Has Jonathan David rediscovered top form at Juventus? 🥶 | OneSoccer Direct ⤴️
Is Jonathan David back to his best?
To be honest, it’s far too early to make such grand proclamations quite yet. Still, there’s plenty to be encouraged about with his latest run of form for David, as he’s scored in back-to-back games for the first time since joining Juventus, powering his team to a pair of pivotal victories over US Sassuolo and US Cremonese over the last week.
Thanks to that, Juventus now sits within touching distance of first place in Serie A, sitting four points behind leaders Inter Milan - although it’s worth noting that Juventus have played an extra game compared to their rivals. For a team that once looked completely out of the title race, though, that’s a gap Juventus can live with - especially if they can find a way to narrow it further ahead of a meeting between them and Inter Milan in mid-February.
Yet, this positive momentum has been building for a while now with Juventus. With their latest victory, they’re now undefeated in six straight games in Serie A action, and seven games across all competitions, dating back to a 2-1 defeat to Napoli on December 7th.
In fact, other than a 1-1 draw vs. Lecce on January 3rd, they’ve won six out of seven of those games, too, as they’ve really started to turn a corner under new head coach Luciano Spalletti, who joined the club at the end of October. 
Plus, David is benefiting from Spalletti’s management, too, as the veteran Italian manager has done well to build up the confidence of his striker, who had struggled heavily before his arrival, scoring just once in 11 appearances under previous head coach, Igor Tudor.
Since Spalletti’s arrival, David has now scored four goals and added two assists across all competitions, as he’s starting to look like the prolific striker he was banging in the goals for Ligue 1 side Lille OSC, which prompted Juventus to sign him as a free agent this summer.
Plus, more importantly, his overall performances are starting to improve, too, as his last few games have undoubtedly been some of his best in a Juventus shirt. Not only is he scoring again, but he’s becoming more involved in the build-up play and is working extremely hard off the ball, doing the sort of things he’s typically been known for before this half-season slump with Juventus.
After his goal and assist today for Juventus, Jonathan David is now 3rd on the team in goals (4) & G+A (7) in all comps
— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) January 6, 2026
Considering this was his 1st league goal since August, and the panenka disaster… it shows how timely today’s performance was#CanMNTpic.twitter.com/FRNrwUqfgR
Earlier in the season, the biggest worry with David wasn’t so much his lack of goals as his lack of overall play, as he was struggling to provide much impact at all for his team. Now, he’s starting to become a reference for his team to work off of, and he’s profited in the form of three straight starts.
That’s no small detail, because it’s worth noting that David’s run of back-to-back goals could’ve easily not happened. Before his goals against Sassuolo and Cremonese, David had a moment to forget in that draw against Lecce.
On that day, he convinced his teammates to take a penalty with the score tied at 1-1 in the 66th minute, but despite having scored 31 of his previous 38 spot kick attempts (per Transfermarkt), he missed after underhitting an uncharacteristic Panenka attempt - David typically hits his penalties in the lower half of the net, in one of the corners.
Not a great day for Jonathan David 🥲
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) January 3, 2026
The CanMNT 🇨🇦 star sees his Panenka penalty saved, as he misses a chance to put Juventus ahead 2-1 against Lecce 😬 pic.twitter.com/BThUF9FPBR
For a striker struggling for goalscoring form, it was a perplexing decision, especially when considering that it was David’s first penalty attempt for the club. Had he been in scintillating form and a regular penalty taker, it would’ve been a more understandable decision to attempt such a shot - regular penalty takers have to vary their approach, after all.
In David’s case, though, the logical decision seemed to be to put his boot through the ball, but he didn’t, and that ended up being costly, as his team were unable to convert any of their other chances to win on the day.
To Spalletti’s credit, though, he didn’t get down on David despite the miss. Lost in the shuffle of David’s Panenka miss was that he had a lively performance up front in that game against Lecce, generating six shots - that remains as the only Juventus match in which he’s generated more than three shots.
As a result, Spalletti stuck with him up front, and that decision has since paid off handsomely, as David responded with a goal and an assist against Sassuolo, before adding another goal against Cremonese. 
Plus, more importantly, David showed great confidence in scoring both goals, too, as his marker against Sassuolo came from some excellent individual play that started with a nice defensive play from David, while his tally against Cremonese came from some simple but excellent striker play when it came to his control and finish on his attempt.
