Fabio Miretti — Scouting Report
Juventus — like most elite clubs — has never been the easiest place for young players to break through at. It takes someone extraordinary to force their way into the first team at nineteen years of age. When that someone is a son of the city and a lifelong fan, it makes it even more special. To be exact, Fabio Miretti is from Pinerolo, a town of around 35,000 people just outside of Torino (which has further ties to football as the Montevideo neighbourhood in which Uruguayan giants Peñarol take their name, is named after the town in Italy). Yet he has been at the Bianconeri since he was eleven. He had his choice of the two big clubs in the city but opted for Juventus over Torino due to his allegiances (and practicality), stating “When I started playing football, my idol was Pavel Nedved”.
He now says that his biggest influence is Kevin De Bruyne, and that gives you the sort of indication as to what kind of midfielder Miretti aims to be. Now nineteen, it has been a rapid few years for the Italian in terms of his progression. In 2020–21 (aged seventeen), he predominantly turned out for the Primavera side (under-19). He did, however, make his debut in senior football, coming on as a substitute on four occasions for Juventus U23s (for context, while a youth team, Juve U23s play in the third tier of Italian football). In 2021–22, he moved up full time to the Under 23 setup, making 26 appearances in Serie C, scoring three goals, and putting up four assists. He made a name for himself in the UEFA Youth League, starring for the Under 19s as they reached the semi-finals (the club’s best finish), only going out to heavily favoured Benfica on penalties. Most importantly though, he made his Serie A debut. After coming off the bench for a handful of minutes against Salernitana and Sassuolo, Miretti made his full debut against Venezia on the 1st of May, 2022. He played 79 minutes, completing 95% of his 37 passes, creating two chances worthy of 0.48 expected assists, and walking off to a standing ovation. From there he would start all three of the last games of the season, as Juve had all but confirmed Champions League football for next season.
If the end of last season was a prophecy of how Miretti would be viewed this season, it has been fulfilled so far. While the club has struggled to make a positive impact on the pitch, Miretti has cemented himself as a key part of the first team setup. Though he might have benefited from injuries and poor form from the other midfield options in the squad, he has also performed at a level that has seen him preferred over other options, playing 56.8% of available minutes in all competitions so far. Miretti is becoming one of the most talked about young midfielders in football.
Style of Play/Positioning
Some of the beauty that comes with Fabio Miretti is that he can be so many different types of midfielders in one. If we look at his heatmap (via Sofascore) below, we can see the areas of the pitch in which he has operated this season:
Miretti is someone that is just as comfortable being the deepest lying midfielder in the team as he is being the “number ten”. He’s also comfortable somewhere in the middle of those two, going from defending his box one minute to bursting up to the opposition box the next. No matter where you start him on the pitch, he is someone that is comfortable with the ball at his feet and will look to be progressive and break the lines with his ball carrying and passing.
This season he has already played several roles for Juventus. Away at PSG, he started as the left-hand-sided central midfielder in a 3–5–2. At home to Spezia, he was in the same role in a 4–3–3. Against Roma, he started in that number ten role behind Dusan Vlahovic in a 4–2–3–1. He’s still at an age where his best position is yet to be determined, but the early signs indicate that he’s going to be comfortable in all three phases of the pitch.
Key Abilities
The obvious place to start here is his on-the-ball ability. As we’ve touched on, Miretti is very comfortable on the ball and is someone that isn’t afraid to take a risk when it comes to passing. The creative side of his game has already shone through in the small amount of game time he has at the top level. He is currently averaging 2.92 shot-creating actions per ninety, which ranks in the 83rd percentile for midfielders. He is also putting up 0.16 expected assists per ninety in the league, which ranks him top of Juventus players who have started a game. If we look at his assist against Spezia (making him the first player born in 2002 to get an assist in Serie A) we can see the confidence on the ball to roll his man, then look up and play a precise pass into the box and the feet of Milik who does the rest.
This is his first and only assist to date, but the ability shown here is just an indicator of what makes Miretti so special.
The clip above also showed us some of his ability when it comes to progressing the ball through his dribbling ability. He is currently averaging 7.33 progressive carries in the league this season, and as we can see from the visual below, is putting up similar progressive numbers to established Serie A players such as Sandro Tonali, Milinković-Savić and Marcelo Brozović.
His 0.97 players dribbled past per ninety shows that he is someone that is comfortable in backing themselves to beat their man, and his 1.62 dribbles attempted per ninety (which ranks him in the 74th percentile) back this confidence up. This ability is key to Miretti as it allows him to easily evade pressure, and as mentioned earlier, if he is operating in that deeper role then it allows him to escape the first line of defence and open the pitch up.
What is great about Miretti is that so many of his skills are transferable to the different roles on the pitch that he can play. His ability to carry the ball helps him progress from deeper areas but it also allows him to penetrate the opposition penalty area (as shown by him ranking in the 87th percentile for carries into the penalty area). His ability to take risks with his passing means that he puts up high creative numbers, but it also means that if he is deeper, he can switch this up and become more progressive.
Miretti is also an extremely competent player at the less glamorous stuff. He ranks in the 99th percentile for pressures and the 93rd percentile for successful ones. While data on the defensive end can often not tell the full story, it does show us a young midfielder that is willing to put in the work on the defensive end, he also ranks high in pressures in each third of the pitch, which again shows us that he isn’t just operating in one area — he is making his presence felt in all areas.
Areas to Improve
One area that Miretti needs to improve is his ball security. While risk in possession is part of his game, it’s also something that does need to improve if he wants to make it to the very top. He is currently averaging 2.27 miscontrols per ninety and has a pass accuracy of 77.6%, which ranks him in the bottom eighteenth percentile among midfielders. Often, he can rush things, or he will be overly aggressive in his attempt to move the ball up the pitch or into a dangerous area. This then results in turning over possession. In the long term, these sorts of things will be offset by experience and in turn further situational awareness. In the short term though, it may cost him the game time necessary to develop, especially under a coach as risk-averse in possession as Max Allegri has been in his second stint as Juventus manager.
Another area for improvement is getting on the ball more. This is again something that can be explained by his age and inexperience, but it is something that we will want to see more of from the Italian U21 international across this season. He currently averages 48.73 touches per ninety, which is in the bottom fourteenth percentile for midfielders, this is particularly prevalent in the defensive and middle third where he ranks in the bottom thirteenth and seventeenth percentile. If he wants to have a further impact on the overall game, then making himself available in those areas will mean he can take on more responsibility and impact the game further. This can also be offset by his role in this Juventus team, though, as he is ranking high in terms of touches in the attacking third.
What Next?
The short-term future of Juventus doesn’t appear to be clear, as Max Allegri is under constant pressure and appears to be somewhat lucky that he hasn’t been sacked yet. For Miretti, getting as much game time this season needs to be the aim, and the early signs are good. However, with Paul Pogba coming back from injury and Paredes being signed late on in the window, he may see his game time lessened as Allegri is someone that is known to prefer experience over what is still something of an unknown quantity in Miretti.
Allegri may not be the best coach possible for a young player coming through, but he has also shown that he is adept at handling the development of a talented midfielder, being the coach that moulded Paul Pogba’s development and earlier years so well. We know that he rates Miretti highly, even saying “[He]’s a boy who knows the football and [he’s] ready to stay among the big [ones].”
What’s for certain is that Miretti is one of the most technically gifted youngsters we’ve seen come out of Italy in recent times, and he appears to be someone that is adaptable across several different roles on the pitch. There will be no shortage of interest if the Italian doesn’t see his hometown club as the place he wants to be, but the likelihood is that he will be an integral part of them regaining success on the pitch.
