Easy matches before the international break provide a chance to end the Bianconeri’s dreadful winless run, but needs an overhaul of their predictable approach and haphazard substitutions.
Juventus head coach Igor Tudor arrived as a firefighter, simply to steer the Turin titans into a top four Serie A finish to secure Champions League soccer.
His nine league games at the helm, which kicked off last March, saw the Croatian tactician stick to his favored formation of three defenders and a lone striker.
Following Thiago Motta’s high possession play, Juve fans were served up Tudor’s more aggressive and attack-minded approach.
Games under Tudor were never pleasing to the eye, but the results garnered during his short stint managed to earn a coveted fourth-placed berth at the end of the season.
Tudor, who has yet to coach a club for a substantial amount of time, was promoted from interim manager to the permanent role on a two-year contract in June.
This was an uninspired appointment, but viewed by the club hierarchy as a cheaper option than managers with a winning pedigree.
Now Juventus are paying the price, and with no sign of Tudor bagging a win they must surely be planning to bring in a new face to get the Italian giants back on track.
Bianconeri's aimless changes
Tudor simply will not switch tactics, although did recently try out four defenders that proved to be a failure. Picking his favorite players and making bizarre substitutions is doing the club no favors.
His tactics have made Juventus predictable, with top-notch players like Dusan Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz frequently man-marked out of matches.
Tudor wishes to keep the entire squad happy by giving some players a brief run out, and new faces that arrived in the summer have made virtually no impact.
The squad urgently needs a shake-up, but attracting high caliber players to a club who has zero chance of winning silverware will be a tricky task.
Juventus aces eyed up
There are a plethora of talented individuals at Juventus, with European teams eyeing up the likes of Andrea Cambiaso, Federico Gatti, Pierre Kalulu, Manuel Locatelli, Vlahovic and Yildiz. Losing just two of these players would make the Bianconeri more mediocre than they already are.
Tudor faces former Juve boss Maurizio Sarri in the cauldron of the Stadio Olimpico tonight, with both head coaches under immense pressure for delivering recent underwhelming results.
This contest is not decisive for Tudor’s future, as there are some easier matches before the international break in the second week in November. This would be the time for a change of manager should the Bianconeri continue to splutter.
Juve’s last win was in mid-September, courtesy of a last-gasp winner over Inter Milan in their enthralling Derby d’Italia clash. That same passion has been absent from Juventus players ever since.
The fact that the Bianconeri are lacking chemistry in the final third has resulted in abject failure to score from their past three outings.
It is not surprising that goals have dried up, because Tudor keeps swapping his strikers and has yet to decide on a system that works. Often he starts with one forward, then out of desperation throws on two attackers towards the end of a game.
Juve's inept tactics
His constant changes in players simply leaves the team looking disorganized with huge gaps in the middle of the pitch for opponents to exploit, with far from happy faces on the bench.
Injuries are no excuse, as most teams are depleted early in the season. Juve’s inconsistent results, inability to win the ball back, a shaky defense and lack of goals has understandably left fans discontent.
Most pundits are critical of the head coach and expect a change soon. There are a handful of high-profile potential candidates ready to replace Tudor, while another gamble on a cheap option is being considered behind the scenes.
Under pressure Tudor is at loggerheads with general manager Damien Comolli over the club’s summer signings, and there appears to be a rift developing between some squad members and the head coach.
Having followed up the tame 2-0 defeat at Como with a more spirited performance at Real Madrid, where they tried to avoid defeat rather than press for victory, a hat-trick of reversals would spell disaster for Tudor.
Tudor gets defensive
Yet Tudor remains optimistic, and explained in his press conference: “The feelings after [Real] Madrid are largely positive, we’ll all need to be on our game.
“Every coach would like to have defensive solidity, but finding that balance between solidity and being a threat at the other end isn’t easy. I’m always trying to find the best solutions for the team and my players.
“When it’s tough to score, sometimes you sacrifice one thing to gain another. We need to have the mentality and desire to not concede, and then to do harm to our opponents at the other end.
“If a player brings quality as well as personality, it’s like striking gold. [Kenan] Yildiz always plays. His improvement hasn’t made things easy for him, because teams have taken notice of him and pay him more attention.
“Having character is so important, and there’s never a session wherein I’m not encouraging each of the guys to take responsibility.”
It is Tudor who should be shouldering the responsibility. He is fully aware as a one-time Juve defender and former assistant coach with the Bianconeri that the club's winning mentality is top priority, so needs to stop the rot to save his job.
Failure to set up his team to tackle each opponent, by sticking to his favored formation of three defenders and one striker, will ultimately end in tears.