Without the need to worry about European fixtures like their Serie A rivals, Juventus could put themselves into unlikely contention for the scudetto this season. Bianconeri tactician Massimiliano Allegri will have more time to work with his squad and the players will have more time to recuperate.
The Livorno native has a reputation for being a defence-first coach, but he still needs to find enough sources for goals without placing too much reliability on forwards Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa.
A report in La Gazzetta dello Sport claims that Juventus need to score at least 70 goals to win the 2023/24 Serie A title, and in the last five seasons, only one Italian champion did not need to reach that figure. The Bianconeri scored 70 in 2018/19; then 76 in 2019/20; Inter scored 89 in 2020/21, AC Milan scored just 69 in 2021/22, and Napoli scored 77 in 2022/23. Juventus scored just 56 last season.
Allegri expects Vlahovic and Chiesa to hit double digits
There is a lot of expectation from Allegri on his forwards Vlahovic and Chiesa to score goals for Juventus, and he has set certain targets for each player.
The 23-year-old Serbian striker scored just 10 goals in the 2022/23 Serie A campaign, and the coach wants him to double that figure this season. Napoli centre-forward Victor Osimhen ended last season as capocannoniere with 26, and Lautaro Martinez from Inter was second with 21.
Although Vlahovic was off the pace in 2022/23, he did score 24 goals in 36 matches in the season before that: 17 at Fiorentina and then another seven after moving to Juventus in January 2022.
Allegri is also expecting more goals from Chiesa now that he is playing as a support striker, and the 25-year-old has been set the target of scoring 15 Serie A goals this season. He has only reached double digits in a Serie A campaign just once, finding the back of the net 10 times in 2019/20.
Juventus’ search for goals: Milik, Danilo, Rabiot, Kean…
Considering the targets Allegri has set for his main strike pairing, that is 35 goals between Vlahovic and Chiesa, so where will the other 35 goals come from?
Bench options Arkadiusz Milik and Moise Kean are expected to score 10 to 15 goals between them, and last season, Milik scored seven whilst Kean added six. Adrien Rabiot will probably be the best source for goals from midfield after scoring 10 goals in all competitions in 2022/23, and he is confident of matching that again.
Defenders Federico Gatti, Danilo, and Gleison Bremer often pose an aerial threat at set-pieces so Allegri hopes for some contributions from them as well. If he has contributors from different parts of the pitch, it will take pressure of the Juventus forwards and make it hard for opponents to contain them, helping the Bianconeri finish as high as possible in the Serie A table.
