After weeks of rumours and speculation, Juventus, despite everything, have presented Thiago Motta as their new coach. In a statement published on Wednesday evening on the club’s official website, the Bianconeri revealed that the new coach had signed a deal until June 30, 2027.
“I am satisfied to start a new bankruptcy at the helm of a wonderful club like Juventus,” the 41-year-old strategist said through the same source. “I thank the owners and management, who can be sure of my ambition. “To fly the Juventus flag and please the fans. “
Motta arrives in Turin after helping the former Bologna club qualify for the UEFA Champions League. It’s their most productive Serie A qualification since the 1960s, and club president Joey Saputo praised his influence when they announced the coach’s departure last month.
“Over the past two years, I have met a winning and well-prepared coach,” Saputo said in an article published on Bologna’s official website. “He instilled in me a brilliant taste for the game at that time.
“Reaching the Champions League means that he and all those players will go down in the history of our club. I would have liked him to stay in Bologna, but I can only thank him and his staff for those two seasons and wish him all the best. “productive for the future.
After a stellar in-game career in which he racked up 27 major awards, Motta has yet to start his life on the bench. Appointed through Genoa in October 2019, he would oversee just 10 games and be sacked after just two months. while he was widely ridiculed for an interview in which he spoke about a 2-7-2 formation.
At the time Motta was the object of great ridicule, but taking the time to understand what he had said to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the coach was talking about how a team can simply look horizontal and not vertically.
This would mean having two players on each flank and seven in the central zone, as shown in the graph above. Motta would have to wait another two years to get another chance to put those concepts into practice, keeping Spezia in Serie A. the 2021/22 crusade before moving to Bologna.
Before we go any further, it’s worth doing a quick recap of Motta’s adventure as a player, as those reports on the field will obviously influence the coach he will become from then on.
Motta left his home Brazil for Barcelona in 1999, after graduating from La Masia to play for the Catalan giants’ B team and first team. His time there would be greatly affected by injuries and, after a brief spell at Atlético de Madrid, the midfielder moved to Genoa in September 2008.
There he would play a season under current Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini and then play a role in Jose Mourinho’s three-time winning side Inter. In January 2012, Motta signed for PSG, where he would make 232 appearances and win 19 trophies in six and one half. seasons before retiring.
Three-time winners Jose Mourinho and Thiago Motta have already faced others as managers
During this period, Motta played for Carlo Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery, before becoming the French club’s under-19 coach. That would come with Thomas Tuchel at the helm of the first team, and it’s easy to see the German influence on Bologna’s sensational season.
Although nowadays – with a predominance of urgent and counter-urgent – it is incredibly reductionist to talk about an inflexible formation, it should be noted that Motta’s starting eleven in 2023/24 can sometimes have compatibility with a 4-2-3-1 frame.
This at least gives us the point of reference that their groups included two centre-backs, two centre-backs, three attacking midfielders and a striker. The next significant sign is the fact that, according to WhoScored. com, Bologna are in second place at Napoli with an average of 58. 2% ownership per game, but they rank highest in terms of tackles per game with 16. 7.
In fact, Opta’s underlying knowledge shows that, according to the opponent’s minute of ownership, Bologna’s combination of duels, tackles and interceptions took the top spot in the penultimate 2022/23 season. So, despite having the ball more than 18 other teams, the Rossoblu wins the ball back more than any other team, which is a testament to their commitment to counterattacking their conflicting parties once they lose the ball.
These are coordinated movements of the whole team, with the top three activating the pressure through the last passing lines and applying pressure at the top of the field.
Behind them, midfielder duo Remo Freuler (who played with Gasperini at Atalanta) and Michel Aebischer act as a shield against the defence, with all 11 players combining for a competitive game that forces quick turnovers or at least alters the pace of the opponent. Attacks.
As you can see above, if they didn’t win the ball back quickly, they would resort to a 4-1-4-1 to block attacks and this combined technique proved to be incredibly effective.
In fact, only Inter and Juventus have conceded fewer goals than the 32 allowed through Bologna last season, largely because they limited their conflicting matches to just 10. 8 shots per game. According to WhoScored. com, this figure was only slightly Fiorentina’s most productive. Score of 10.
Once the ball was recovered, Bologna looked to play from the back, where Motta insisted that all players feel comfortable with possession. Defenders like Riccardo Calafiori make this possible, and it has temporarily become a 30 million euro ($32. 21 million) move target for the new Juve boss. .
It’s easy to see why, as the 22-year-old arrived in midfield with confidence and completed 89. 8 per cent of his passes in the 2023/24 campaign to earn a place in the Italian squad for Euro 2024.
From there, clever movements are used to create overloads, but it’s not about possessing the ball for the sake of striking an impressive balance between valuing the ball and exploiting quick opportunities.
This is achieved through combined play, individual skill and set pieces, all spaces in which Bologna thrived last season, and the video below obviously explains how they achieved this.
There have been key contributions from Joshua Zirkzee, who leads the front line and has scored 11 league goals this season. In addition to adding 4 assists, the 23-year-old provided a consistent clearance of the ball through his formidable holding game, diving deep to the available players. , then send passes on the trail of a forward runner or put a teammate on the line, with an undeniable ejection.
Unsurprisingly, he has been linked with an exit this summer, with Sky Sports noting that a €40m ($42. 99m) clause in Zirkzee’s contract has attracted interest from AC Milan, Arsenal and Manchester United, as well as Motta and Juventus.
It remains to be seen who will join the Bianconeri team in the coming weeks, but Thiago Motta’s tactics will be hugely vital to his good luck at the start of the new season.
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