Opinion: Motta walking dangerously close to Allegri’s footsteps as Juventus ‘slip’ again | OneFootball

Out with the old, in with the new.

This was the mantra that Juventus vigorously promoted last summer. And yet, aside from a set of new faces between the pitch and the dugout, and the lack of outbursts that involve throwing jackests to the ground and grabbing journalists by the throat, one would struggle to spot the difference between the old and what has been deemed as the ‘new’.

First of all, judging Thiago Motta at this stage of this season remains blasphemously premature. After all, the young tactician is still adjusting to life in Turin, while the injury crisis surely hasn’t made matters any easier. Moreover, the lack of experience within his ranks has been painfully obvious, to say the least.

Ant yet, one has to wonder whatever happened to the young and inspired manager who took Serie A by storm with his ballsy approach last season at Bologna, the one who kept urging his men forward regardless of the result.

This season, it feels as if the Bianconeri are automatically set to retreat to their areas whenever they take the lead, regardless of the timing or the size of the opposition. We even saw this lacklustre approach against bottom-of-the-table Monza and Lecce, even though it has backfired more often than not.

Nevertheless, Juventus fans aren’t unfamiliar with this ultra-cautious method. In fact, this was one of the main reasons why the largest part of the fanbase was demanding Max Allegri’s head by the middle of his chaotic second reign.

However, the Livorno native could have been excused for passionately defending this approach. After all, it had borne great success during his glorious first tenure, before proving to be much less effective when he returned two years later. He simply refused to accept that great many things had changed at the club during his absence, and the famous BBC he once boasted was no longer there to safely close down matches by defending the smallest of margins.

Moreover, Allegri had at least owned this approach, taking pride in his “Corto Muso” victories.

(Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

On the other hand, Motta simply wasn’t born for this approach, and yet, it seems as if Allegri’s spirit is still haunting the walls of Continassa, luring his successor into unfamiliar territory.

And once again, the young tactician has been reminded of the dangers of toying with a one-goal lead when he doesn’t have Giorgio Chiellini and his comrades marshalling the backline, as all that it takes is one little slip – more often figurative but occasionally literal – to burn more points to ashes and leave the club trailing in the miserable 6th place while trying to mask its sorrows with what has to be the most hollow, unimpressive undefeated run in football history.

Therefore, we can only hope that the latest disappointment against Fiorentina serves as a wake-up call for Motta who must return to the path that made him successful in the first place and stray from an archaic mentality that has caused enough damage already.