Luciano Spalletti believes Juventus must remain tactically flexible after switching from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a back-three system, ahead of Wednesday's trip to Genoa in Serie A.

Juve have not won back-to-back matches since the first two games of this Serie A campaign, though they have an opportunity to do just that following Sunday's 2-0 success at Lecce.

Having deployed a back four in the opening four games of Juve's campaign, Spalletti has used a back three for five of their last seven.

But he says Juve's tweaks have been more subtle than they might appear and plans on alternating between the two shapes in the future. 

"This is a good setup, and it starts from the evaluation of our players, but it doesn't make us forget the composition of our squad," Spalletti said, as quoted by Football Italia.

"We can't penalise those who have a different set of characteristics – a small rotation is all that is needed for it to become a 3-4-2-1, and anyone can fit into the two. 

"Randal Kolo Muani can play in that space and almost be like an attacking midfielder or an outside forward. He's one of those players. 

"It's a solution that is designed to take us into the future, not to just play these games or to try and motivate one or two players. 

"When some people said that the group requested this approach, that is something that is not up to the players."

 "We must put in convincing performances" Luciano Spalletti looks ahead to #GenoaJuve in his pre-match press conference   https://t.co/r2x4ICLz15 https://t.co/tWcJLMx0Ia

— JuventusFC  (@juventusfcen) October 27, 2026

While Juve are seventh in Serie A going into the midweek slate of fixtures, Genoa are 16th, having earned just their second victory of the season against Venezia last time out.

PLAYERS TO WATCH 

Genoa – Mikael Ellertsson 

Ellertsson has scored one of his four Serie A goals against Juventus, netting for Venezia on December 14, 2024.

The Genoa midfielder has already equalled his goal involvement tally from the whole of last season (one goal, one assist in 36 games for Genoa) in just eight Serie A appearances this term (one goal, one assist).

Juventus – Bremer 

Bremer scored his first Serie A goal against Genoa at the Ferraris in November 2019, while playing for Torino.

Genoa are one of the Brazilian's favourite opponents in the competition (three goals, level with Cagliari) and are also one of two teams against whom he has won the most matches in the Italian top flight (seven, level with Sassuolo).

MATCH PREDICTION – JUVENTUS WIN 

Juventus have won more Serie A games against Genoa than they have versus any other side, with 71 victories, compared to 22 for Genoa and 23 draws in 116 matches. 

Furthermore, Juve have also scored more goals against Genoa in the competition than any other team (233).

Juventus have not repeated the same result in their last eight away Serie A games (W4 D3 L1) and, after their win against Lecce, they could win consecutive away league games for the first time since March and April 2026 (against Udinese and Atalanta on that occasion).

Genoa have won two of their last three Serie A matches (L1), as many victories as they managed in their previous 14 games in the competition (D3 L9), but they are up against it here.

Genoa have lost their two most recent home Serie A matches against Juventus without scoring, and they could suffer three consecutive home defeats against the Bianconeri for only the third time, after doing so between 1958 and 1960 and between 1949 and 1953.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Genoa – 21%

Juventus – 54.4%

Draw – 24.6%