3 things that went wrong for Juventus against Bologna

2. Where is the help for Dusan Vlahovic?

While Max Allegri recently called the striker one of the best players of his generation, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t need any help either. Seriously, for as good as Juventus have been during its history, this current iteration of the Old Lady leaves a lot to be desired, and when the team has such quality in certain positions, it is a real drag for the fans and the team itself to be relying on only one man to seemingly save them week in, week out.

As I noted before the second leg of the Villarreal match, astute opposition understand that the new number nine in Turin is the focal point of Juve’s offensive strategy, and they must do everything in their power to ensure that the other players on the pitch beat them instead.

And it’s become clear that Juventus do not boast the requisite match-winners elsewhere to take the burden off Dusan Vlahovic. Paulo Dybala can provide a spark, but he was poor on Saturday, while Morata detests performing the lead role. Where’s Federico Chiesa when you need him?

Against Bologna, Vlahovic, despite performing poorly himself, bailed Juve out and saved a crucial point in the context of the top-four race. The Serb desperately needs support, though. His relationships with Dybala and Morata have blossomed at times since his arrival, and Juve require an uptick of these connections to become more proficient in the final third.

However, there’s no doubting that Allegri’s inhibiting system, in which there doesn’t seem to be any pre-determined patterns, nor any coached methods of chance creation, isn’t helping things. Vlahovic so often cuts an isolated figure with Juve’s positional play usually poor. The striker, too, needs to improve in certain areas, particularly when he’s playing off one touch under pressure, but support from his fellow attackers wouldn’t go amiss.

Continues on the next slide…