Juventus have one of the top players in Serie A in Paulo Dybala, and he needs to show his level of class next month.
The month of November will be a crucial one for Juventus. Andrea Pirlo’s men are coming off three draws in Serie A, including back-to-back 1-1 draws against Crotone and Verona – two teams they really should be beating.
Their worst performance came at mid-week against Barcelona, as they were badly exposed without Cristiano Ronaldo and Matthijs de Ligt in the lineup. Lionel Messi and Co. could have easily scored more against Juve, who were torn apart and had zero ideas in attack, other than Alvaro Morata nearly poaching goals but being ruled offsides.
Paulo Dybala was a huge disappointment against Barcelona. Nobody played under their potential moreso than Dybala, who was supposed to be Juve’s superstar going up against the left-footed Argentinian forward he’s often compared to in Messi.
Instead, Dybala was on the periphery of the game. The 26-year-old had zero shots on target, zero key passes, and zero dribbles completed, per WhoScored.com. Those are horrible numbers, and while he wasn’t the only attacker who struggled for Juventus, his poor performance was the most high-profile.
Paulo Dybala has questions to answer as a star player on Juventus
Dybala had played well against Verona late in the game, but it was too little, too late for Juve. Because in the first hour of the match, Dybala was equally out of the game, offering too little in terms of incisive action despite being the team’s clear superstar on the pitch.
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Juve may choose to rest Dybala, who is only three games into his return from an injury that cost him the start of the 2020-2021 campaign. So he may not be on the pitch this Sunday in a road game against low-table side Spezia.
But once November starts, the Old Lady will need Dybala to kick things into high gear. The reigning Serie A MVP is capable of scoring goals, assisting, and disrupting defenses with his dribbling skills and movement.
But how he co-exists with not just Cristiano Ronaldo but also now Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa will be a huge question mark. Additionally, attacking midfielder Aaron Ramsey looks key to Pirlo’s plans and has played well in most of his appearances for Juve this season.
There are question marks about Dybala, especially since Juventus have yet to agree to his sky-high contract demands. It is understandable for Dybala to see himself as a top star and earner, but Juve have a lot of attacking talent now, including young talent in Chiesa and Kulusevski. So Dybala must prove that he is worth that kind of investment.
On the schedule for Juventus in November is an easy slate of games in the Champions League, as the Bianconeri will face Ferencvaros twice. But in Serie A, things get more interesting. Cagliari and Benevento are in the bottom half of the table, but they are well above Crotone, whom Juve drew 1-1 a few weeks ago.
Paulo Dybala must step up after a poor performance vs. Barcelona
More importantly, Juve have a match against Lazio, who are in between Cagliari and Benevento in the Serie A table in 12th. But despite their struggles, Lazio have top talent and were a threat to the Bianconeri’s ninth Scudetto in 2019-2020.
Above all else, Pirlo’s team needs an identity, and Pirlo needs to know how his team looks with a healthy Ronaldo and de Ligt, as well as the emerging talents like Weston McKennie and Kulusevski. Dybala can work with Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata, who has been very impressive lately, but he has to earn his spot in the lineup each week. It will not be given.
As such, Dybala must step up. His performances against Verona and especially Barcelona were not good enough. If he can’t find consistency, Juve won’t wait for him, as important as he was to the team last season. Dybala is a world-class player, despite his skeptics, but his future in Turin depends on how important he makes himself this season by standing out on the pitch in every single game.
So far this season, Juventus have three players with at least 10 shots. Morata’s percentage of shots on target is 50 percent, Ronaldo’s is 38.5, and Dybala’s is 8.3. Dybala has fewer key passes per 90 than Ramsey, Kulusevski, Morata, Juan Cuadrado, and Chiesa (in that order). And only the young Chiesa has a worse percentage of successful dribbles among players with a minimum of one attempted dribble per 90.
Dybala is just shaking off the rust, likely. But after that Barcelona performance after one full start vs. Verona, the Juventini are expecting much, much more from La Joya. He is in his prime and one of the best players in Italy’s top flight. He must show it.