Guido Vaciagoin his editorial today on Allsportsexplains the foundations of the new Juventus era: “Today begins the Thiago Motta era. It is, in reality, a false start because now the magic of the first day of school is broken up by staggered arrivals, so the Motta era could start, in the true sense of the word, at the beginning of August when, between returns and the market, he should have a more or less complete squad (and therefore little time to work on it in view of August 19, the first match against Como at home). But, that’s how it is, yesterday the new Juventus coach landed in Turin and from today he takes up service in his new workplace, the Continassa sports center.
A change of coach is always something that marks a break in the sporting history of a club, especially in the last thirty years, during which coaches have taken on an ever-increasing specific weight in image and communication, but often also in decision-making power within a club. And the arrival of Thiago Motta at Juventus marks an attempt at change, a turning point in football thinking. Something similar has already been attempted twice in the last five years: first with Sarri and then with Pirlo. Two experiments that, despite bringing trophies, failed, even leading one to think that the cause is to be found in the conservative football tradition of the Bianconeri, a question of football genetics that rejects a different and more modern football. Bullshit! The problem is always the approach, the intelligence to graft new ideas in the right way.
In 1994 Marcello Lippi arrived at Juventus, who was able to be the Hegelian synthesis between the ancient Trapattonian thesis and the Sacchist antithesis, dominant in that period. Lippi was the most modern of traditionalists or the most traditionalist of moderns. And he knew how to win everything, with a very aggressive game and mainly developed in the opponent’s half of the field, without ever betraying a defensive phase with ancient (and solid) roots. Lippi came from a miraculous qualification in the UEFA Cup of Napoli (that the maniacs of historical recurrences could superimpose to the Champions League of Bologna) and had a provincial curriculum, perhaps just a little longer than that of Thiago, who on the other hand has a career as a more important footballer. But it is not the case of forcing analogies, but of remembering that Motta’s intelligence will be measured by his ability to put his splendid ideas into a reality very different from that of Bologna. The conditions for everything to work are there, starting from a market that is moving in a very logical way and, above all, coherent with Motta’s technical-tactical project”.