Juventus’ Lack Of Creativity Isn’t A Worry For New Signing Dusan Vlahovic

Six games, four goals. Not a bad start for Juventus new boy Dusan Vlahovic

Vlahovic scored on his Serie A debut after 13 minutes against Verona, lifting the ball high into the net after being put through by Paulo Dybala. He didn’t need to wait nearly that long in his Champions League debut, taking a grand 32 seconds to get off the mark against Villarreal.

Latching on to Danilo’s long pass down field, Vlahovic took the ball on his chest, swivelled and hit the ball with his weaker foot across Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli to give Juve the lead. It was his first touch of the game.

He scored the winner against Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia in the dying moments, when it looked like the game might descend into extra time; against Empoli, Vlahovic scored two smartly-taken goals to put the Tuscan side to bed.

So far, so good from the Serb.

Vlahovic is already showing why Juventus decided to splash out €80m ($90m) to sign him in a transfer window in which historically the club tend not to do major business in.

It’s thought that new sporting director Maurizio Arrivabene was the one who pushed to sign Vlahovic now, rather than wait for the summer, as he knew this side were struggling for goals.

Since his arrival, Vlahovic has carried the load, and so far at least, the decision to invest in him now is paying off.

In the first half of the season, Juve weren’t creating much in the way of goal scoring chances, and in equal measure, they weren’t converting the slither of chances that came the way of Alvaro Morata and Moise Kean.

Morata has scored five league goals all season; Kean has registered four. Paulo Dybala is the club’s top scorer in Serie A with seven. The lack of goals has been a problem all season in Turin, hence why Vlahovic was signed.

But the lack of creativity is still an issue. Against Empoli and Villarreal, Vlahovic was fed scraps, long balls lumped in his direction with the hope that he could make something happen with a moment of magic.

But if you want to get the best out of him, you need to give him service, and Juve have been short on that.

It hasn’t helped that the side’s two best creators, Dybala and Federico Chiesa, are out with injuries. Dybala, the side’s No.10 and one of the most creative players in the league, has had another stop-start season due to injuries. Chiesa is likely out for the rest of the year with an ACL injury picked up against Roma.

What is left is a mix-match of players who aren’t that creative. Players like Arthur Melo, Adrien Rabiot and Manuel Locatelli are all good on the ball, but don’t necessarily make things happen further up the field. Locatelli can score goals, but has been played in a deeper position by Max Allegri.

Juan Cuadrado, usually good for one or two expert crosses per-game from the right-hand side, isn’t having the best of seasons, and his output hasn’t been up to standard for months.

This has left Juve creating very little during the course of games.

The club’s aim is to finish in the top four and secure Champions League for next season, and the current team is just about good enough get over the finish line. However come the summer, the club will need to reconfigure the midfield and buy creative players who can service Vlahovic.

Should they do that next season, then Juventus could have a very good chance of regaining their fallen status as Italy’s No.1 side. If they don’t, the chances are we’ll witness another season like this one, with Vlahovic feeding off scraps.

But as shown against Villarreal and Empoli, even scraps are still enough for him to score goals.