Juve, Di Maria scored half of the goals after the World Cup. And the trident…

The question of what would have been Angel Di Maria’s performance after the World Cup has accompanied him since his summer signing of the contract with Juventus for just one year. Enough to arrive polished to the expedition to Qatar, then closed in triumph, without binding himself more than necessary to the black and whites, with the idea of ​​then going home to end his career. Many of the assessments on Fideo’s performance in the first part of the season danced around this line: objectively below expectations, more for physical than technical reasons. Soon to issue sentences, but the first abundant month after his return from Qatar as world champion seems to be going in the opposite direction.

THE TRIDENT

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The newfound health of Di Maria, also stopped in the autumn by an injury to the hamstring, added to the return of Federico Chiesa created the mix to accelerate Juventus’ road towards the transition to the offensive trident, fabled in the summer with ambitions of 4- 3-3 before the history of the season changed Allegri to 3-5-2. Cuadrado’s absence gave the decisive acceleration to present himself against Fiorentina with the 3-4-3, an attempt to compromise between maintaining the three-man defense and the deployment of the three tenors up front. Perhaps also for this reason, in addition to the physiological run-in of a solution on the first outing, the field test did not exactly exalt the trident: Vlahovic was not at the center of the action, but above all Chiesa and Di Maria both seemed more at ease on the right, where obviously there is only room for one, and in fact they took turns.

THE FIDEO

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Stronger than the new balances to be found, with a set-up that will perhaps find a better balance with a back four, in a broader look Di Maria is however keeping a different pace than at the beginning of the season. In 2023 he is the black and white who has participated in the most goals: two goals, in Naples and Atalanta, and two assists, against the Dea and against Fiorentina, therefore four. Looking at the specific weight on the team totals, it is half of the turnover of the whole of Juve in the last five matches in Serie A, having played a leading role in four of the last eight goals scored. The fact that his two goals came against the most popular opponents of the period illustrates Fideo’s predilection for big events. The fact that Juve came away with just one point from those two matches shows that now Allegri needs to put a different side dish around Di Maria. Starting with the trident.