Why appointing Tudor was a smart move for Juventus?

On May 23, Juventus announced the dismissal of Thiago Motta, after tough defeats to Atalanta and Fiorentina, as well as an early elimination in the UCL against PSV and in the Coppa Italia against Empoli. On the same day, Juventus announced his replacement: an old acquaintance of the Bianconeri fans, Igor Tudor. The Croatian arrived at the club for his third stint, the first as head coach.

Verona

Despite being young, Tudor arrived at Juventus with a fair amount of experience as a coach. After 2021, when he was Pirlo’s assistant coach at Juventus, Tudor managed three clubs: Hellas Verona, Olympique de Marseille and Lazio… In Verona, Tudor took over the team in the 4th round and led them to 9th place, an unthinkable feat at the start of the season, in total there were 36 games, 14 wins, 11 draws and 11 defeats.

Olympique de Marseille

The excellent season in Verona earned Tudor an invitation to take over at Olympique de Marseille for the 2022/23 season. In France, the manager faces more ambitious challenges than in Verona, since Marseille would play in the UCL and had the objective of reaching the top 3 in Ligue 1. With a highly physical 3-4-2-1 formation, Tudor led the team to 3rd place in the league, with 73 PTS in 38 gamesdespite being eliminated in the UCL group stage. At the end of the season, even after achieving solid results, the Croatian decided to leave the club due to a terrible internal environment. Under Tudor’s command, Olympique de Marseille had 48 games, 27 wins, 7 draws and 14 defeats. After the season, president of OM and former Juventus director Paolo Longoria talked about the manager’s decision to Calciomercato.

” I wouldn’t wish what Igor suffered on my worst enemy, he found himself at a club where everyone was against him. When I returned to Marseille, I felt that pre-season was like the 37th matchday of the league, you had to play your life. It’s not normal.”

Lazio

Seven months after leaving the French club, Tudor took over at Lazio. At the time, the manager took over the team in a situation similar to that of Juventus today. This is because Igor took over the team as interim after the departure of Maurizio Sarri and needed to deliver results. Upon arrival, the manager changed the system and implemented his    3-4-2-1 formation. After that, Lazio improved its performance and managed to qualify for the UEL in 7th place. In Tudor’s 11 games, Lazio achieved 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. At the end of the season, he asked the club to revamp the squad and clashed with Lotitto. After not seeing any ambition in the project, he left the club.

First two games as Juventus manager

Tudor arrived at Juventus with a very clear objective: to finish in the top 4 and qualify for the UCL. To achieve this, the manager adopted a procedure identical to the one he did at Lazio… Even with few training sessions, he changed the team’s formation to a physically agressive 3-4-2-1 . And it was by playing in this way that Juventus beat Genoa at home 1-0. However, it was clear that the team was still assimilating and understanding Tudor’s ideas…

In their second match under the new manager, Juventus drew 1-1 with Roma away from home. With Tudor’s ideas now more consolidated, the team had a great first half, managing to spend most of the time in the opponent’s half, scoring a  beautiful goal with Locatelli and applying very effective individual pressure after losing the ball, which contained Roma’s dangerous direct transitions, especially those looking for Dovbyk, thanks to Renato Veiga.

Nonetheless, in the second half, with Ranieri’s changes and Shomurodov’s goal, the game changed.  Juventus no longer had full control of the game and saw Roma create dangerous situations on the counterattack. Even so, Juventus continued to create chances to score and defensively relied on a fantastic performance from Kalulu. This scenario made the game less dynamic, since neither team wanted to expose themselves and lose the game.

Kalulu’s stats against Roma, which show his excellent   performance defensively and also offensively. Source: Sofascore

The image illustrates a game that is tight and conservative in the midfield, reflecting the tactical duel of the second half. And Juventus is more present in the offensive field than Roma, reflecting the first half.

After all, why appointing Tudor was a smart move for Juventus?

Finally, we come to the question that underlies this article. Why do I believe that appointing Tudor is a smart move for Juventus? To answer this question, first of all, we need to look at a very important factor: the contract. The manager signed a 4-month contract with a salary of 500k, a positive value for the club’s accounts. In addition to the financial advantage, the length of Tudor’s contract allows Juventus to calmly evaluate in the summer who will be the manager for the next season, whether it is Tudor himself or not.

However, there are other important reasons that made Igor Tudor a perfect fit for Juventus. Taking into account that after the departure of Thiago Motta, the choice had to bring an immediate impact on the dressing room and also allow the club to calmly plan the next steps for the 25/26 season, the most important criteria that put Tudor ahead of other candidates for the Bianconero bench were: tactics, mentality and knowledge of the club.

Tactics

According to Giovanni Albanese, Antonio Conte and Gianpiero Gasperini are the favourites to take over as Juventus manager for next season. And this has much more to do with Igor Tudor than you might imagine. Tactically speaking, the Croatian coach has several important similarities with the two names mentioned, which could prevent a major rupture in the game’s ideas of the next coach, be it Gasperini or Conte.

Similarities with Conte

• System of a back 3
• Physical playing style
• One of the defenders, whether LCB or RCB, has the freedom to progress with the ball under control and advance into the attacking field.

In the image, Di Lorenzo appears in the attacking field as a passing option behind the opposing defense.

In the image, Kalulu appears in the attacking field to make the cross

• Focus on a quick defensive recovery
• With the ball, maintain possession in the defensive field and attract the opponent
• Fast athletic wing backs
• Great concentration of plays on the flanks
• Use of wingers in the middle behind the striker, aiming to create vertical passing options through the middle

It is possible to see Kvaratskhelia and David Neres playing between the lines, and Lukaku further forward.

It is possible to see a line of 5 in the attacking field, formed by Guendonzi and Harit, who play behind Sanchez as ST.

• Very passional locker room maganament

Similarities with Gasperini

• System of a back 3
• 3-4-2-1
• Physical and intense man marking in the defensive field
• Man-to-man pressure after losing the ball
• Use of wingers in the middle playing between the lines, just like Conte’s teams

In the image, you can see Lookman and De Ketelaere appearing between the lines to provide a passing option

• At least one of the wing backs has the freedom to make runs through the center

In the image, it is possible to see Zappacosta in the middle offering a passing option through the middle

• One of the wingers has complete freedom to float behind the ST, while other runs behind the opponent’s defense

Mentality

After Thiago Motta left, one of his replacement’s most important missions was to unite the locker room. According to Nico Schira, several players were against Motta and his ideas. In this context, Tudor emerged as one of the best options to immediately give the team some energy.

As a player, the Croatian was extremely intense, a true warrior, as a coach, it is no different, Tudor has an extremely passionate locker room management with his players, which is reflected in the intensity of his teams. Since the change of coach, it is possible to see the players on the field with more desire and alignment with the coach’s ideas.

Knowledge of the club

Speaking to DAZN, Gianluigi Buffon, stated that the rotation of the captain’s armband promoted by Motta was a lack of knowledge of Juventus’ history. At other times, Gigi also stated that Tudor was fulfilling a dream of managing Juventus.

The words of the historic goalkeeper reflect one of the biggest criticisms of Motta’s time at Juventus: his disconnection from the club’s history. Given this, one of the new coach’s biggest focuses should be to understand the club and the urgent need to take Juventus back to the top. In this situation, there is no one better than Tudor, a Juvenino at heart, to take over the team. Since his first press conference, the coach has already shown that he knows very well that at Juventus there is only one goal: to win… and things are going well.