Juventus: 3 takeaways from the 3-1 win over Genoa

Juventus defeated Genoa 3-1 on Serie A’s Matchday 11, making it four wins in a row for the Old Lady.

On Sunday evening, Juventus got the job done at the Luigi Ferraris, defeating Genoa 3-1 after two penalty goals from Cristiano Ronaldo broke a 1-1 deadlock. Paulo Dybala scored his first league goal of the campaign, showing his MVP quality for Juve’s opener.

Here are three takeaways from the win, which moves Juventus into fourth in the league table.

Weston McKennie keeps up his good form

While Weston McKennie didn’t score to make it three in a row, he did contribute to a goal in a different way with an assist. McKennie is one of the Old Lady’s most consistent players when on the pitch, because he finds a way to help every facet of the game. Juve’s midfield is competitive with Adrien Rabiot, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Arthur Melo needing minutes, and Aaron Ramsey has had a few good performances, too. But McKennie has shown he has a place.

In this game, McKennie actually played as a right midfielder in the 4-4-2, though he mostly tucked inside to allow Juan Cuadrado to overlap. McKennie’s unselfishness stands out in every single game, because he defends well and responds to his teammates in the attack. He is a very smart footballer who fits what Juventus does perfectly. And he’s always willing to be flexible with his role to help the team.

Paulo Dybala appears to be coming out of his slump

Paulo Dybala missed the beginning of the season with an injury, and he really disappointed Juventini in his first several games in the Champions League and Serie A. The Argentine forward had some especially poor performances with Cristiano Ronaldo out, including against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, which led to questions about Dybala’s role on the team and future.

With Dybala, the key was always patience, especially in a new system with Andrea Pirlo at the helm. On Sunday at Genoa, Dybala looked like his old self. He scored a great goal, out-chessing Mattia Perin by going for the gap at the nearpost and foregoing the trademark curler that the Juventus loanee had already anticipated.

Beyond the goal, Dybala led the way with four key passes and three dribbles completed. Good things happen when Dybala commands the ball and gets into dangerous attacking positions, which both Juan Cuadrado and Weston McKennie did a good job of faciliating.

Juan Cuadrado is one of Serie A’s best players

Cristiano Ronaldo has probably been the best player in the league this season, though Milan stars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Hakan Calhanoglu, as well as Inter’s Romelu Lukaku, may have something to say about that. But I would also nominate Juan Cuadrado on the shortlist.

Cuadrado has been immense for Juventus in both the Champions League and Serie A. In the Champions League, no player averaged more assists per 90 minutes than the Colombian in the group stages.

And in Serie A, Cuadrado has been excellent. He added two assists in the 2-1 win over Torino last weekend, then had another great performance this past weekend at Genoa. Cuadrado was crucial to the attack with two key passes, and he was stellar in defense with five tackles and two interceptions, per WhoScored.com. You can hardly name a Serie A wide player with Cuadrado’s all-around impact right now.