Dusan Vlahovic: Analysis, Statistics & More

Published at Apr 19th, 2022 byAlex McMahon

Photo Credit: AP

Arriving at Juventus for a shade under £63 million in January 2022, Dusan Vlahovic became the club’s fourth-most expensive transfer of all-time behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Arthur and Gonzalo Higuain.

The young Serbian followed in the footsteps of David Trezeguet, Darko Kovacevic, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Filippo Inzaghi as a big-money striker acquisition.

The aforementioned quartet were spread across the spectrum of transfer success stories, and it is of course too early to judge Vlahovic’s place in Juventus’ chequered history of high-price signings.

Early Dusan Vlahovic stats for the Old Lady haven’t been quite what many expected. He scored just once between February 26th and April 9th.

That sort of dry spell isn’t what Juventus had in mind when they invested so much money in a player with 17 goals in 21 Serie A starts for Fiorentina this term.

Vlahovic at Juventus

With just over 800 league minutes clocked since joining Juventus, it’s important to consider that we are dealing with small sample sizes.

Still, countless others have experienced, including Romelu Lukaku at Chelsea this season, that pressure and expectations are sky high when a striker is signed for such a hefty fee.

Despite all the metrics we have to judge players, and the numerous variables involved in the success of both teams and individual players, the goal tally is what is often used as the overwhelming judgement for centre forwards.

Vlahovic has scored in consecutive games against Cagliari and Bologna, taking him to six in Serie A for Juve. The numbers are slightly more respectable than they were.

Diving deeper, Vlahovic is also clocking 0.49 non-penalty expected goals per 90 with Juventus compared to just 0.39 for Fiorentina. Such an uptick is perhaps predictable on a stronger team, but this bodes well for the Serbian in the coming months and seasons.

Vlahovic Juventus

Dusan Vlahovic stats are roughly the same across the board. He’s dribbling and passing slightly less, while getting off slightly more shots.

This is likely just noise at this point given his minutes tally with the Old Lady – most statistics show that his role has stayed roughly the same.

Of course, the numbers only tell part of the story. Teams set up differently against Fiorentina to how they do against Juventus, and Max Allegri’s tactics have been the focus of plenty of criticism this season.

Vlahovic wants the ball in behind, yet the passive play of Juve’s midfield has made life difficult for him at times. It is not a perfect relationship.

Chemistry is still being built. Perhaps, then, we can praise Vlahovic’s shot and expected goal tallies in less-than-ideal circumstances.

There have been signs of Vlahovic’s frustrations, notably in his fired-up celebration against Bologna. He has taken a battering as Juventus’ lead man, and it’s not an exaggeration to say the service has been substandard.

Adaptation Takes Time

Juventus are in a fight for a top four spot. Vlahovic looked set for the Golden Boot at the halfway mark, but such ambitions have taken a real blow with a drop-off in his productivity since the transfer.

Allegri is under pressure to not only bring his team results. He must find a formula which gets Vlahovic firing, whether through a change in personnel, shape or build-up play.

There have been some curious comments from the Juve manager about Vlahovic, which are unlikely to have helped the situation.

Allegri said, “Dusan is an important player but has only been playing football for a year and a half. Playing for Juventus is not like playing in Fiorentina. He has too much desire to do everything and this attitude leads him to be in a hurry.

“I think he has a lot of room for improvement. When he finds a balance, all his qualities will surely emerge. Now they know him, they fear him, they study him: even he knows it well. It’s normal that he always needs to improve but I’m happy because he fought but he has to stay calm.”

Nine Serie A teams have scored more than Juventus this season. Words like ‘rebuild’ and ‘project’ are thrown around too frequently in footballing discourse, yet this is what Juventus face in the coming seasons.

The Ronaldo experiment was ultimately a failure. Poor deals have been handed out in recent seasons, none more so than Aaron Ramsey.

The defence will inevitably have a new look. Juan Cuadrado’s days at the top are surely numbered.

The midfield is desperately lacking balance; when paired with the misfiring play of free-agent-to-be Paulo Dybala, it is clear to see why life in Turin hasn’t been straight forward for Vlahovic. Juventus does not have the personnel or manager to construct a potent attack.

While there are positive indications in Dusan Vlahovic stats, the success of his Juventus tenure is dependent on what happens around him.

He has shown he can be productive even in an imperfect team, but the Old Lady has a lot of work to do if they are to see the prolific Vlahovic of his final few months in Florence.