Luca Toni assures Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Mauro Icardi will all break their duck for the season “soon”.
The trio were tipped to battle for the Capocannoniere crown this season, but none has so far scored for Juventus, Milan or Inter respectively.
“I wouldn’t worry after three matches,” Toni, a former Capocannoniere himself, told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Luca Toni assures Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Mauro Icardi will all break their duck for the season “soon”.
The trio were tipped to battle for the Capocannoniere crown this season, but none has so far scored for Juventus, Milan or Inter respectively.
“I wouldn’t worry after three matches,” Toni, a former Capocannoniere himself, told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Ronaldo, Higuain and Icardi will be feeling the weight of this difficult moment, because they’re strikers who are used to scoring a lot. But it’ll pass soon.
“Can Ronaldo get 40 goals? I think here in Italy 40 goals is a difficult target, but he’ll score a lot. He just needs a bit of luck, and for some tactical systems to be defined.
“Juve are winning all the same though. When he starts scoring it’ll be very difficult for the others, because he can score with both feet, his head, and from inside or outside the penalty box. He has a huge repertoire.
“He can play in so many positions, with [Mario] Mandzukic he can play off him whereas with [Paulo] Dybala he could stay more central.
“They can definitely play together, it’s just a case of finding balance and offering protection for the midfielders – [Coach Max] Allegri will be studying that.
“Dybala can never be a problem, all he needs is to take that final leap in quality.
“As for Higuain, the 4-3-3 is the ideal system for him, like when he was at Napoli and was the centre of the attacking options.
“With Juventus he changed a bit, he often shared the duties with another striker and dropped deeper. He dictated the play, he assisted, he played more for the team.
“Now he can sacrifice a bit less, I think Milan is a good fit for him and they had a good transfer window.
“They’ve got a good group of youngsters, but they start too far behind Juventus to think of catching them right away.
“Icardi? He’s one of the best in the world from 11 metres. [Coach Luciano] Spalletti is always trying to improve his participation in the play, he needs to help out more but he’s always great when he’s receiving crosses and has teammates who create chances.
“One striker who is lucky is [Ciro] Immobile. He has Luis Alberto, [Sergej] Milinkovic-Savic and last year he had Felipe Anderson too, players who love to put you in a position to score.
“It was like that for me at Bayern Munich with [Franck] Ribery, he always set me up in front of goal. [Arjen] Robben, on the other hand, wanted to score himself.”