Cristiano Giuntoli and Igor Tudor in conversation during Juventus training on March 24, 2025 (picture via www.juventus.com)
As Igor Tudor gets to work at Continassa after replacing Thiago Motta as Juventus head coach, here is a look at the biggest tasks and issues that the Bianconeri need to tackle before the end of the 2024-25 season.
Spirit and Relationships within the group
First things first for Tudor is to restore the harmony among the first-team group at Juventus. There are growing suggestions that Motta was not the most popular figure at Continassa towards the end of his tenure, with reports suggesting the players found his final sessions ‘surreal’ due to a lack of change in approach.
Getting the players on board and in line with his tactics and philosophy will be the first thing on the agenda. Keeping a positive, yet competitive atmosphere around the camp is a requirement and not a target.
Defined roles on and off the pitch
Several outlets in Italy have suggested that there has been confusion about the Juventus team and players over the last few months.
Motta was often accused of chopping and changing his line-ups and importantly his captains as well, which has led to a lack of a clear hierarchy among the Juve players.
Timothy Weah, a natural forward or winger, has been deployed at full-back for most of the 2024-25 season, Weston McKennie has played in practically every position on the pitch. Kenan Yildiz has been played on both flanks, as a false nine occasionally, but rarely in his preferred role through the middle, while Teun Koopmeiners has gone between a position in the midfield pivot and as the trequartista.
Reinstate key players
Sky Sport Italia suggest that Federico Gatti, Khephren Thuram and Kenan Yildiz are among the players who should be playing a more consistent role for Juventus than they have done so far in 2024-25.
This ties into the previous point that there needs to be more of a guaranteed look about the spine of this Juventus team.
Fix Vlahovic
Many feel that Tudor’s appointment benefits nobody more than Dusan Vlahovic, who grew more and more out of favour towards the end of Motta’s tenure.
The Serbia international only started once in Serie A after Juventus signed Randal Kolo Muani in January, which means that the best-paid player in the division has been sat on the bench for the majority of February and March.
Even if Juventus decide to cut ties with Vlahovic in the summer, surely he needs a run of games to prove his value and help maximise the amount the club could earn from his potential sale in the summer.
If Juventus decide against selling Vlahovic, then he still needs that run of games in order to rediscover his form if he wants to start the 2025-26 season in the best possible shape.
Get Juventus to the Champions League
The most important goal under Tudor will be finishing the Serie A season among the top four, ie. qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Tudor has nine games of the 2024-25 season left to pull it off, and currently needs to get back in front of Bologna, one point and one position above them, while also seeing off competition from Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina and Milan, all of whom are within five points of Juventus as things stand.
