Monza 1 – 2 Juventus: 3 key takeaways from the game on Saturday

#1 A glimpse at Allegri’s multi-functional Dejan Kulusevski

Dejan Kulusevski came, conquered, and subsequently left the field. Not many would come to understand what the Swede had done last night. He just scored a scrappy goal, courtesy of a blunder made by one Monza defender. Is not that all? Yes, that’s all in normal footballing terms. But football is a game that breaks all normalcy. So, there’s always more to that.

Having missed Juventus’ first pre-season game against Cesena, Kulusevski returned to the line-up for this encounter. In what may seem usual, the Sweden international started the game on left-wing in Allegri’s conventional 4-3-3 formation, with young Matías Soulé occupying the opposite flank.

As the whistle for the first half came closer, he changed wings and was now marshalling the right. Despite starting the game as a winger, he got rid of that norm as soon as he changed the sides and came onto the right-wing. He was now helping the team defensively, tracking down the opposition runners from the midfield and pressing the opponents higher up the pitch.

In the second half, he was seen playing in “the false 9” position. And that’s where the second goal came from. From this role, he was constantly putting pressure on those Monza defenders. Monza skipper, Giuseppe Bellusci, didn’t commit the gaffe deliberately, but he was forced to do so by Kulusevski’s intense running and pressing. Then came a sharp-witted finish from the Swede to extend the lead in the 53rd minute of the game.

In the post-match chat, the 21-year-old admitted (via Football Italia),

"“I’m learning a lot from Allegri. Above all, I’m learning on a defensive level, every day I learn something new. “Last year it didn’t go as we wanted, even though we won two trophies. This year, we want to win the championship, we work for that.”"

Are Juventus good enough to get back to the Scudetto-winning way? We must wait to find the answer.