Juventus: Andrea Pirlo’s biggest challenge isn’t tactical

Juventus have appointed Andrea Pirlo as their new manager, and here’s the biggest task ahead of him.

Maurizio Sarri may have won the Scudetto this season, but Juventus were right to part ways with a manager who led the team to some humiliating defeats down the stretch of the Serie A season before being bounced out of the Champions League by Lyon in the Round of 16.

In his place, the Bianconeri have hired legendary regista Andrea Pirlo, in the hopes that he can be their version of Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid. Except Pirlo is a gamble, since, unlike Zidane, he did not cut his teeth (yet) as a youth team coach or assistant. He will be thrown right into the fire.

Pirlo was known for his high-quality passing, vision, and nearly unmatched footballing intelligence on the pitch. Those traits will help him greatly when he introduces a new philosophy of football and tactical approach, because Sarri’s approach at Juventus was incompetent and uninventive. Refer to the last few weeks of poor football.

But Pirlo’s greatest challenge at the helm of Juve won’t be tactical; it will be motivational. Sarri was horrible at getting the most out of his players, beyond the superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Wojciech Szczesny, and Matthijs de Ligt (after his adjustment period) who will always be great no matter the manager.

Andrea Pirlo cannot be wishy-washy at Juventus

But the midfielders and the other forwards? The defense? They struggled or simply collapsed under Sarri. All of that isn’t surprising, since Sarri simply wasn’t a commanding enough presence or ambitious enough to help Juve fulfill their goals of winning the Champions League.

At his post-game press conference after the Lyon loss, Sarri seemed too positive and not serious enough about how poorly his team played – much of it due to his awful coaching. He called Juventus “cursed”. Cursed? No, there is no Champions League curse. Juve played this poorly against Lyon in this year’s campaign because they were horrible. You’d expect a manager to at least acknowledge that.

There’s a huge difference in tone between Sarri and Cristiano Ronaldo, whose statement on Instagram after the loss was upbeat about the future but honest about the presence. Juventus need work, and it seems like Sarri was just “happy to be along for the ride”.

Juve need a manager who will challenge them, who will push them. It is important for a manager to be supportive, but Pirlo understands the stakes here. He’s been with the Bianconeri during big Champions League pushes and has played for some incredible teams in Milan. Pirlo knows what it takes to compete at the highest level, like Ronaldo. Sarri, decidedly, does not, and that lack of ambition led to lethargy in the players.

With his name, Pirlo commands respect. He must use that respect and come into his own to push his players, because this Juve side is capable of so much more. It is now up to Pirlo to be the man who gets the absolute best out of the men in this squad.