Edon Zhegrova, the substitute Juve cannot afford

Juventus suffered their second league defeat of the season on Sunday, a 3-0 home loss to Lazio that leaves them eighth on 11 points after seven matchdays. More worrying than the result was the performance: a side with no ideas in attack against an opponent that ran like clockwork. The game invites several readings. One of them started on the bench: Edon Zhegrova.

On the eve of the match, at his official press conference, Spalletti admitted that the Kosovan "deserved to play a bit more" in the draw against Cagliari and left the door to the starting XI open. The next day he benched him. Juventus lined up with Nico González, McKennie and Alajbegović behind Kolo Muani and, despite 58% possession, finished the game with nine shots, only two on target, and 0.78 expected goals. Zhegrova came on in the 67th minute, with Lazio already 2-0 up.

On the eve, Spalletti admitted the Kosovan deserved to play a bit more. The next day he benched him.

It is not an exception. This season he has played six Serie A games, all six off the bench, averaging 24 minutes. In those 146 minutes he has two goals, a brace at Sassuolo, and an assist against Atalanta: a goal involvement every 49 minutes. Even so, Juventus left him out of their Europa League squad, and he will not be able to play in Europe until January at the earliest.

The data back him, with the caution a short sample demands: 358 minutes between Serie A and Kosovo. His Big Data rating at Al Primer Toque is 82, the highest in the squad, ahead of Douglas Luiz (71) and Bremer (70). Among the wingers, the closest to him are Conceição (67) and Nico González (66), fifteen points behind. The Argentine matches him in pressing (86th percentile against 87th) and beats him in defending (74 against 67), but Zhegrova doubles him in chance creation (84 against 43) and outscores him in getting into the box (86 against 66). Alajbegović, the other winger who started against Lazio, is on 64.

Zhegrova is waiting, but his patience may not last the whole season.

It is not the first time he has had to wait. He made his name at Basel and in January 2022 moved to Lille, where he grew steadily: in 2023/24, his best season, he scored six goals and provided six assists in 33 Ligue 1 games. In 2024/25 he was undisputed until a groin injury (pubalgia) sidelined him from January to May. He arrived in Turin on 1 September 2025 without having fully recovered, as he himself told Tuttosport, and his first year was a desert: 19 Serie A games, all as a substitute, averaging 20 minutes and without scoring.

For now, he is not complaining. "A choice of Spalletti's. I'll do my best, I respect every decision," he told SportMediaset after Israel v Kosovo. He also insisted he did not want to leave in the summer, although there was no shortage of interest: according to Romeo Agresti, Goal's Juventus correspondent, Al-Ittihad asked about him at the end of August, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Lazio considered him as an alternative to Gustav Isaksen. On Sunday, Isaksen scored Lazio's second goal against Juventus.

Zhegrova is waiting, but his patience may not last the whole season. If Spalletti does not find him a place in the starting XI before the winter window, the Kosovan could consider leaving, all the more so with the return of Kenan Yildiz, out since August with a foot injury, set to take away even more space.

Data: API-Football, 2026/27 season up to 19/10/2026 (starts checked against the official line-up of each match). Big Data rating and percentiles: Al Primer Toque, compared with wingers across the 26 leagues we analyse, using the league coefficient and all his competitions (Serie A and national team). Sample: 358 minutes (146 in Serie A and 212 with Kosovo), a short sample.