“We have entirely changed the way we think about football,” a buoyant Cristiano Giuntoli told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera at the start of the season.
“We started from scratch. We are discovering ourselves and we are curious to see what we can achieve,” the Juventus sporting director added.
‘Make the Old Lady young again’ was the remit – and that’s what Giuntoli did.
Massimiliano Allegri might have treated us to a bizarre striptease as Juventus lifted the Coppa Italia trophy last season, but his antiquated tactics were shown the door and in came Thiago Motta, the young and upcoming coach who revived Bologna with his stylish vision of the game.
Just shy of 200m euros was splashed on the market to bring in the likes of Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners and Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz. The midfield was injected with fresh new talent and youngsters were promoted and immediately thrown on to the pitch to dazzling effect, at least in the early games of the season.
It all began so well. Juventus collected two consecutive league victories, winning 3-0 in both, defeated PSV and RB Leipzig in the Champions League, and most importantly they had an identifiable style of play – something that hadn’t been witnessed under Allegri.
The team were attacking in nature, aggressive as they won possession high up the pitch and positional fluidity was the name of the game.
And then it all started to fall apart.
Thiago Motta’s Juventus host Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday
Fifteen matches in and Juventus find themselves in sixth place in Serie A, still unbeaten in the league but incapable of a win.
They may boast the strongest defence but their attacking game risks being advertised as a cure for insomnia. Drab, laborious and dreadfully predictable, the Bianconeri promised change but seem to be delivering much of the same, with fewer positive results.
At this stage of the season last year, Allegri’s Juventus were second in the table with nine points more. They may not have entertained but they were at least winning.
Seven draws in their past nine games under Motta and the fans have started to lose patience, jeering and booing the squad in the second half of the match against Bologna last weekend. Juve were down 2-0 before staging a comeback to level the score. Another draw.
Without Allegri, critics are stumped as to who to blame for Juve’s current crisis – and yes, it is a crisis.
Dusan Vlahovic, when available, still can’t score goals consistently. Koopmeiners, who helped push Atalanta to a trophy last season, looks like a shadow of himself, playing in a position that has seemingly robbed him of his superpowers and highlighted his limitations. And Douglas Luiz? There’s already talk of shipping him back to England.
It’s still early in the season to cast wild judgements. However, Motta has made some curious decisions that have attracted scrutiny.
For example, his insistence on not playing Kenan Yildiz, the magical number 10, in the middle behind the striker – a position where he thrived in the early games of the season. Shunted out wide, the youngster has struggled to make a consistent impact.
Meanwhile, Vlahovic’s performances continue to spark debate. When the Serbian striker failed to replicate his form for Fiorentina at Juventus, it was difficult not to blame Allegri’s defensive tactics for his apparent regression.
Exhibiting more of the same mediocrity this season and Vlahovic was soon heard taking aim at his new coach while out for international duty with Serbia.
“It is a bit easier for me when there is another striker, because Mitrovic holds up the ball and engages in aerial duels, so I can make more of my own characteristics and qualities,” he said.
“The coach also does not require many defensive duties from me, so that makes it easier too. With my physicality, I can’t really run that much and am not as fresh in my finishing when I’ve been working so hard.”
So the Serbian wants total freedom at a club that requires a team effort to start winning again?
Motta will not be giving up on Vlahovic and Juve will not give up on Motta any time soon. Both the directors and the fans – even the ones who boo – have a lot of faith in their new coach.
Against Empoli, a 0-0 draw, the media noted that Motta’s substitutions nearly cost the team a defeat as they began to allow the opposition’s counter-attacks.
Against Napoli, it was argued Juve can only win against sides that leave gaps at the back.
When the Old Lady won the next match against Genoa 3-0, Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport criticised the endless tinkering, asking if Motta was throwing on the kids to ‘surprise’ when he ought be concentrating on establishing a starting XI.
Against Lecce – how could he introduce youth when they were holding on to a 1-0 victory? That’s the time for experience, journalists argued.
It’s difficult to coach any team in Italy, especially one that must win at all times.
This is a squad with an injury crisis so deep they only had four outfield players available on the bench in the Champions League match against Aston Villa.
Who can be expected to revolutionise a club’s playing style, incorporate new arrivals and develop youngsters when he’s too busy simply looking for bodies to field on the pitch?
Congested fixture lists have meant injuries are a common problem among the big European clubs, and while the coach’s physical preparation of the side must always be examined and re-examined, it’s worth nothing Juve have often had to deal with a mounting injury list.
What ought to be discussed is why Juventus had three strikers in the squad when they were out of European competition but believed Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik – who has been seriously injured since June – were enough for a team partaking in four competitions this season.
Giuntoli must answer for the decisions. Selling Moise Kean, who has already scored 13 goals for Fiorentina, without replacing him seems to have been a naive move that has cost Juve in this early stage of the season. Allegri is said to have privately believed Kean to be better than Vlahovic.
Even more curious is the decision to invest in injury-prone Nico Gonzalez, who has only managed 226 minutes thus far due to injuries.
The best ability is availability, and one would have thought Juventus had realised that when they chose to let go of both Paulo Dybala and Federico Chiesa who previously produced much more in Serie A.
Against Manchester City, Juventus will face a team suffering a similar crisis with both coaches trying to manage expectations. Another draw or loss for the Old Lady and it will be difficult not to suspect Juve 2.0 are really just a lot like Allegri’s originals.
