When Randal Kolo Muani signed on loan with Juventus a couple of weeks ago, I really had no idea what to expect. His time with Paris Saint-Germain was totally unimpressive, with the only thing notable being just how much money the Parisians paid to bring the now-26-year-old striker back to his home country of France.
A clear sign that he was very much out of favor with PSG manager Luis Enrique, Kolo Muani played just 358 minutes in Ligue 1 this season. He needed minutes, with some sort of move away from French capital — be it on loan or something more permanent — and a move to Juventus during the January transfer window provided just that.
But nobody saw what Kolo Muani has done in his first three appearances coming. Not even the most optimistic of Juventus supporters saw this red-hot start.
Kolo Muani’s five goals in his first three games with Juventus isn’t just some sort of club record who have had their very accomplished list of French players (and strikers) come through their ranks over the years. No, it’s much more than that, folks. With his brace against Como to help Juventus record a 2-1 win Friday night — his second two-goal outing in less than a week — Kolo Muani became the first ever player to score five goals in his first three Serie A games in the three-point era that dates back three decades before he was even before.
Not bad for somebody who was basically cast aside by PSG in January, right?
One can pick some nits and say the quality of some of the goals Kolo Muani has scored hasn’t always been at the level of his first one against Como on Friday night. And hey, the manner of his goal against Napoli in his Juve debut was a little lucky. His second goal in last weekend’s win over Empoli when he deflected a long-range shot from Timothy Weah definitely involved a bunch of luck as well. So for every impressive goal that Kolo Muani has scored with Juventus, there’s a deflected shot thrown in there as well.
But he’s scoring. He’s scoring every time he steps onto the field.
And no matter what you think about Dusan Vlahovic’s salary, that’s more than what Juventus’ No. 9 has been doing both of late and on the season.
Of course, this is the ultimate amount of fun with a very small sample size compared to what Vlahovic has done both this season with Thiago Motta and over the last couple of years before that with Max Allegri. To expect this goal-scoring pace from Kolo Muani to continue would be failing every bit of knowledge about this sport that any of us have.
Here’s the funny thing in all of this: Kolo Muani, in three Serie A games, nearly has as many goals (5) as he scored in 26 appearances last season (6). That shows you how much — a lot like what Moise Kean is doing right now with Fiorentina after his summer move away from Turin — that a simple change in scenery and a little bit of confidence going again can really get a player’s form back on track.
The more Kolo Muani scores — and certainly over the next couple of weeks in Serie A and the Champions League it will important with who is on the schedule — the more we will probably see Vlahovic coming off the bench. Because let’s face it, there’s no reason for somebody other than Kolo Muani to start up front for Juventus right now. He’s just too hot and, at least through these first three games in bianconero (or bright yellow), he’s scoring at a rate that no newcomer has in decades.
