Juventus managed to seal their second consecutive win in Serie A this season, defeating a stubborn Sampdoria 3-2 at the Allianz Stadium in an early Sunday afternoon kick-off. Rain, tears shedding from Paulo Dybala’s eyes, and Juventus struggling to kill the game and consequently suffering from the likelihood of a late tragedy were some of the themes during a dramatic afternoon in Turin.
Paulo Dybala broke the deadlock with a top-notch finish in the tenth minute of the game. Leonardo Bonucci had made it two just before Maya Yoshida halved the deficit with a powerful header before half-time. Manuel Locatelli clinched his debut goal for Juve, with Antonio Candreva giving the visitors a slim chance of a late revival. Juventus, though, held on for the win.
The three points on Sunday has put Juventus in a much favourable position in the points table. With eight points from six games, the Bianconeri have entered the top half of the tally. The victory will undoubtedly hand them a massive boost — especially ahead of their Champions League tie against the European champions on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, we are here to dissect today’s performance. Without any further ado, let us jump into the three key takeaways from Juventus’ 3-2 victory over Roberto D’Aversa’s men.
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3. Manuel Locatelli stole the show, with Bentancur doing his job effectively but without making much noise
Allegri, as opposed to the reports before the game, chose to keep his faith in Rodrigo Bentancur. In the midweek against Spezia, the Uruguayan was extremely poor and got subbed off in halftime. Despite witnessing that performance, Allegri decided to name Bentancur alongside Manuel Locatelli for the game against Sampdoria. It indeed was a bold choice from the returning Juventus boss.
In his preferred 4-4-2 formation, Locatelli and Bentancur were the only natural midfielders with a firm grasp on the defensive side of things, with Federico Bernardeschi and Chiesa focusing less on their defensive traits. However, the way the tandem controlled the whole game warrants some serious credit.
In one end, Locatelli was excellent, scoring his first of possibly many in the Bianconeri colours and also providing a cunning assist for the first goal scored by Paulo Dybala. It was a joy to watch Locatelli running the midfield like that. According to the stats from Whoscored.com, the former AC Milan midfielder had four attempts, with one of them being on target.
If we disregard Locatteli’s goal and assists, Bentancur was much more influential in the middle of the park, as shown by the statistics of Whoscored.com. As per the stats, the 24-year-old made three interceptions (most of any Juventus player out there) against Sampdoria and took the responsibility of a box-to-box midfielder and applying forward pressure while Locatteli was more inclined to sitting deep and shielding the defence. It was a magnificent afternoon, certainly for the midfield pairing. They will be hoping for something of a similar ilk against Chelsea in midweek.
2. Injury concerns ahead of a hectic run of fixtures
There was a time in the game against Sampdoria when Alvaro Morata was seen consoling his teammate in Paulo Dybala, who had picked an injury and was now in tears while leaving the pitch in the first half. Then came the second half, where we witnessed Alvaro Morata holding his hamstring muscle and asking for a forced substitution as he had sustained a knock.
❌ “Morata and Dybala will be out for the games against Chelsea and Torino.”
— Bianconeri Zone (@BianconeriZone) September 26, 2021
[Allegri / @SkySport]
Following the conclusion of the game, Allegri confirmed that both Dybala and Morata could be unavailable for the next few weeks, meaning the Bianconeri will be missing two of its best players of the season so far against Chelsea. The London-based club, the current holder of the Champions League, is thought to be one of the toughest oppositions Juventus are possibly going to face in the 2021/22 campaign.
While Alvaro Morata, per FBref.com, is leading the goalscoring tally got Juve with three goals and one assist across all competitions this season, Dybala is doing the same in terms of providing assists. Therefore, missing La Joya and the Spaniard is a huge blow to their aspirations of salvaging something positive out of the midweek’s game in Turin.
Besides, their returning date is unclear. Given both players suffered muscle injuries, Allegri should prepare his immediate plans without the services of Morata and Dybala.
Amid these concerns, the only positive thing is that there will be an international break — perhaps a break for the aforementioned players’ healing — after Juventus play the Derby della Mole against Torino on the back of the Chelsea game. Juventus will soon conduct scans on the injuries and only then will their unavailability period come to light.
1. Does Dejan Kulusevski have enough to replace La Joya at Juventus?
After the teary departure of Paulo Dybala, Dejan Kulusevski entered the field and played the remainder of the contest. Before we jump to any conclusion and get to know what Kulusevski did on Sunday afternoon, we should take a look at what Dybala did before leaving the field in such an emotional manner.
As per the stats from Whoscored.com, Dybala was on the pitch for 22 minutes. During that time, not only did he score, but also he played three key passes — the most by any player from both sides. Dybala has been a productive instrument for Allegri’s Juventus since the beginning of the season. He has seemingly been involved in almost every attacking thrust.
Following Kulusevski’s introduction, the Swede tried, tried and ended up trying much harder. What result did he get? An assist for the goal netted by Manuel Locatelli was enough to acknowledge his endeavours.
Other than that, he was full of running and finding free spaces behind the defence with not much success in the final third of the field. Kulusevski completed two key passes and one dribble on Sunday afternoon, attempting to emulate the impact of Paulo Dybala on Juventus.
On the bright side, Allegri could now get more defensive work done by the Scandinavian. More astute defensively than Paulo Dybala, the 21-year-old has received a chance, out of the blue, to showcase his traits to Juve’s new manager on the field of play. He has to grab these forthcoming opportunities with open arms.