Despite the unpleasant final result, Paulo Dybala impressed during the first half of Juve’s Serie A opener versus Udinese. The Argentine opened the scoring after two minutes with a poacher finish, before assisting Juan Cuadrado with a brilliant long ball for the team’s second goal.

Nonetheless, an uninspiring second half highlighted by two howlers from Wojciech Szczesny allowed the Zebrette back into the match, whilst Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury time winner was ruled out by VAR due to a marginal offside call.

The Portuguese stole the headlines with his absence from the starting lineup, as La Joya began the match alongside Alvaro Morata in attack.

Although he is yet to reach his physical peak, the Spaniard’s understanding with Dybala and Juan Cuadrado was on display, and he almost sealed the match with a header but was denied by the post.

Former Juventus utility man Alessio Tacchinardi weighed in on the result, and he appears to be in favor of the partnership between Dybala and Morata.

“I was impressed by Dybala, a transformed player. Fresh and mentally ready to run and fight, placed at the center of the project he can become the protagonist,” said the retired Italian player in an interview with TMW via JuveNews.

“Yesterday he played behind Morata, and in my opinion, they complement one another, because they don’t give points of reference. I see Dybala a more responsible player. Juve had a good first half, in a precarious condition with only one friendly in the tank, they were a team at 50%.

“In the second half they dropped the tempo a little bit and paid for the mistakes of the goalkeeper and the wasted opportunities. Allegri’s words following the match makes it clear that Juve tried to play beautiful football in recent years, but now we need to change the mentality.”