Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri believes that comparisons made in the media between Paulo Dybala and Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been damaging for the young Argentina international.
Dybala, 24, started the Serie A season brightly with 11 goals out of the gates, but has hit a rough patch of late, scoring just once in the league since October.
That skid has changed the early season praise and comparisons to the world's top players into rumours that Dybala could be headed for an exit from Turin, with Allegri sometimes choosing to leave him out of his starting XI.
However, Allegri downplayed talk of an exit or a purported rift between himself and Dybala at a news conference ahead of his team's match against Hellas Verona on Saturday.
He said: "The relationship with him absolutely hasn't changed. Dybala came to Juventus three years ago and I think he's grown a lot.
"Juventus put even more emphasis on his qualities and he's given a lot to Juventus. In my opinion, he still has huge margins for improvement.
"The comparisons which were made at the start [of the season] were damaging for Paulo, but fortunately he's a smart lad and he understands you can't compare a lad of 24 to two giants of football [Messi and Ronaldo], who have won 10 Ballons d'Or.
"Plus there's Neymar who is another that is close. So Paulo has to make his own way and not be compared to any other player. He has his own qualities, he's an extraordinary player. You just have to watch him to see he's different from the others.
"But these comparisons which were made were a bit damaging, these are comparisons which cannot and should not be made.
"But in Italy... It's not just Dybala, Dybala is the least of that problem. There are lads who play half an hour and the next day they're worth €40 million."