An exhibition in counter-attacking football 👨🎨#JuveCremonese pic.twitter.com/23YjPtK8WI
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) January 13, 2026
For a player who had looked completely devoid of confidence when he stepped up to take that penalty just over a week ago, it was a remarkable turnaround, yet that’s a credit to David’s mentality. To his credit, his demeanour rarely changes, no matter if he’s on fire or slumping, and he seems to have used that steadiness to bounce back from the penalty miss.
At the time of the Lecce game, it was easy to use his perceived nonchalance against him, but he’s since turned things around and shown that he’s the ‘Iceman’ for a reason.
Of course, it’s worth noting that while David did well to bounce back from his penalty miss, he is fortunate that this came while fellow striker Dušan Vlahović is out injured.
As it stands, Spalletti’s main striker options are David and Loïs Openda, with Openda sitting at just two goals on the season. Because of that, it made Spalletti more likely to stick with David - he is their best striker option up front right now, even when slumping.
Had Vlahović, who has more goals (6) than David in fewer minutes, been available to Spalletti, David might’ve had to atone for his mistake while coming off the bench as a supersub.
In a sense, though, that does show why this period was so crucial for David. After having struggled to hold off Vlahović’s push for minutes earlier in the season (David started the year as Juventus’s starting striker, it’s important to remember), David’s confidence had been shattered, leading to this extended slump.
With Vlahović then picking up an injury at the end of November, however, that opened the door for David to start getting the opportunities that had begun to dry up for him, while giving him a bit more leeway to work his way out of his slump.
Now, a month and a half on from Vlahović’s injury, it’s safe to say that this extended run of games has benefitted David in a big way, and his recent run of performances is proof of that. It’s taken a while for that to happen, yes, but that penalty miss has proven to be a bit of a crucial turning point, as the last few games have shown.
Speaking of the last few games, though, it’s worth noting that one big thing has happened, and this will be the difference between David maintaining his spot when Vlahović returns and going back to the bench - he’s shooting the ball a lot more.
As noted earlier, he had six shots against Lecce, but he then followed that up with a three-shot game against Sassuolo and a three-shot game against Cremonese, giving him 12 shots in his last three games.
For context, that represents 37.5% (12/32) of his 2025-2026 total (per WyScout), as he has struggled to generate shots all season long - a problem that we highlighted all the way back in October.
Ultimately, while David has always been more of a selective shot taker - he has averaged between 0.16 and 0.20 xG per shot in his last six seasons, including 0.18 xG per shot this year for Juventus (via FotMob) - he still had decent shot volume in his last few years with Lille. That’s what allowed him to hit 25, 26 and 26 goals in his last three seasons.
Plus, his shooting has seemed to come with other benefits - he’s also created five chances in his last two games, which represents 33.3% (5/15) of the chances he’s created this season. What that shows, though, is that a more trigger-happy David is leading to more opportunities for David to flex his creative side, which is a positive side-effect given how good he is on that side of the game. 
Here's a chart tracking all of the shots and chances created that Jonathan David has had in each game he's played for Juventus this season. As seen here, he's had a noticeable uptick in both categories in recent games, but things started trending upwards since Spalletti's arrival (WyScout)
Because of that, look for David to build off this stretch, as Juventus are certainly benefiting from having this version of him up front - and the impact was starting to be felt even before this run of goals, as the numbers show. 
Here's a chart looking at David's xG and xA per game this season. What this shows is that not only is he generating more shots and creating more chances, but they're of a higher quality than before, too. (WyScout)
Not only is this giving them the sort of talisman they’ve lacked since Vlahović’s injury, but he’s giving them a different look up front altogether, as his playmaking has seemed to unlock a more fluid version of Juventus’s attack - eight goals in two games speaks for itself. 
Noticeably, Jonathan David's touches in the box has slowly risen across the season - perhaps, this indicates a better understanding of his role up front for Juventus, and a better connection with his teammates (WyScout)
Of course, it’s important to note that these last three games have come against the teams ranked 11th, 13th and 17th in the table, so it’s not as if David has been lighting up Serie A giants, either. To fully say that David is back, he’ll need to continue to produce as Juventus’s schedule toughens up later this month. 
Yet, it’s also important to note that he’s turned a corner, especially in terms of his shot and chance generation, which is even more crucial than a run of goals, as a sustained run of shot and chance creation should allow him to build confidence ahead of bigger games.
At the end of the day, while there have been rumblings of David potentially seeking out a loan, it would benefit both David and Juventus to strike up a long-term partnership - this is only his first season in Turin, after all, and Vlahović’s contract expires this summer.
Now, both David and Juventus will hope that this recent run of form is a sign that both are starting to reach a bit of common ground, leading to a fruitful partnership going forward.
