Soccer-Vlahovic among world's best but team must back him up, says Juve's Allegri

ROME (Reuters) - New Juventus signing Dusan Vlahovic is one of the best strikers in the world but the task of getting the club into the Serie A top four is the responsibility of the whole team, coach Massimiliano Allegri said on Saturday.

“The responsibility is distributed evenly; it is not all on Vlahovic’s shoulders, absolutely not,” Allegri told a news conference.

“He is 22 years old, he scored a lot of goals at Fiorentina and wants to do well at Juve. But the responsibility belongs to everyone. With calmness and balance we need to improve our percentage of chances finished.”

The Serbia international joined the fifth-placed Turin club from Fiorentina in a deal worth up to 80 million euros ($91.57 million) in the final week of January, the biggest move of the winter transfer window.

Vlahovic is the joint-top scorer in Serie A this season with 17 goals and Allegri was delighted to welcome him and Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria, who joined from Borussia Moenchengladbach on deadline day.

“The club did great work and brought in two big players. Vlahovic has scored a lot of goals and possesses qualities that we didn’t have and needed,” Allegri said.

“Along with Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, he is among the best centre-forwards. Zakaria is an intelligent player. They both fitted in straight away; we will see if I pick them tomorrow.”

He added: “Our objective has not changed and we must get into the top four. This is the most important part of the season."

Vlahovic could make his debut against Hellas Verona on Sunday, when Juve will be looking to extend their unbeaten Serie A run to 10 games.

Despite Juve’s impressive recent form, they have struggled for goals this season, scoring 34 in 23 league games, the