On Juventus’ disastrous evening where they crashed out of the Champions League, there was only one positive – Samuel Iling-Junior.
The young English midfielder showed all his strength and technical ability, managing to radically improve the quality of Juventus in just 20 minutes after coming on as a substitute in the 4-3 defeat at Benfica.
On his debut in the Champions League, after a cameo few minutes against Empoli in Serie A last Friday, the 19-year-old provided two assists and already looks to be proven to feature in the Italian team’s line up.
Samuel Iling-Junior starred for Juventus after coming on as a substitute against Benfica
The English 19-year-old played a crucial role in creating two goals for Juve in a 4-3 defeat
Now boss Massimiliano Allegri will have the task of not extinguishing the growing enthusiasm of those within the game from fans to media on an extraordinary player with a wonderful left foot.
When Iling-Junior runs, prairies open up in which to unleash all his physical power. He went from six appearances with the second Juventus team that plays in the third tier, scoring three goals and providing one assist, to the Lisbon bedlam on Tuesday – and he’s already caught the attention of Juventus fans.
His growth into the side seems very fast and very sharp, it could accelerate his development so quickly as to transform him into the new signing of the team.
When he came on he changed the game and forced Benfica to change the right-back to try to limit his aggressive attitude on the pitch.
Juventus crashed out of the Champions League but Ilang-Junior wowed fans with his display
Iling-Junior is a hurricane that devastated the left side of the pitch, putting the entire defense of Portuguese team in difficulty. He has physical intelligence, tactical awareness and enthusiasm to immediately be a key man at Juventus.
Now the fear is that Allegri will be too cautious towards him by waiting too long before playing him even more in Serie A.
In a few minutes in the Champions League in front of a packed stadium at the Estadio da Luz, the former Chelsea youth star broke the game by providing a great technical performance that scared Benfica.
Without his entry Juventus would never have scored two goals that threatened an extraordinary comeback out of nowhere on Tuesday evening.
After nine years spent at Chelsea in the Under 16 and Under 19 teams, Iling-Junior sought a new team to have more space and now Juventus must be able to meet the player’s requests without neglecting him.
Now we will also need the strength of Juventus chiefs Pavel Nedved and Federico Cherubini who will have to intervene on the choices of Allegri who at the moment cannot be exonerated due to the economic problems that the club is going through.
The forward only made his Juventus debut with a five-minute cameo on Friday in Serie A
For now he has been restricted to the bench but already there are calls for him to play more
The match against Benfica showed how Juventus need courage in making choices and Iling-Junior must be considered a rising star of the team and not a shining meteor in the Portuguese defeat.
Keeping a player like him out of the starting XI would be a serious technical and financial error and would demonstrate the strategic failure of the club that years ago did not buy Erling Haaland because it would have deployed him in the Juventus Under 23s playing in Serie C.
To get out of the crisis they need fresh blood, a young and combative team that can bet on the enthusiasm of the young English winger that the club has stolen from Chelsea.
Former Juventus and Italy international Fabrizio Ravanelli exalted the young winger, saying: ‘When Allegri sent on [Matias] Soule and Iling-Junior the game changed, Juventus began to be very dangerous by playing simply and making many crosses’ he told Sport Mediaset.
Under pressure Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri has been cautious in his development
Danilo, Dusan Vlahovic, Moise Kean, Leandro Paredes, Matias Soule, Samuel Iling Junior, Nicolo Fagioli, Leonardo Bonucci, Fabio Miretti and Wojciech Szczesny pose during training
But with the return of Federico Chiesa, will there be room for Iling-Junior? Allegri is too cautious a coach and risks being considered too old in player management philosophy.
Chiesa and Iling-Junior can live together in the same team and they can be an incredible weapon to use as the Bianconeri look to revive their stuttering campaign with a push for the top four.
Allegri believed and believes in him, he promoted him from the Primavera to the second team and granted him his Champions League debut and Iling-Junior did not disappoint.
Now it will be Allegri’s task not to disappoint the expectations of the player who refused the offers of Borussia Dortmund and PSG to become a Juventus player.
Ilang-Junior was initially at Chelsea before Juventus convinced him of a move to Italy in 2020
The England Under 20 international is what Juventus have been missing for many years. He is not afraid to dribble past his opponents, he has qualities that Juve lack and that only Angel Di Maria has shown glimpses of for a few games between injuries and suspensions.
Allegri, in order not to risk depressing English talent, must recover courage and try to get 100 per cent from his young star.
Di Maria’s physical problems, Juan Cuadrado’s lack of clarity and Chiesa’s lack of reactivity, who had been out for 10 months due to a serious knee injury, suggest focusing on Ilang-Junior. His dribbles are muscular rather than technical and his speed in crosses seems to be decisive in creating panic for defences inside penalty areas.
Now Chelsea can begin to have big regrets for not being able to hold back a physically strong and very intelligent player in the movements between the spaces.
Ilang-Junior (pictured, R) has already won the European Under 19 Championship with England
The risk is that Iling-Junior could become Paul Pogba’s heir in the narrow circle of Premier League regrets after he left Manchester United to join Juventus early in his career in search of first-team football.
The question that Italian fans continue to ask themselves is linked to the continuous exclusion of young players full of determination who guarantee strength and enthusiasm in the first team.
Iling-Junior’s two assists against Benfica are proof of the importance of the young talents of a club that has also bet on Fabio Miretti and Soule as well as on Dusan Vlahovic and Moise Kean but that does not have the strength to enhance them.
Juventus legend Alessandro del Piero has high hopes for England’s new rising star
Right now Italian football absorbs many neglected or forgotten talents from the Premier League and after Ademola Lookman, Chris Smalling, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori, now Iling-Junior joins the list of potential top players who could flourish in the Italian top flight.
The months that will come will be useful to understand if next season it will be better to him in Turin or to send him on loan for 12 months with the risk of losing his talent in some small Serie A or Serie B team.
Fans hope that the next few months will be decisive to keep him with a leading role in the first team.
Alessandro Del Piero commented on the defeat by Benfica talking about the last 20 minutes of great quality of Iling-Junior and Soule: ‘I believe that these 20 minutes and the courageous changes made by Allegri gave some hope for the future,’ he told Sky Sport Italia.
‘Because we saw goals, the desire to fight, so many good things. But the general feeling of the match is bad because the first half was dominated by Benfica.’
The club legend and former captain therefore enhanced the team’s final 20 minutes by promoting the two young athletes included by Allegri but did not forget how in every match it is necessary to impose one’s philosophy without having to run for cover when a defeat is on the way.
