Juventus forward Kenan Yıldız was absent from the matchday squad again as the Bianconeri defeated Napoli 2-0 at home on 1 November, extending a stretch on the sidelines that has now run well beyond a month. The 21-year-old was also unavailable for the 2-0 defeat at Genoa four days earlier.
The timing sharpens the question of what Yıldız's return will mean for a Juventus side that is still finding its shape under Luciano Spalletti. The Bianconeri sit seventh in Serie A with 17 points from ten matches — a position that reflects a squad navigating its season in fits and starts rather than one with a settled identity.
Yıldız has appeared in just one Serie A match this season, contributing neither a goal nor an assist and carrying an average rating of 7.20 from that single outing. The database rates him at an AI overall of 74 out of 100, with a potential of 82 — numbers that frame him as a player still ascending rather than one who has reached his ceiling. That gap between current output and projected ceiling is precisely what makes the lost weeks so costly at this stage of his development.
The squad's recent results without him tell a mixed story. Juventus beat Lecce 2-0 on 25 October, with Weston McKennie opening the scoring in the 29th minute and Douglas Soares de Paulo doubling the lead twelve minutes later. Three days later, Genoa dismantled them with goals from Kingsley Ehizibue and Tommaso Baldanzi inside the first half-hour. Then came the win against Napoli, where Kerim-Sam Alajbegović broke the deadlock in the 70th minute and Jérémie Boga sealed it in the 87th. Three matches, two wins, one defeat — functional, but not yet convincing.
A former Juventus striker, cited in Italian football coverage this week, argued that Edon Zhegrova is currently more influential than Yıldız in the final thirty metres. It is the kind of comparison that carries weight precisely because Yıldız is not there to answer it on the pitch. Spalletti has also had to manage squad registration changes, with Jeff Ekhator added to the UEFA list in place of an injured captain — a detail that underlines how thin the margins are across the roster.
Yıldız's return, whenever it comes, will not simply restore a name to a teamsheet. It will reopen a competition for places in a forward line that has been reshuffled repeatedly. At 21, with a potential rating that suggests his best football is still ahead of him, the urgency is mutual: Juventus need him fit, and he needs matches.