrow.
Speaking prior to the game, the manager explained,
“So far he hasn’t trained with his teammates.”
“He’ll certainly play part of the game though.”
Sarri went on to explain the approach that his side will be taking when they face English Premier League side, Tottenham. He said,
“We’re behind Tottenham [in terms of pre-season preparations] but tomorrow night I want to see a team with the right mentality.”
This match against Spurs will be Sarri's first match in charge of the Italian giants. He spent just one season managing Chelsea before returning to Serie A. However, the 60-year-old manager already has plans of how to deploy players such as Ronaldo. Sarri pointed out,
“Cristiano Ronaldo has won everything on an individual and collective level starting from slightly out on the left.”
“The first attempt will be to start him from that position, but given his quality it wouldn’t make any difference to move him 10 metres.”
What's next?
After the match in Singapore, Juventus will travel to Nanjing to face Inter Milan. After that, they will head to Friends Arena in Sweden to play Atletico Madrid.
