Examining Dusan Vlahovic’s struggles at Juventus under Thiago Motta | OneFootball

As Juventus played out a 0-0 draw against Napoli in the Serie A yesterday, it was another dull night for striker Dusan Vlahovic.

The Serbian was taken off at halftime by manager Thiago Motta, who opted to use a completely different profile in Timothy Weah for the striker’s role, suggesting what he might want in a player upfront.

Vlahovic has played all five Serie A games so far, completing three 90s and has a brace to his name as well. But yesterday was the first time he was taken off so early in the game and it came after Motta has actually spoken about the Serbian after the games this season. Yesterday, he described his substitution as a ‘technical choice’.

Having said that, Juve haven’t scored in their last three games and their striker has fired blanks. After the win against PSV Eindhoven, Motta urged Vlahovic to ‘accept criticism’ and after the draw against Empoli, he stated that it is normal for the Serbian to be angry due to the lack of goals.

While social media is ablaze with negatives about Vlahovic, there is a bigger tactical discussion to be undertaken about the striker.

Motta has always wanted his strikers to offer more than goals. Joshua Zirkzee at Bologna was the perfect link-up forward, who dropped deeper, brought others to play with quick first touches and scored goals as well. That is close to what Marko Arnautovic was too.

Vlahovic is more of an advanced forward – in Football Manager terms. Since his Fiorentina days, his profile has been more about running in-behind and finishing off chances instead of being a link-up forward. Under Vincenzo Italiano, so many of his goals were poachers’ finishes and the same was the case under Max Allegri.

Under Motta, Vlahovic is constantly finding himself in positions where he is having to sort his feet out quickly and execute instinctive actions in tight spaces, instead of finishing chances and making those darting runs in-behind. That isn’t to say he is a bad player – no. He is getting used to playing in a different way.

On top of that, the side is still getting accustomed to the Motta way. Against Napoli, the Juve boss tried different players in the final for the sake of box occupation and it became a bit of a potpourri, where there seemed to be no method to the approach. They played with high number 8s in Teun Koopmeiners and Weston McKennie in an approach that didn’t work out because they played with a sole 6 in Manuel Locatelli.

That setup will take some weeks to get better and become more certain and that will help Vlahovic, who finds himself as a fish out of his water in the current setup. Things could change, soon enough.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN