Juventus also beaten at the Olimpico by Lazio, third consecutive defeat. Tudor, always on the edge, is also doing worse than Thiago Motta last season. And he risks the bench…
Juventus’ free fall didn’t stop at the Olimpico either. Third defeat in a week for the Bianconeri, second in the league after the one in Como. The victory has been missing since September 13th and the ranking has become a deficit: if the championship ended today, and luckily for Igor Tudor it doesn’t end in October, the Bianconeri would be out of all of Europe and not just the Champions League which represents the minimum mandatory objective of the season.
Against Lazio, Juventus’ performance was a hymn to enthusiasm and confusion. The Croatian coach changed it and turned it inside out several times trying to extract something to repair the damage of the goal given to Basic at the start due to an unfortunate play by David, symbol of a market that is giving nothing despite having cost a lot. Failed result and desolate score: the goal has been missing since the 56th minute of the away match at Villarreal on 1 October: 394 minutes plus injury time and almost an entire month have passed and no one between Vlahovic, David and Openda manages to break the curse.
Before the match at the Bernabeu, which represented the great bogeyman of a week of high tension, Chiellini had explained that Tudor’s fate would be consummated not in Europe but in the following three championship matches. The thread began in the worst possible way and if it is true that in the Continassa area there is no desire to proceed with a new change of technical leadership, it is clear that without an immediate turning point the reflections will only be profound.
The protest of Lazio fans against Lotito
Tudor, too much confusion and a lack of goals: how do we change?
It is not certain that the coach is solely responsible for the situation but it is certain that he is struggling to find countermeasures. The whirlwind of choices has sent the attackers into a tailspin: who is the starter? And what’s happening to David who was supposed to represent the jewel of the department awaiting the farewell of Vlahovic? Is he a first striker or a second striker? Openda it is, then, a real flop: zero goals so far and a vague feeling of weakness that does not justify the 45 million euros invested. If there was one area where Tudor seemed to have been gifted with quality, it was the attack and here lies the biggest disappointment.
The numbers are merciless: without goals for a month and only 4 scored in the last 7 games. So it becomes difficult, especially because the defense does not guarantee imperviousness and the effect is that Juventus pays dearly for any distraction. And he almost never manages to swim upstream despite the great effort he puts in.
Tudor, the losing match with Thiago Motta
Tudor’s Juventus is slowly aligning with Thiago Motta’s. Indeed, they are even doing worse if it is true that after matchday number 8 of last season the Bianconeri had 16 points and today they are only 12 with two defeats (then they were zero) and 8 goals conceded against one. The alarm is also sounding in Europe: no victories (there were 2 for Thiago) and a first phase group in which a clear change of pace will now be needed to avoid problems qualifying for the playoffs.
However, the data that is of greatest concern is the overall one. Juventus almost never wins, no matter what opponent they face: 3 games they finish smiling out of 11 played in total. It is not a problem of calendars, algorithms or even referees as Tudor has improvidently said on more than one occasion: it is a crisis to be resolved quickly even if the recipe for getting out of it is difficult to find.
