Wojciech Szczesny is benefitting from his time at Juventus, developing greater reliability and discipline than what he possessed at his previous clubs.
The 27-year-old Polish international arrived in the summer of 2017 as an understudy to the legendary Gianluigi Buffon but he has become a dependable performer in goal for the Bianconeri since the former Italy shot-stopper suffered a muscular injury.
Since making his debut for English club Arsenal in 2009, Szczesny developed a reputation for being a promising but erratic goalkeeper. During his time at the North London club, he made more than his fair share of mistakes, and that prompted the Gunners to acquire David Ospina from Nice in 2014 and Petr Cech from Chelsea a year later.
After being relegated to the bench for the second half of the 2014-15 Premier League season, the Polish goalkeeper went on loan to Serie A club Roma for two seasons and he was still prone to the occasional error.
This did not deter Juventus, who were eager to find a second-choice goalkeeper behind Buffon, and they paid Arsenal €12.2 million including €3.1m in bonuses before the start of the 2017-18 season.
Appearances were sporadic in the early stages of the campaign but Szczesny did keep clean sheets in his first two Serie A matches for La Vecchia Signora and he has become a very tough goalkeeper to beat since Buffon sustained his injury in early December.
The Polish international has played 13 games in all competitions so far for the Bianconeri, keeping nine clean sheets, making him a good punt when betting with Ladbrokes on a shut out, and conceding just six goals, and this includes playing in Juve’s last eight matches and only conceding one goal – against Hellas Verona.
His recent displays in the 1-0 victories against Cagliari as well as Roma particularly stand out and he was able to demonstrate his great reflexes in critical moments.
When Juventus travelled to Sardinia on January 6, the hosts played as a team capable of taking at least a point from the Italian giants, but Szczesny dived on the goal line to deny Leonardo Pavoletti with a diving header before Mehdi Benatia cleared the ball to safety and then he tipped a well-struck Diego Farias drive onto the post.
A fortnight before the Cagliari match, the Bianconeri hosted Roma at the Allianz Stadium in Turin and the Pole was crucial in denying the Giallorossi chances to equalise. He blocked an Edin Dzeko shot from point-blank range, saved a Cengiz Under header at the far post with his feet, and denied Patrik Schick in a one-on-one situation in the dying minutes of the game.
In the past Szczesny was the type of footballer that would falter in decisive moments but he has remarkably transformed himself in a short space of time and with Buffon’s career coming close to the end, the former Arsenal shot-stopper is peaking at the right time.
For years the Italian media would label promising goalkeepers as being “the next Buffon” or “the heir to Buffon” but as far as Juve are concerned the Polish goalkeeper surprisingly possesses a safe pair of hands.
