Thiago Motta says that Juventus couldn’t be facing Manchester City at a better time – and one can see what he means. Going into Wednesday’s Champions League clash in Turin, the English titleholders are in their worst-ever run of form under Pep Guardiola, who says he might only have 12 outfield players in Turin.
However, Juve are hardly in great shape themselves. The injury-plagued Bianconeri may be the only unbeaten side in Serie A so far this season but they’re still only sixth in the standings, having drawn nine of their 15 games.
Such a poor position might be tolerated if Juve were regularly reproducing the aesthetically-pleasing style of play that Motta so spectacularly and so successfully implemented at former club Bologna. However, the Old Lady of Italian football still looks as ugly and outdated as she was under the guidance of Massimiliano Allegri, meaning Motta is under far more pressure than Pep right now…
A draw that still felt like a defeat
At the Allianz Stadium on Saturday evening, Juve came from 2-0 down with less than half an hour to go to snatch a 2-2 draw with Bologna, with 20-year-old winger Samuel Mbangula coming off the bench to net a 92nd-minute equaliser.
Picking up a point in such a scenario is usually a cause for celebration but there was only frustration among the fans, some of whom met the full-time whistle with a chorus of boos. There was simply no disguising the fact that Juve had performed poorly for well over an hour.
“We know that playing well for only 20 minutes is not enough,” midfielder Teun Koopmeiners admitted afterwards. “We have to control the game from start to finish.”
Juve, though, had only really got going after Motta had been sent off for verbally abusing the referee, leading some dissatisfied supporters to joke that the Bianconeri are better without their coach calling the shots on the sidelines.
It wasn’t meant to be like this, of course. Things were supposed to be very different under Motta.
Allegri led Juve to a surprise Coppa Italia final win over Atalanta on May 15 but was fired two days later, ostensibly because of an extraordinary touchline tantrum at the Stadio Olimpico that saw the combustible coach lash out at the fourth official before then seemingly turn his attention to certain club officials sitting in the stands – all the way coming desperately close to completely removing his shirt in a fit of rage before storming down the tunnel.
According to the club statement confirming Allegri’s departure with two rounds of the Serie A season still remaining, his behaviour was “deemed incompatible with the values of Juventus and with the behaviour that those who represent it must adopt.”
And yet it still felt like Allegri’s tactics – rather than his antics – were the determining factor in his sacking.
Allegri still has his supporters
By the time of the Coppa Italia win, Allegri had also already secured Juve a return to the Champions League – and in undeniably trying circumstances.
As well as a disproportionately high amount of injuries – Allegri last season lost both Paul Pogba and Nicolo Fagioli to lengthy suspensions, for breaching anti-doping and betting regulations, respectively.
The unavailability of so many key men was a major hindrance as there had been very little investment in the first-team squad during the 2023 summer transfer window because of the financial issues that had led to Juve being banned from competing in Europe for a year. As a result, Allegri felt he deserved more credit for his achievements – and far more support from the club.
Certainly, plenty of Juve fans felt he was hard done by, and that was understandable. Allegri, after all, had won five consecutive Scudetti during his first spell in charge, between 2014 and 2019.
The Coppa Italia success was, thus, taken as a sign that he could put the Old Lady back on her pedestal, so there was some backlash to his ignominious exit, which had been coming and yet still came across as incredibly abrupt.
Those same unimpressed ultras are now even more bemused by the decision to dismiss Allegri for essentially making the team look bad (in every sense) – because Juve haven’t become any easier on the eye under Motta.
The anti-Allegri or more of the same?
Motta was essentially heralded as the anti-Allegri. He was young, modern and, most importantly of all, progressive rather than pragmatic. Unlike Allegri, he had no major honours on his resume but he had just pulled off a minor miracle by leading Bologna into the Champions League on a tiny budget – and while playing some of the best possession football in all of Italy.
There was an acknowledgement that it would take some time to implement his strategy at Juve but managers don’t traditionally get a lot of time to make things work in Turin, where the mantra is ‘Winning isn’t important; it’s the only thing that counts.’
Motta, then, has two major problems right now.
Firstly, he’s not winning games, he’s drawing them, and, with just 27 points from 15 games, this is Juve’s second-worst start to a Serie A season for 14 years.
Even more worryingly, the Bianconeri have bored everyone to tears on several occasions this season, and often in big games, against the likes of Roma, Napoli and Milan, while they were also involved in a dull scoreless draw with Aston Villa in their last Champions League outing.
