Why Juventus sacked Thiago Motta and turned to Igor Tudor to save their season

This season was supposed to be different for Juventus. Last summer’s parting with the old pragmatist Massimiliano Allegri had cleared the way for a dynamic new direction, a fresh start that would begin a journey back to the summit of Italian football.

Flagbearer for a new Juventus, more attractive and slick, was meant to be Thiago Motta but those flawed plans met an abrupt end on Sunday evening. With nine games left to salvage their Serie A season, the 42-year-old Motta had been dismissed and replaced by the club’s former defender Igor Tudor.

A club statement confirmed what had come to feel like the inevitable in this international break. Motta’s stock had plummeted with a Champions League play-off exit to a limited PSV and a Coppa Italia loss to Empoli, but the 4-0 and 3-0 defeats this month to Atalanta and Fiorentina respectively stripped back the last faith in his abilities to arrest the slide.

A fall to fifth in Serie A has invited sharp doubt over Juventus’ ability to secure Champions League qualification for next season. That was the least of expectations for a campaign that will end with a Club World Cup tilt in the United States.

Juventus do not make a habit of sacking managers mid-season (Andrea Agnelli never did it in his 13 years as chairman) but the deterioration of a once promising campaign demanded action at the top of its final straight, even after managing director of football Cristiano Giuntoli had offered his backing after the Fiorentina drubbing. “Of course we’re very disappointed but we’re convinced we can come through it together,” he said. With Motta? “Of course.”

The inability of Motta, so impressive as Bologna boss last season, to bring a tune from an expensively-assembled group could not be overlooked any longer. The circa £160million ($206.6m) spent since Allegri’s dismissal was more than any other Italian club this season and the most expensive recruits — Teun Koopmeiners, Nico Gonzalez and Douglas Luiz — all flopped under Motta’s guidance. More was spent in January, again with little improvement obvious.

Motta could point to the hindrance of injuries for mitigation. The season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear suffered by the Brazilian centre-back Bremer in the Champions League tie away to RB Leipzig left Motta without one of his strongest defenders in October and, in time, chipped away at Juventus’ defensive solidity.

Few, though, would absolve Motta of blame. Regular rotation of his team unsettled players, while Juve’s established leaders under Allegri were marginalised and sold.

Danilo, who captained the team throughout last season, was overlooked ahead of his contract being terminated in January, allowing the Brazilian veteran full-back to join Flamengo. Federico Chiesa, who appeared to have revived his career with Juventus last season, was another moved out to Liverpool, while Moise Kean was sold to Fiorentina. Kean is now second only to Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui in the Serie A scoring charts, leaving Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, unable to hold down a place under Motta, in his shade.

Those strategic decisions, with an emphasis instead placed on reducing the average age of the squad, can justifiably be credited to Giuntoli but Motta’s tactical struggles since the excellent 1-0 win over Inter last month have carried a heavy cost. The Fiorentina loss that saw Juventus stagger to the international break was particularly damaging. Alessandro Del Piero, the club legend, told Sky after that loss that he worried for the lack of a reaction from the players.

Eighteen wins from 42 league and cup games left Motta with one of the lowest win ratios (43 per cent) in Juventus’ history and nowhere to turn. Only Luigi Delneri (40 per cent) and Sandro Puppo (24 per cent) ended with worse records since 1929-30.

Motta during his final match in charge of Juventus, the 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina on March 16 (Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Juventus will cling to the hope that the season can still find respectability under Tudor. The 55-time Croatia international was a defender at the club between 1998 and 2007, winning four Serie A titles (although two were subsequently revoked under the Calciopoli scandal) and starting the 2003 Champions League final against Milan in Manchester.

Tudor has since become a well-travelled coach, leading teams in Croatia (Hajduk Split), Greece (PAOK), Turkey (Karabukspor and Galatasaray) and France (Marseille). At no stage, though, has he taken charge of more than 50 games since leaving his first spell with Hajduk Split in 2015.

Coaching spells in Italy have strengthened an otherwise unconvincing managerial CV. A ninth-placed finish came with Verona, while improvements were also registered with mid-season appointments at Udinese and, last season, with Lazio, where a late Juventus goal ended hopes of Coppa Italia glory at the semi-final stages.

And then there was the season working alongside Andrea Pirlo as Juventus’ assistant head coach back in Turin. That might have been the season a run of nine straight Serie A titles ended in 2020-21 but the final haul of 78 points has not been bettered since. Juventus are currently tracking for 68 points and still face away games to a resurgent Roma (currently 7th), Bologna (4th) and Lazio (6th).

Fifth position in Serie A might yet be enough for Champions League qualification again next season but Motta’s dismissal underlined that there was no one willing to take chances at the Allianz Stadium.

Tudor now has an opportunity to make this a long-term solution to a short-term problem.

(Top photo: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)