It's not often you see Roma and Juventus outside the top four, but that's exactly where these two bitter rivals find themselves as they face off this weekend. We know the Roma side of this equation all too well, of course, but the once-mighty Old Lady of Italian Football has fallen on hard times this season, at least by their lofty standards.
Due to a lackluster debut season from new manager Thiago Motta, Juventus has spent most of the season trailing Inter Milan and Napoli at the top of the table, which resulted in his sacking late last month. In his stead, the club turned to its recent past, appointing former assistant Igor Tudor as the interim manager—their first foreign managerial hire since Didier Deschamps in 2006.
But does this upheaval guarantee three easy points for Roma this weekend? To address that question and more, we consulted our old friend Danny from Black, White and Read All Over, who graciously shared his thoughts on Motta, Dusan Vlahovic, and much more!
Let’s start with the obvious: Where did it all go wrong for Thiago Motta and Juventus? Were they too quick with the hook, or was Motta not ready for a club of Juve’s stature?
BWRAO: Oh man ... where to begin.
There isn’t one thing you can point to when it comes to why Motta didn’t work at Juventus. You figured a player who has played at the level he has, achieved what he has and been around the clubs he had would understand that side of things after making the big step from Bologna to Juventus. You figured a better roster than he had at Bologna and his brand of ball would translate to a lot of success. So much to hope for ... and it all went kaput in about nine months.
I don’t think Thiago Motta is a bad manager, but I do feel like this season proved that he wasn’t ready for the biggest club in Italy just yet. It didn’t help that so much of the squad he was working with this season was brand new and they themselves were learning about what it’s like to be at Juventus while their manager was doing the same. It also didn’t help that some of the biggest signings (Teun Koopmeiners, Douglas Luiz, Nico Gonzalez) and highest-paid players (Dusan Vlahovic) didn’t deliver for much of Motta’s tenure as manager. And it didn’t help that the best defender in Serie A, Gleison Bremer, snapped his ACL in two back in early October.
There were so many issues during Motta’s tenure that I’m probably forgetting something. But the biggest thing is that the results weren’t good enough and the locker room just didn’t seem willing to fight for Motta anymore. No matter how short of a time he had been there, that just isn’t what a club like Juventus expects from their manager.
Similarly, why hasn’t Dusan Vlahovic become everything Juve thought he’d be after dropping more than €80 million for him a few seasons ago? Is his departure this summer a fait accompli, or can the relationship be repaired?
BWRAO: Even before the reported issues with Motta and the sudden dip in playing time when Randal Kolo Muani arrived, I was very much under the assumption that this was going to be Vlahovic’s last season at Juventus. It’s simple really: For the better part of the previous 18 months, we had been hearing about how Juve wanted to sign him to a new contract, one that spreads out his massive salary and makes things a little easier when it comes to affording his wages. The thing is, though, that new deal never arrived, and now we’re heading toward a summer in which — much like Federico Chiesa a year ago — it’s either sell him for something or probably let him walk for nothing.
Vlahovic has not had a great season under Motta. He was asked to play a ton of minutes simply because Juve didn’t have any backup option prior to January because Arek Milik has gone into the witness protection program and not played a second this season. On top of the heavy workload, he was very much underperforming his xG numbers, and the frustrating performances only seemed to become more and more frequent as fall turned to winter. The hope that a manager with more attacking ideas than Max Allegri would pay off big time for Vlahovic, but that didn’t happen — and now it seems pretty inevitable that Juve’s biggest swing of the post-Ronaldo era will turn out to be a pretty bad piece of business, too.
Returning to the managerial change, what was your first impression of the Old Lady under Igor Tudor? Were there any noteworthy differences in his first match? Is he the man to close the gap behind Bologna?
BWRAO: It’s obviously a 90-minute sample size, but the biggest thing that stood out in Tudor’s debut compared to the last couple of games under Motta (the losses to Atalanta and Fiorentina) is just that there’s a fighting spirit back. Considering who Tudor is and how he manages, that’s not really much of a surprise, I guess. Having seen how low energy this squad was in the final couple of games with Motta, it must have been pretty easy for Tudor to pinpoint the mental aspect of things as something he could address right away even in a caretaker role. How the team adapts to his system will take time, but actually giving them a bit of a kick in the ass ASAP? Yeah, that’s doable.