Juve more than played their part in a fantastic 4-4 draw with Inter at the end of the October, which was viewed by some as encouraging evidence of things to come, and they also showed tremendous heart in coming from behind with 10 men to win away to RB Leipzig.
Certain players are also excelling, including Andrea Cambiaso, Kenan Yildiz, Timothy Weah and Nicolas Savona, but more media attention is being paid to Dusan Vlahovic, who is the team’s top scorer, with nine goals, and yet is looking increasingly unsuited to the new manager’s tactical approach. For better or for worse, Vlahovic is not Joshua Zirkzee, who has never been prolific (as Manchester United fans are discovering) but is capable of tying an entire attack together, as he did so impressively at Bologna last season.
Motta has also been criticised for refusing to play Yildiz out wide rather than in his preferred position through the middle and there have been accusations that the coach’s obsession with vindicating his footballing philosophy is actually hurting the team and negatively affecting results as a consequence.
Certainly, much is being made of the fact that Motta’s Juve have nine fewer points than Allegri’s Juve at the same stage of last season – but are not generating any more excitement.
‘It reminds me of something’
After Juve were held to a third consecutive 0-0 draw by Napoli in September, Sky Sport Italia pundit Paolo Di Canio felt Motta was being let off lightly by many pundits.
“It is all new at the beginning, but we are now praising the defence. It reminds me of something…” the former Juve forward said, alluding to the incessant discussion of Allegri’s archaic football last season. “We must be serious. We expected something more [from Motta’s Juve]. Otherwise, [the discussion] makes no sense.”
Ex-AC Milan centre-back Alessandro Costacurta countered, “Come on, the first thing a new coach does is organise the defence.”
“There’s a different organisation,” Di Canio acknowledged, “but the results are the same!”
Costacurta then asked, “What did you expect? Six goals per game? Let’s talk about serious things; we are not at a bar here!”
Di Canio replied: “This is not a bar but less than one shot on target per game is a serious thing. I didn’t expect five goals per game, but not even half a shot on target in five games, come on!”
The debate has arguably only intensified since then, with Juve legends such as Angelo Di Livio and Marco Tardelli among those to have publicly expressed their disappointment with Motta’s Juve.
Star summer signings struggling
Motta does have his defenders in the press, though, with Daniele Adani among those to argue that it’s unfair to compare this year’s Juve to last year’s, given Allegri had already been at the helm for two seasons.
It should also be noted that Juve’s injury issues have actually worsened this season (awkward questions are already being asked of the club’s medical department, with key defender Bremer among four players presently sidelined with the dreaded ACL tear), meaning Motta has been forced to lean far more heavily on academy graduates than he would have hoped.
The work of sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli is also coming under increasing scrutiny.
While Pierre Kalulu is looking like a potential signing of the season, Khephren Thuram is growing in influence and Francesco Conceicao has shown some promise, Nicolas Gonzalez has proved unsurprisingly injury-prone and Juve’s two most expensive acquisitions of the summer, Koopmeiners (€55m) and Douglas Luiz (€50m), have both underwhelmed terribly.
Koopmeiners did, at least, spark the comeback against Bologna with his first goal of the campaign but Luiz, who could make his return to action against City, has been a disaster thus far and is already being linked with a January return to the Premier League after contributing absolutely nothing to the Juve cause – even when fit to feature.
‘A great opportunity to do well’
Nonetheless, the spotlight is very much on Motta and he’s definitely starting to feel the heat, as underlined by his red card at the weekend – which was very out of a character for a man that is usually the picture of composure.
Consequently, comparisons have been drawn between Motta and the head-scratching Guardiola, with Tuttosport claiming that Wednesday’s European encounter offers them a chance to “run away from their troubles” in their respective domestic championships. It’s also been pointed out that City’s form is actually a lot worse than Juve’s at the minute.
Context is key, though, and Guardiola has an awful lot more credit in the bank than Motta, who has yet to prove himself at a top team. It’s clear that both his team’s results and performances have to improve – and fast – because the last tactician charged with rejuvenating the Old Lady was Maurizio Sarri and he was sacked despite winning the Scudetto in his one and only season in Turin.
Juve, for their part, are presenting a united front and Elkann even turned up at Continassa on Monday to show his support for both the coach and the sporting director. “The draw against Bologna was not like the others,” Elkann argued. “There was a show of character. Now we have Manchester City and it’s a great opportunity to do well.”
And it’s one that Motta could really do with taking. He’s probably right when he says Juve couldn’t be facing City at a better time but that also means he’s under even more pressure to deliver a win. Indeed, right now, even another draw would probably feel like a defeat.