"Top Player". Juventini the world over have been dreaming for an elite player and all the connotations that the term brings, for as long as Beppe Marotta was confirmed as Director General for Juventus in the summer of 2010. Whilst the former Sampdoria man has undoubtedly made tremendous strides in transforming the downright awful teams prior to Antonio Conte's reign, he has yet to satiate the fans' demands for a truly world class striker. A player capable of scoring goals by the bucketful, not seen since the days of David Trezeguet (which indeed led to some fans calling for the Frenchman to be re-signed from River Plate in January).
Attempts to sugar coat Mirko Vucinic as a world class, game changing player capable of digging the team out of it's struggles have largely been unsuccessful. The Montenegrin, although a good player, who has by and large repaid every bit of the 15 million euros spent on him in the summer of 2011, isn't quite the goalscorer that the side desperately required. Arguments as to whether Mirko is even a striker are still ongoing amongst the "tifosi" as his shooting at times has been downright woeful. But I digress, this has seemingly drifted into an examination of Mirko's strengths and faults (and I'm sure you can find plenty of articles of that nature on the internet)
When the club announced the signing of Fernando Llorente in January, I was overjoyed. Here was a striker of undoubted ability finally set to join the club, a true goalscorer, finally bagged for the new season. The only downside being that he would only be allowed to join in the summer and not immediately (Thank you Urrutia). So it was a surprise when I read/heard the rather lukewarm reception he got from a handful of Juventini I conversed with regularly on various Juventus blogs and Twitter. The one thing that binded them and their opinions of "El Rey Leon" was that they had scarcely seen him playing.
As such, and typical of all football fans I might add, they scoured the net looking for videos of the big Basque forward to get an idea of his play style. Not convinced (naturally) they sought to look matches of Bilbao. Many were left unimpressed by the performances of Llorente . "He plays just like Amauri!" they screamed evoking painful memories of the Italo-Brazilians' time spent at the club as they bemoaned Marotta's inability to sign a top class forward. Of course they had completely overlooked the fact that the Pamplona born forward had not featured much for his side this season as he was ostracized to the youth setup for demanding a transfer prior to the start of the campaign.
Most certainly Llorente is not at all like Amauri or in fact any of the current crop of Juve strikers. He is a physical presence capable of bullying the most uncompromising of defenders in the air. Not only a handful in the air but also on the ground as his quick footwork and superior ball control ensures that he can take his marker on and get by him every now and then. He can hold up the ball and allow the likes of Vidal and Marchisio to push further forward into the advanced positions. Remember the debacle in Munich where neither Quagliarela nor Matri were able to hold up play? (Yeah, I try not to either). Seriously though, that kind of occurrence would never happen, or at least would be a rarity, for as long as Llorente is playing.
Then there is his goalscoring. The media has been harping on for 2 years now about Juventus' struggles in finding the back of the net. While scoring has not been as big an issue as the good chaps of the Italian media will have you believe, as the side leads the goal scored tally domestically, the addition of a proven goalscorer like Llorente will only bolster the number of goals scored by the team. Examining the statistics, one gets an idea of how prolific he is. Llorente has scored 71 goals in the past 3 seasons prior to 12/13, more than the likes of Higuain and Benzema (although stats don't often tell the whole story, I might add) and you can't help but be impressed. There is also his never-say-die attitude which will surely be appreciated by the fans and Conte alike. Definitely not a primadonna, Llorente prefers to work and will certainly not unsettle the magnificent balance that the team enjoys now.
With all the positives of this deal considered, it is important to note that Llorente will not come in and immediately score goals for fun. He has endured a difficult season where he has been made out to be public enemy number one at San Mames. Booed by the fans and ostracized from the first team, game time has been hard to come by. It's also worth noting that Serie A defences will be a little more wily* in dealing with his strengths and one can certainly see Llorente being given a tough time by plucky sides like Catania, Siena etc. who will undoubtedly resort to tactics that he would not have encountered as regularly in Liga BBVA.
That said, I would be a surprised (and disappointed) to see Llorente hit anything less than 15 goals next season in the league and I certainly don't see why he shouldn't, all things considered. Make no mistake, this is a top class prima punta the club has acquired, a "bomber" in the truest sense of the word. Exciting times ahead indeed, but before all that let's go and wrap up no. 31
*Note: I wrote "wily" a reference to "furbizia" which means 'taking any steps possible to ensure the victory' and not "better"/"stronger". In my opinion, defences in Serie A aren't much better than those found regularly in Spain's top division.