Paulo Dybala has been linked with just about all of Europe's biggest clubs over the last few months, though Palermo's young Argentine forward has confirmed he'll be staying in Italy and joining Juventus in the summer for €28 million plus additional clauses. It's a pretty penny for a player who's only scored 16 goals in two top flight seasons, but it's almost certainly going to be a good buy for the bianconeri.
What Paulo Dybala’s arrival means for Juventus’ attack
Juventus’ young attackers have brilliant potential, although there isn’t space for everyone on their first team.
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Dybala is still only 21 years old, and the hope -- indeed the expectation -- is that he will become one of the world’s top strikers. Comparisons to Sergio Agüero are obviously premature, but not without justification. They’re both relatively small and rely on their mobility around the penalty area to cause havoc for defenders, finding the space they need to make their clinical finishing count. Certainly, Agüero is much more physically powerful than Dybala, though the fact that Serie A is much more tactical means Juve can take their time in building up their new forward’s strength to a comparable level.
However, while all looks good so far, there are a few complications that Juve need to consider moving forward. Just how will Dybala fit into their team, and to what effect? As it is, coach Massimiliano Allegri has the most devastating duo in the division up top in Carlos Tevez and Álvaro Morata, and it's difficult to justify dropping either.
Allegri took a big shine to Morata after replacing Antonio Conte in the summer, and the Spaniard has repaid his faith with a handful of massive performances -- including goals in both legs of their Champions League semifinal victory against his former club Real Madrid. Los Merengues have a buyback clause on Morata, which throws a spanner in the works, but for the time being it's difficult to see him losing his place in the team.
It would be even harder to drop Tevez, who’s scored 50 goals in his two seasons with the Old Lady. The 31-year-old does most of the legwork in Juve’s attacking play, and this campaign was arguably the best of his entire career. As his performances in the Champions League have shown, he remains a world class player.
It has been suggested that aging veterans Fernando Llorente and Alessandro Matri will be on their way out of Turin in the summer, which ostensibly would make it slightly easier for Allegri to come up with a plan of attack. However, Juve would probably want at least four or five first-team attackers on their books (bearing in mind he invariably plays with a two-man strike force), even if one or two have to settle for playing the role of benchwarmer and occasional substitute.
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That role could well be filled by a couple of Juve's other young forwards, Kingsley Coman and Domenico Berardi. However the former is 18 years old and would really benefit from a season of regular football, and the latter has scored a remarkable 30 Serie A goals for a relegation struggler over the last couple of seasons. Berardi is just too good to settle for a bit-part role at such a crucial stage in his development.
Rotating between three or four strikers is one thing, trying to rotate between five or six players of such precocious talent presents big problems. It could well be that the best solution for all is allowing Coman and Berardi to go out on loan, meaning they’ll continue their development without compromising that of Dybala and Morata, or disrupting the continuity in the Juventus first team. Llorente and Matri are not good enough to be first-team regulars for a Champions League finalist, but another season as reliable backups could be the way forward.
Suffice to say, it’s a nice problem for Juventus to have. Few teams in the world, if any, can rival them for the sheer potential of their attacking players. Handling things carefully -- even if it means keeping Llorente or Matri for another year -- could mean Champions League contention becomes less of a novelty and more an expectation for the Italian champions. The talent is there, now they just have to unlock it.
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