Juventus 2 - AC Milan 1: Initial reaction and random observations

There will come a point where Moise Kean doesn’t make a game-changing play.

Right now, it is anybody’s best guess as to when that will actually happen. Why? Because Mr. Kean, at the tender age of 19 years old, is absolutely lighting Serie A and all of Europe on fire with his goals. And it was no different on Saturday night.

The incredible month of March for Kean has now officially stretched into April. After his game-clinching goal against Cagliari midweek, Kean came off the bench to score the game-winning goal in Juventus’ 2-1 comeback win over Milan that put the Bianconeri all of one win — or a Napoli loss against Genoa on Sunday night — away from clinching their eighth straight Scudetto and 37th overall.

And like so many games before this one over the last six or eight weeks, it has been simply because of the budding star that is Moise Kean.

At this point, Kean is such an in-form player that it’s going to be a relatively big deal when he doesn’t score. He’s getting the treatment now where, a lot like when Paulo Dybala — whose penalty kick midway through the second half Saturday night allowed Juve to pull it even — first establishing himself in Turin and scoring for fun. He’s just got that vibe about him right now where you know he’s going to do something to make sure that Juventus comes away with all three points.

And on a night where, outside of the latter stages of each half, Juventus wasn’t very good at all, they needed something special to get the win. Dybala and Kean delivered that.

I know there’s a whole lot of Kean-related stats being thrown out there right now, but here’s one courtesy of the OptaBWRAO department of research:

• Moise Kean goals in 19 appearances with Hellas Verona last season: 4
• Moise Kean goals in six appearances with Juventus since the start of March: 5

The kind of run he’s on right now is just absurd. I don’t know how else to say it. And the craziest part of it all, he could very well have a few more than those five goals in the past five weeks. Remember that oh-so-close miss against Atlético Madrid? Or the fact that he didn’t take the penalty kick when he was on a hat trick against Udinese?

It’s just simply unbelievable what Kean, at this age and after playing all of about 27 seconds in the first five months of the season is doing.

And it just seems like the more Moise dances, the more you just see the confidence, the class and the potential oozing out of his still-developing teenage frame. It’s hard not to think about what Kean can be a few years from now. But, as he showed with one cool and ruthless finish against Milan on Saturday night, the current product is pretty damn good, too.

Just give him the No. 9 right now, Mr. Agnelli. There’s nobody at this club that deserves it more than the kid winning game after game after game for you.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• DANCE ON EM, BOI.
• Moise Kean will dance on Milan’s defense and then dance on all the fans who are crying another Juve-Milan conspiracy after some of the refereeing decisions.
• Miralem Pjanic’s assist on Kean’s goal ... chef’s kiss. Thing of beauty.
• First player to hug Kean after he danced Saturday? Leo Bonucci.
• The Juventus player directly responsible for Milan’s goal? Leo Bonucci.
• The Juventus player who sent Dybala through with a pretty nice pass that led to the penalty call? Leo Bonucci.
• Basically, Leo Bonucci had quite a roller coaster of a day.
• Surprising to probably no one: Mario Mandzukic, in the closing minutes of the match, is back defending and making a couple of big clearances to prevent Milan from scoring a game-tying goal. Mario gonna Mario.
• More Mario content: Do we really think Alessio Romagnoli wanted some of that smoke?
• I guess I’m gonna have to commit to memory how to spell Krzystof Piatek because he’s gonna be pretty damn good.
• Of course right when Emre Can starts to really and truly establish himself as a starter — and a very good one at that — in Juve’s midfield, he goes and gets hurt. Who knows what the officially diagnosis is, but the way he was moving after the ankle injury happened, I’m not going to be surprised if he’s hanging back in Turin as his teammates he to Amsterdam on Tuesday.
• Pjanic played all of 30 or so minutes against Milan and recorded four key passes. That’s good, right?
• Second on the team in key passes? Mario Mandzukic and ... Sami Khedira.
• Rough estimation on how many different formations Max Allegri used against Milan: 15 or 20. That’s just me, though. It could be more, could be less. Not too sure.
• In conclusion, Moise Kean is good.