Thiago Motta had a successful season with Bologna in the 2022/23 to 2023/24 seasons, lifting the team’s position from 13th in the 2021/22 season to 9th in the 2022/23 season. Motta also brought Calafiori to his best form after switching his position from left back to center defender.
Playing with a 4–3–3, 4–2 DM-3–1, 3-back formation, or the famous 2–7–2, Motta’s formation is positional-based, more offensive, and yielded excellent results by collecting 68 points in the previous season, which managed to finish in 5th position. Motta also gave his players the freedom to create space for passing, resulting in unpredictable ball and player movements in both defending transitions and attacking scenarios.
Bologna’s play was tactically positional while maintaining a good defensive balance, allowing them to easily counter-press opponents when losing possession. With proper tactics to balance the defensive line, Motta managed to make Bologna the team with the 3rd fewest goals against in Serie A, below Juventus, who played with low-block and counter-attacking tactics.
Bologna also maintained patience when moving the ball into the final third during possession, attracting their opponents to create more passing options in attack. Lewis Ferguson explained why Bologna maintained this slow progression in their attacking approach:
“Once we’re in the opposition’s half, we’re patient, but when there’s a switch or pass that breaks the line, everybody switches on. The full XI has to change the rhythm and if everyone does that and attacks at speed, that’s when we can create chances.”
Motta faces a tough challenge in managing Juventus due to differences in tactical approaches and the types of players. Juventus is not a team that has played with positional tactics. They’ve been playing the same way for a long time under Allegri, with a low block, maintaining opponent positions to attack wide areas, and performing fast counter-attacks with open spaces on the opponent’s field.
Motta must reorganize the squad to adjust to the tactics he uses because many Juventus players do not have the ability to play with his system. It didn’t take long after he was contracted as manager for news to emerge from Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, confirming that Motta was listing players to leave Juve as they didn’t fit his criteria.
“https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1819998958007062739?t=Q58xjEsat_xpugu1LAPv7w&s=08”
Vlahovic remains unchanged, he has the ability to create space and drop down to pick up the ball, getting the midfielders on board in creating attacking schemes. This type of striker is suitable for Motta’s tactics, which require 11 players to move a lot, creating passing options and making unpredictable movements.
A lot of players are out in Motta’s Juventus project. To date, he has made at least three midfielder and two defender transfers. Motta also plans this project as a regeneration project by giving minutes to academy players, securing them by promoting them to the first team, and buying young players with high playing time.
This project, which involves young players, is the first of its kind for Juve because, for a long time, they relied on experienced players as their main squad. Motta’s tactics are also the opposite of Juventus’s traditional approach, which is why Motta can be said to be reforming Juventus not only in tactics but almost from all fronts.
