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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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 be it on loan or something more permanent \u2014 and a move to Juventus during the January transfer window provided just that.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kolo Muani\u2019s five goals in his first three games with Juventus isn\u2019t 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\u2019s much more than that, folks. With his brace against Como to help Juventus record a 2-1 win Friday night \u2014 his second two-goal outing in less than a week \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Not bad for somebody who was basically cast aside by PSG in January, right?<\/p>\n
One can pick some nits and say the quality of some of the goals Kolo Muani has scored hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a deflected shot thrown in there as well.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s scoring. He\u2019s scoring every time he steps onto the field.<\/p>\n
And no matter what you think about Dusan Vlahovic\u2019s salary, that\u2019s more than what Juventus\u2019 No. 9 has been doing both of late and on the season.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s 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 \u2014 a lot like what Moise Kean is doing right now with Fiorentina after his summer move away from Turin \u2014 that a simple change in scenery and a little bit of confidence going again can really get a player\u2019s form back on track.<\/p>\n
The more Kolo Muani scores \u2014 and certainly over the next couple of weeks in Serie A and the Champions League it will important with who is on the schedule \u2014 the more we will probably see Vlahovic coming off the bench. Because let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s no reason for somebody other than Kolo Muani to start up front for Juventus right now. He\u2019s just too hot and, at least through these first three games in bianconero (or bright yellow), he\u2019s scoring at a rate that no newcomer has in decades. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n