Juve, Vlahovic in crisis: he no longer scores, the attacker’s numbers

Six games of withdrawal, five league games in a row without scoring: by far Dusan Vlahovic’s longest goal drought since he’s been a player of a certain level, the last time he waited that long for a celebration was the Autumn 2020 and he was still a twenty-year-old who had to do with Fiorentina. One image, a thousand images to give the sense of Dusan’s psychodrama, racking his brain endlessly for a goal that hasn’t come, at this point, from the brace on February 7 in Salerno, or from February 16 against Nantes considering all the competitions . If he too scored in the next game on Thursday, it would have been a month since he last scored.

THE RIGOR AND THE EMBRACE

—

The first photo, the most banal but no less powerful. Minute 67, Juve have already tried everything to get him unlocked, so when Cuadrado wins the penalty it seems like a good opportunity to rekindle Vlahovic. On the penalty spot against Turk, he displaces him: goalkeeper on the Serbian’s right, ball on the left. Too much on the left. Pole. Okay, but why pull it so hard? Too much desire. The fact: Vlahovic has missed two of the last four penalties he has taken in Serie A, after he had converted all of his first 12 shots from meters into goals in the tournament. Last photo in chronological order, the final: compatriot Dejan Stankovic, coach of Sampdoria, takes it at the end of the game for a long hug with a chat and a psychoanalytic session after the triple whistle. Who knows what they said.

A THOUSAND GAMES IN ONE

—

Vlahovic’s evening was also much more. Starting with a great ball in the 25th minute from Miretti to trigger his great movement in depth on the offside edge, but the Serbian gets himself back on track. He participates in the game by retreating to midfield to sort out on the wing: very useful, he does the right thing, but the reality is that what everyone is asking of him is a goal. He asks for the goal. And after the rigor the contours of the hunt become spasmodic. The first ball that comes back to him instinctively kicks him out of pure vent, just above the crossbar. Then Rabiot put it two meters from the goal, but it was offside: in any case, the ball hadn’t passed. A minute later his friend Kostic triggers him again, but Augello gets in the way: punches hit on the ground and the stadium roars, the people are with him, he understands the moment. In the recovery the joke: even Soulé’s first goal in Serie A arrives from the crumbs (pretty big) that fell from Dusan’s table, his goring is saved on the crossbar by Turk, before Matias leads. Curtain.

THE NUMBERS OF THE FLOP

—

In the end, the abacus of Vlahovic’s evening against last-placed Sampdoria tells of a shot on target, and saved, three off, four rejected, two woodwork hits… And 50 balls touched, which are not worth a prize at the end of the evening but at least photograph an evening of different participation and involvement compared to the 18 touches of a week ago against Roma. After all, if there is something good in that fury in the search for the goal that remained unsatisfied, it is the wickedness in attacking the goal seen in that final, to be carried along for the next games. Of course, not only because Milik is broken, Kean disqualified and also Chiesa and Di Maria are not doing so well, but also because the plate is crying, badly. With 10 goals in 25 appearances and 1944′ played, the count is simple: we’re never a joy but we don’t go very far, a joy every two and a half games and 194′ played. At the dawn of a non-trivial week – in Freiburg to take the quarterfinals of the Europa League, then at San Siro with Inter which is always Inter – unlocking now would make a big bang.