Serie A side Monza flew to an impressive 4-0 win over Cagliari yesterday and the star of the show โ not for the first time, was striker Gustavo Varela.
The Portuguese grabbed a terrific brace and an assist and took his goalscoring tally in Serie A to six in just as many games. In all competitions, he has found the net eight times, which is the second-best personal tally of his career and there is a chance it could turn out to be the best one, when the campaign comes to a close.
His form places Varela as the second-highest scorer in the Italian top-flight too, with Antonio Raimondo having grabbed a delightful hattrick on Friday to go top of the charts.
But in a way, it is Varelaโs rise that is much unexpected. Raimondo had made a mark in Serie B last season and while this is his first full campaign in the top-flight, Varela had never played in Italy before.
In fact, Benfica had loaned him out to Gil Vicente last season, which handed Varela the chance to become a regular and score seven times in the Portuguese top-flight.ย
Despite that, Monza roped him on for just โฌ2 million, with the player offering excellent value on what was spent to land him. It is also much better than what other Italian clubs have yielded with much more expensive signings too.
More than anything, it comes at a time when Monza and Ivan Juric needed it. The Croatianโs career hasnโt gone in the right direction in the last couple of seasons but he now finds a template which somehow suits him. Monza donโt have a team of superstars but have made some clever signings โ be it Varela, Eddy Kouadio, Jay Robinson, Ricardo Mangas, Saba Goglichidze and Interโs Ebenezer Akinsanmiro.
They are recognised faces to many but just need that exta push in a stable environment. Juric is doing that, with Varela also fitting the man-for-man setup quite well.
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Kaustubh Pandey โ GIFN
