New Signings Help New-Look Juventus Defeat Hellas Verona

It took just twelve minutes. That’s all the time that had passed between Luca Massimi blowing his whistle to start the match against Hellas Verona and Dušan Vlahovic putting the ball in the back of the net. In the same calm, efficient manner he opened his Juventus account, the 22-year-old also dismissed any notion that it might take a while for him to settle into life with the Old Lady.

By then he had already drawn a save from Lorenzo Montipò with a left-footed shot from the edge of the area, and by the time Vlahovic and Paulo Dybala wheeled away to celebrate the opening goal, it was clear that this was a very different Juve from the one that drew 0-0 with AC Milan just two weeks ago.

That game at San Siro saw the Bianconeri heavily criticised for failing to register a single shot on target, but even before the clash with Hellas got underway it was evident that there had been a major shift in Turin.

As the Juve players went through their warm up, the crowd was behind them, celebrating successful shots as if they were meaningful goals and ensuring that the team knew they would be supported vociferously once the real contest began.

That continued for the entire 90+ minutes of action, with Vlahovic at the heart of almost all of it. He had strong appeals for a penalty ignored by the officials, and got four of his five shots on target, providing a focal point and an easy outlet for his team-mates when they were under pressure.

There was no doubt the fans were rewarded for their efforts too, not only with that deftly lobbed Vlahovic opener, but also with a debut strike for Denis Zakaria who rifled home from close range after Alvaro Morata’s through ball found him in far too much space.

The Swiss midfielder had a fine first game in black-and-white stripes too, with statistics taken from WhoScored.com showing that he registered two tackles, five interceptions and one clearance as he protected the backline forcefully until his withdrawal in the 82nd minute.

It was an impactful display, and there was undoubtedly something poetic about the two new boys being the names on the scoresheet when this match ended in a 2-0 victory for the Bianconeri.

The Italian press celebrated their performances on Monday morning. “Vlahovic joy: The new Juve are already in fourth place!” proclaimed the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport while Turin-based TuttoSport boldly stated they had “relaunched the Scudetto race.”

It’s certainly too early for that, but the new arrivals had clearly transformed the team. They were no longer the dour, pragmatic unit we saw before the international break, with Max Allegri abandoning the 4-4-2 that he had leaned on in recent months.

Instead, the Coach opted for a system that was essentially 4-3-3 when Juve lost possession as Morata went wide on the left and Dybala occupied the opposite flank. The Argentinian often flashed to the centre of the field and made it more of a 4-3-1-2 when they won the ball back, and the entire XI looked much more comfortable with the new approach in both phases.

Arthur and Adrien Rabiot – who arguably delivered his best display of the season – certainly appeared much happier in a three-man midfield unit with Zakaria, while the new formation emboldened the side to play in a much more proactive manner.

There will be sterner tests ahead, but nobody in the Juve camp appeared happy to rest on their laurels either. “We had the right approach and managed to do the most important thing: win,” Vlahovic told reporters after the match. “I have to thank my teammates and the coach for their welcome, they have helped me a lot in these days and I am also trying to understand how things work as quickly as possible, I have to continue like this to improve.”

Allegri echoed the same sentiment, asking his new star to play even better. “Vlahovic had a couple of poor initial first touches at the start, which he needs to improve so it’ll be cleaner in his movement,” the Coach told DAZN. “He loves being in the battle, but he’s only 22, he doesn’t have that much experience. He needs to improve the way he shakes off defenders, including on his right foot.”

In time that may come, but it was clear from this debut that the new signings have changed Juventus for the better. The arrival of Dušan Vlahovic and Denis Zakaria might well be the start of something special for the Turin giants, and Juventus fans are clearly already enjoying every minute of it.