Wojciech Szczęsny knew what he was getting into at Juventus. When he signed from Roma in the summer of 2017, he gave up a starting role to serve as understudy to Gianluigi Buffon. There were no guarantees for what would happen after his first season in Turin.
“I came here hoping that I would become the starter of the future, but I need to earn it,” he told La Repubblica last December. He had been with the club for five months, and played a handful of games, yet to his mind it was clear that “what I am today is still not enough. A team like Juventus needs to have one of the best keepers in the world.”
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That final sentiment was echoed by Owen Hargreaves this month, in a rather less optimistic tone. The former England midfielder was serving as a pundit for British broadcaster BT Sport on its coverage of Juventus’ Champions League defeat at home to Manchester United.
Szczęsny had been at fault on the game’s winning goal, hesitating as a cross came over from the left and getting caught in no-man’s land as Marouane Fellaini flicked it on at the near post. The keeper scrambled across to get a hand on the ball, but only succeeded in pushing it onto the backtracking Leonardo Bonucci. It ricocheted off him and Alex Sandro on its way into the net.
“How many sides have won the Champions League without a world-class goalkeeper?” posed Hargreaves during the post-game studio analysis. “This (Juventus) team is ready to win the Champions League and people behind the scenes will be thinking ‘have they missed a trick now Buffon has left?’”
Those words were quickly picked up in the Italian press. Hargreaves was responding to similarly critical remark from his former United teammate, Paul Scholes. Both men have won this competition before, but did that qualify them to hand down such strident condemnation of Szczęsny on the back of a single mistake?
Scholes portrayed it as more than an isolated incident, making reference to Szczęsny’s inconsistency at Arsenal. But what of the three full seasons since he left north London? Juventus’ decision to sign Szczęsny in 2017 was foreshadowed by a season at Roma in which he kept a league-leading 14 clean sheets.
There has been no hint of buyer’s remorse. Juventus added another goalkeeper this summer, 26-year-old Mattia Perin, who was once perceived as Buffon’s likely heir with the Italian national team. A series of injuries have undermined his development since he made his debut for the Azzurri in 2014, yet on paper this was still a player very capable of challenging Szczęsny for the starting job in Turin.
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Massimiliano Allegri never allowed even a suggestion that it could become an open competition.
“Perin is an excellent addition,” he said after the transfer was announced in June. “But the starter is Szczęsny.”
He has been true to his word, granting Perin just a single appearance thus far—a contrast with the regular opportunities Szczęsny got during his season backing up Buffon. The impression is of a manager working to help his chosen No. 1 to feel secure in his new role
Szczęsny is the first to acknowledge that it has been an adjustment. To start for a team that expects to win every competition domestically, and aims to conquer Europe as well, is something beyond what he experienced at Roma.
He excelled there as a shot-stopper. Szczęsny averaged 2.93 saves per goal conceded during his eye-catching 2016-17 campaign, third-best among keepers who started more than four Serie A games. Buffon came in behind him at 2.72. The Italian also went to a Champions League final, and finished fourth in the voting for the Ballon d’Or.
Great goalkeepers do much more than stop shots—especially on teams that face few of them. It is a topic Szczęsny discussed with Giorgio Chiellini during an interview for a web series that the goalkeeper co-hosts for the Polish sports newspaper Przeglad Sportowy. Asked what made Szczęsny different to Buffon, the defender spoke frankly about the fact that he was still getting to know his new teammate and learning to communicate with him on the pitch.
“Two or three times in a match (as a defender), you need help, you need a wake-up call,” said Chiellini. “But you also need to know that behind you is a person who can help you. Two or three times a match the keeper is important not only for the saves but for the speaking.”
Szczęsny enthusiastically agreed. Chiellini had observed that he seemed quieter as an opponent than he is now as a teammate. The goalkeeper framed this in part as an adjustment to the reality of playing behind such a sturdy defense.
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“I came to Juventus, and I was like, ‘OK, I have (Andrea) Barzagli, (Medhi) Benatia, Chiellini, (Daniele) Rugani in front of me. I’ll just stay calm, do my job, no problem,’” explained Szczęsny. “But then you do nothing for the whole game, and you need to find something to keep you focused. You need to talk with the players, and even have physical contact, a high five after a challenge or something.”
A rapport like the one Buffon had with these defenders can hardly be replicated overnight. He played together with Chiellini for 13 seasons, while Leonardo Bonucci first joined them in the summer of 2010, and Barzagli six months later. Their mutual understanding was a key component in both of the club’s recent runs to the Champions League final.
For that reason, and many others, comparing Szczęsny directly with the man who preceded him is a futile exercise. Buffon might be the greatest keeper of all time. No replacement could reasonably be held to that standard.
At the same time, though, Szczęsny cannot automatically be granted a free pass. Hargreaves and Scholes were right to suggest that Juventus need a goalkeeper whose talent matches their ambition. The tricky part is this: how even do we assess a player who is only being called into action a handful of times per game?
It is a question I sought to answer during a conversation with Buffon for the now out-of-print Green Soccer Journal, back in 2011. I put to him the words of the late Italian journalist Edmondo Berselli who argued that “the fundamental characteristic of an extraordinary goalkeeper is one and one alone: the ability to create miracles.”
Buffon firmly disagreed. “Over the course of a career certain moments will stay in the collective consciousness,” he said. “Everyone will always remember that save I made from (Zinedine) Zidane in the World Cup final. But that image belongs to others, not to me.
“I think that the true goalkeeper … has to make few mistakes. Because that is the difference: a great goalkeeper, a true champion, can only make three or four mistakes in a year. If you are making 10, then you could make 1,000 saves too, but if you’re making that many mistakes then, for me, you’re not a great goalkeeper.”
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Buffon himself has praised Szczęsny as a worthy successor on several occasions. Still, the lapse against Manchester United was not the Poland international’s first in a Juventus shirt. He was also caught out of position for Parma’s goal against the Bianconeri in September, once again falling victim to indecision as a cross was flicked on at the near post.
The mistake did not prove costly, as Juventus went on to win 2-1. Likewise, the mix-up against Manchester United ought not to matter. A draw in the next game, against Valencia, will suffice to see the Bianconeri through to the last-16, and they remain in pole position to win Group H.
Further ahead, though, the margins for error will grow smaller. Is Szczęsny a good enough goalkeeper for a Juventus team whose sights are set unashamedly on winning the Champions League? Applying his predecessor’s criteria, we’ll have to keep counting.
(Photo: Pierpaolo Piciucco/Action Plus via Getty Images)