Round 30: Juventus vs. Genoa match preview
03/28/2025 04:55 PM
There's nine games to go, but there's a new sheriff in town for the next few months.
For many clubs in Serie A, the first international break of 2025 was as quiet as can. Two weeks without any games and basically nothing of note has transpired — which is basically what anybody actually wants to see happen whenever an international break arrives.
A quiet break for Juventus?
Not by a long shot.
After plenty of chatter off the field and two very disappointing and uninspiring performances on it, Juventus made the change at manager that so many had been hoping to see take place. Out went Thiago Motta, who was tasked with trying to rebuild a Juve squad that had plenty of turnover into his own, modern-day vision that could compete both domestically and in Europe and fulfill the vision of the man who hired him. In comes former Juventus defender Igor Tudor, who was last on the sideline at Allianz Stadium a little under a year ago when he was Lazio manager. This time, though, he is back at the club in which he first arrived as a fresh-faced 20-year-old with the biggest step in his young career. Now, with plenty of gray in his beard and much less hair atop his head, Tudor will attempt to right the Juve ship and right some of the wrongs to make something out of what has been a hugely disappointing 2024-25 season to date.
So now, six days after Motta was dismissed and Tudor took over, we will get our first glimpse of how it could potentially pay off when Juventus face a Genoa side Saturday night that has benefited from their own managerial change this season. It comes at a time that, on top of the transition from Motta to Tudor, Juventus are in the thick of what is developing into a crowded competition for fourth place in the Serie A standings. Motta's former club, Bologna, enter the weekend one point ahead of fifth-place Juventus, with Lazio, Roma and Fiorentina all lurking behind in sixth through eighth.
It's crowded almost will certainly be that way for the final two months of the season.
That's why this change on the sidelines is a much different situation than last season when Max Allegri was dismissed ahead of the final couple of games. In that case, Paolo Montero was basically brought in on a caretaker basis to see out the string with only a couple of games remaining and Champions League qualification basically wrapped up.
This time, though, Tudor's task is essentially two-fold:
- Get Juventus right mentally
- Get Juventus into fourth place
For the final two matchdays of Motta's tenure in Turin, the mentality definitely wasn't right even though they were actually in fourth place. The team looked over whatever Motta was still trying to sell — and their performances against Atalanta and Fiorentina pretty much represented just that.
Now we get to see what Juventus can do as the stretch drive approaches with a new manager.
Genoa have certainly righted the ship in the four months that Patrick Vieira has been in charge. When Alberto Gilardino was sacked, Genoa had just 10 points in their first 12 games of the season — six of those being losses — and were sitting just above the relegation zone.
Since Vieira took over as manager on Nov. 20, Genoa have earned 25 points in 17 games. That's good enough for ninth place in Serie A over that time frame — something the club would take every single day of the week considering how their season began (or just in general considering they were in Serie B a couple of years ago).
Since I'm guessing you're curious, over that same 17-game run, a Motta-led Juventus collected a grand total of ... 28 points.
And that, my friends, is a big reason why Juventus are where they currently are. Not that Juventus were lighting the world on fire in October or November, but it's certainly better than what we've seen the last couple of months, couple of weeks or ... yeah, we won't talk about the last couple of games. It was those two results that put the final nails in the Motta coffin at Juventus, with this past weekend being the moment in which the club officially cast the man they hand picked to lead their new project aside.
So now it's up to Tudor to try and right whatever wrongs he can before Champions League qualification is suddenly unlikely. We don't know if it can happen. Heck, we don't even know for sure what kind of formation he will use. But a New Manager Bounce™ has worked wonders for more than just one or two clubs in Serie A this season. Others have seen those same issues transfer over from old coach to new coach. Where Juventus fall remains to be seen, but Tudor knows that he's got nine games to do whatever he can to get a club he loves back on the tracks.
TEAM NEWS
- Hey, did you hear? Saturday will be Igor Tudor's debut as Juventus' caretaker manager.
- Most Italian outlets are predicting Tudor will use a 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-2-1 formation against Genoa.
- It's looking like the two players who had a chance to come back from their respective pre-international break injuries, Andrea Cambiaso and Douglas Luiz, both won't be available for Tudor in his Juve coaching debut. Cambiaso did report to Italy's training camp, but was forced out due to his troublesome ankle injury that just won't fully go away.
- The long-term injury absences are who they've been for months now: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik, who has reportedly suffered another setback and risks missing the rest of the 2024-25 season because of it.
- Tudor said at his introductory press conference Thursday that Manuel Locatelli will continue to wear the captain's armband.
- Cambiaso is the only Juventus player who is one yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
This is one of the cases in which the entire team pretty much applies.
New coach. New system and formation. Hopefully a new mindset. All new everything outside of Tudor having the same roster that was there for Thiago Motta to try and get the most out of over the last nine or 10 months.
One of the biggest potential beneficiaries of Motta no longer being in Turin? Well, that's pretty easy to figure out — and he may even have a beard now!
One of the first names to pop off the page when it comes to those who could see their fortunes turn for the better now that Motta is no longer Juventus' manager is most certainly Dusan Vlahovic. Over the course of the last three months, Vlahovic went from a lock to be a starter simply because there was nobody else available to play up top to seeing his playing time take a nosedive. Case in point:
- Since returning from injury in mid-January, Vlahovic has started just three out of a possible 11 games.
- During the March international break, Vlahovic started both of Serbia's UEFA Nations League games.
That pretty much shows you how things went with Vlahovic and Motta over the course of his last 2 1⁄2 months as Juventus manager. Randal Kolo Muani arrived on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and Vlahovic — somebody who was one of Juve's minutes leaders in the first half of the season — was suddenly an option off the bench and pretty much just that. It changed just that quickly, and the rift between Vlahovic and Motta became pretty obvious as time went on.
But now Tudor is the manager in Turin and pretty much everybody is pointing toward Vlahovic when it comes to somebody who will have a much larger role (again) and very much embrace the new start with a new manager
Vlahovic was one of three players who reportedly reported for training a day earlier than expected following their international duty requirements. Something tells me that's not just by coincidence considering what happened just a couple of days earlier.
Now we see how the New Manager Bounce™ impacts Vlahovic specifically and how it plays into the future no matter if the chances of him being a Juventus player beyond the summer months.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, March 29, 2025.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific time.
(Please note that Daylight Saving Time in the United States begun on March 9 and will not go into effect in Europe until this Sunday.)
HOW TO WATCH
Television: CBS (United States); TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming:Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
