Juve, Vlahovic and Chiesa: Allegri’s attack is right

Six goals in three games: the Bianconeri have never been so good forward in the last three seasons. And over 60 percent wear the shapes of the two toes

Fabiana Della Valle

– turin

Massimiliano Allegri likes to repeat that the accounts are done in the spring, when the (football) seasons come to life and only a few teams are still in the running to be able to achieve their goals. Right, even if in this year without cups the Tuscan coach will draw a first line already at the end of the year, when Juventus will have to be attacked in the first four places in order not to run the risk of missing out on qualifying for the next Champions League. However, the proverb says that a good start is half done and this season the Bianconeri have started with another step. Even in the goal area, where the Lady had just returned from a minimum wage championship. The standings states 6 goals in three games, two less than Milan and Inter, currently paired in command. But above all 2 more than in the first three days of 2022-23, when after the hat-trick at Sassuolo Madama made it 0-0 at Sampdoria and 1-1 with Roma. Yet the forwards are the same as a year ago: it means that the secret doesn’t lie in the men or even in the game system used (which is the same as last season, the 3-5-2) but in the more offensive attitude of the team , which plays higher and is decidedly more aggressive.

New Juve

The numbers help to understand how Allegri has redesigned Juve: in fact, after only 3 days all the data related to the attack have improved. Juventus score more because they shoot more on goal (41 shots against 38), create more (expected goals 5.4 against 3.4), make more successful passes (1,251 against 1,144), seek more dribbling (59 against 40 attempts) and beat more corners (16 against 11). Morale, stationed more in the opposing area and consequently manages to make herself more dangerous. The more you build, the more you realize, a trivial but effective assumption. Allegri and his staff studied last season’s performance and made the right corrections, at least judging by the results obtained at the start of the championship. It’s still too early to tell, but Juventus in the 2023-24 version seems to have much less difficulty hitting the target.

The comparison

The 6 goals in 3 games are not only the best result of the Allegri bis, but also the third overall of the Max era: only twice had his Juventus team had a more prolific start, in 2017-18 (7 with a Paolo Dybala in Superman version) and even 10 in 2018-19, when a certain Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in Turin. Difficult to go back to certain levels, when Juventus had a fearsome forward roster, but surely the first goal is to improve the score from last season, when the Bianconeri finished with the worst figure in the last 13 years: 56 goals. To find an even less prolific season (albeit slightly) we need to go back to 2009-10, when the Lady finished seventh, finishing in Serie A with 55 goals scored. Juventus 2022-23 finished third on the field (but relegated to seventh place due to the 10 penalty points inflicted by the sports justice for the capital gains affair) but with the sixth attack, behind Napoli, Inter, Milan, Lazio and Atalanta . An offensive performance not from the first four places.

What a couple

Of the 6 goals scored, 66.6% bear the signature of the forwards and this is another important figure, because in the last championship the contribution of the forwards was minimal on the total number of goals: Chiesa and Vlahovic together scored 12 goals in total ( 8 for the Serbian and 2 for the Azzurri), now they are already at 4 (with a penalty missed by Dusan in the last match against Empoli). All good news for Max, who on his return from the break expects a perky lady to beat ex Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio. Chiesa will be busy on Saturday against North Macedonia in the debut of Italy’s new coach Luciano Spalletti, while Vlahovic will play tonight for his Serbia against Hungary. Allegri is waiting for them to update the goal statistics.



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