Besides the attitude change, the formation Tudor rolled out against Genoa was the biggest difference between himself and Motta. Out goes 4-2-3-1 that Motta didn’t budge from, in came the 3-4-2-1 that Tudor has used t many of his stops.You had players like Gonzalez and Kenan Yildiz playing on their preferred side of the field and Vlahovic — who Tudor is a longtime fan of — back in the starting lineup. As much as the roster was built for Motta, Tudor just seemed to be using it a little more logically despite the formation change. At this point, I’ll take that as they try and leapfrog Bologna, who they still have to play in May.
For those who aren’t entirely familiar with his game, tell us a bit about Kenan Yildiz: What makes him so unique? What’s his role on the current squad, and do you anticipate it changing now that Motta is gone?
BWRAO: The thing that jumped off the page for me when Yildiz burst onto the scene last season was the fact that he is a teenager in age but is very much not built like one. The dude is 6-foot-1 and built like an absolute unit — and this was when he was still 18 years old. Now we’re still a few weeks short of his 20th birthday next month, but he’s still so young yet just oozing with so much talent that Juve just haven’t had in a player his age since Paul Pogba was first breaking into the starting lineup and one of the best midfields in Europe a decade ago under Antonio Conte.
Yildiz is far from the finished product — duh, he’s not even 20 years old yet — but there’s so much to like about his game already. He’s always trying to break the ankles of the man marking him, and sometimes that extends to a couple of other folks along the way after beating the first man. He’s got the ability to hit the snot out of the ball with either foot. He works his tail off defensively and has more than just a couple of games in which he’s either been amongst the leaders or led Juventus in tackles. Plus, the kid celebrates like Alessandro Del Piero, so what’s not to like?
Juve’s remaining schedule isn’t quite as challenging as Roma’s, but which fixtures worry you most? Can Tudor lift them over the hump and back into the Champions League next season?
BWRAO: If Motta was still around, I would probably say all of them simply because you had no idea what Juventus could even do against the mid- or lower-table teams in Serie A. But with Tudor, I think it’s pretty simple that it’s the three against the direct rivals for fourth place — Roma, Bologna and Lazio, the latter two on back-to-back weekends. Even though they’re not in the top four entering the weekend, there’s still the ability to control their own destiny against that aforementioned trio just as long as they care of business against the provincial clubs still on the schedule. There’s a couple of opponents who will be fighting to try and avoid relegation, but Juve should be able to beat the likes of Parma, Venezia and especially last-place Monza if they continue to ride the new manager bounce under Tudor.
It won’t be easy and this season has certainly taught me not to get my hopes up about much of anything, but there is very much a path into the top four, so now we just have to see if they can actually do it.
You asked us a similar question, so we’ll turn it around. Roma is the hottest team in the league, while Juve has dropped two of their past three and is still adjusting to a new manager. How confident are Juve fans heading into this particular trip to the Olimpico?
BWRAO: I certainly wouldn’t say I’m over-confident considering y’all are playing so well these days and just racking up results right and left, but Tudor having a full week to prepare for Roma and there being a little bit of energy back in the squad at least has me a little hopeful they can do something positive. Considering how low the general vibe was in the final days of Motta’s tenure as manager, any sort of improvement under Tudor would have been welcomed with open arms.
So now it’s about what Tudor’s Juve can do against a much tougher opponent. No shade to Genoa because they had been playing pretty well since they hired Patrick Vieira as manager, but Roma are the in-form club in Serie A right alongside Bologna these days. It will be a big test for Tudor to show that Juve’s on the right track again despite the fact he was hired all of two weeks earlier.
And lastly, who takes the spoils this weekend?
BWRAO: A few weeks ago, I got absolutely burned when I told our buddy Tito that Juventus would beat Fiorentina. So, simply to try and not repeat history, I think it will be a draw. Maybe 1-1 or 2-2 since Juve’s defense isn’t close to full strength these days.
As always, thanks to Danny for sharing his time and insight with us. You can find his work at BWRAO on Twitter (@JuventusNation) and Bluesky (@bwrao.bsky.social). And be sure to stick with us all weekend as we cover Sunday's massive fixture.