Inside Juventus: Motta’s Tactics, Transfer Window and Best Players

Despite now being more than a decade old, Juventus’ Allianz Stadium remains Italy’s newest, and most comfortable, stadium to watch a game in. Built in the late 2000s and opened ahead of the 2011/12 season, the stadium, amid pictures of past greats like Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Baggio and Zinedine Zidane, was a welcome sight to the Destination Calcio team after visiting some of the less sophisticated arenas during our Calcio Binge through northern Italy.

On sight for The Old Lady’s first game of the new season against newly-promoted Como, Thiago Motta’s side produced a performance that was both promising and entertaining. After the Max Allegri years, many inside the stadium breathed a sigh of relief that now Juve were back to playing something resembling modern football.

Juve made the biggest splash in Serie A over the summer transfer window, but most of the new signings weren’t on show for our visit to the stadium. Khephren Thuram, son of legendary Juve defender Lillian, was one of the few who played from the start. Thuram Jnr put in a very encouraging display that no doubt made his more famous father proud. Douglas Luiz, then-Serie A’s biggest summer signing (before being eclipsed by fellow Juve signing Teun Koopmeiners), came off the bench for the final 10 minutes. 

The Bianconeri sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli produced one of the club’s best transfer window since the halcyon days of the Beppe Marotta era, signing eight players and spending close to €200m (£168m), while also lowering the wage bill and reducing the average age of the squad to 24.

Motta also introduced some Next Gen talent against Como, with debutant Samuel Mbangula scoring the club’s first goal of the season with a beautiful curling effort from outside the box. Dusan Vlahovic, who is expected to shine this season in Motta’s more attack-minded approach, hit both posts but failed to get on the score sheet.

Timothy Weah, son of another Serie A legend in George, lashed in the second just before half-time with a fierce shot that hit the underside of the crossbar, and Andrea Cambiaso sealed the 3-0 win with a neat little finish in the dying minutes of the game.

Motta’s Juve are still a work in progress, but on our visit to the Allianz Stadium, it was evident what he’s trying to build in Turin.

Transfers: Douglas Luiz, Michele Di Gregorio, Juan Cabal, Khephren Thuram, Pierre Kalulu, Nicolas Gonzalez, Francisco Conceicao and Teun Koopmeiners all arrived amid a frenzy of activity from Juve in the final week of the window. 

Best performers: Only Di Gregorio has played in all three games and has had relatively little to do in each of them, keeping three clean sheets. Douglas Luiz has sparkled in the minutes he’s had coming off the bench; Thuram showed huge potential against Como, while Conceicao earned plaudits for his performance against Roma as a second half substitute. 

Tactics: Motta has kept primarily to a 4-2-3-1 system so far, and this likely isn’t to change going forward. He may alter it slightly to a 4-3-2-1 dependant on the opponent, but what we might see is Nico Gonzalez used as a false nine, as happened for the final 10 minutes against Roma on matchday three. 

What’s more likely to occur are personnel changes after the international break. Motta has to find a way to integrate the likes of Koopmeiners, Douglas Luiz, Conceicao and a returning Thuram into the side over the coming months. Yet with the Champions League returning in mid-September, he’s going to get plenty of games to experiment. 

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