Five priorities for Tudor at Juventus: From Vlahovic to the Champions League | OneFootball

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.

TURIN, ITALY – MARCH 09: Andrea Cambiaso and Teun Koopmeiners of Juventus look dejected after the team’s defeat in the Serie A match between Juventus and Atalanta at the Allianz Stadium on March 09, 2025 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

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.

Igor Tudor takes charge of his first training session with Juventus after replacing Thiago Motta as head coach, March 24 2025. (Picture: @juventus via X)

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.

COMO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 07: Dusan Vlahovic looks on during the Serie A match between Como 1907 and Juventus at Stadio G. Sinigaglia on February 07, 2025 in Como, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

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.

Igor Tudor takes charge of his first training session at Continassa after replacing Thiago Motta as head coach, March 24 2025. (Picture: @juventus via X)

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.