Igor Tudor injects fury into Juventus to rev up race for Champions League | Nicky Bandini

Igor Tudor was on the pitch, stepping out of his technical area and on to the playing field as he gestured frantically at his defenders, jabbing a pointed finger so close to Stephan El Shaarawy that it appeared he might tap the Roma forward on the shoulder. It has been a little over 20 years since Tudor played his last game for Juventus, but all that time away does not appear to have lessened his passion.

The Bianconeri had needed this, needed something, an injection of purpose, of fury, of life. All their energies seemed to have expired under Thiago Motta, four defeats in six games telling only a part of the story. Anyone could lose a match to Atalanta, but 4-0? At home? And to follow that up with a 3-0 thrashing by one of your club’s favourite victims, Fiorentina?

That last defeat had knocked Juventus out of the top four. With the team who overtook them, Bologna, in scintillating form and at least four others behind them still nurturing Champions League ambitions, the campaign was pointing towards a grim conclusion.

Then they broke character and did something about it. Juventus have not historically been a club that fires managers during a season. They had done it nine times since the second world war, and not once during the 13-year presidency of Andrea Agnelli.

But Agnelli is no longer in charge, resigning together with the rest of the Juventus board after the club was accused of financial misconduct by public prosecutors in 2022. Massimiliano Allegri managed to get himself fired last season after winning Coppa Italia.

Explaining the decision to sack Motta at the end of last month, just days after saying the manager’s job was safe, the sporting director, Cristiano Giuntoli, admitted the board had been “worried” about where this season could end if they did nothing. His own position may yet be at risk, given the poor returns from almost €200m spent on transfer fees over the last two windows.

The choice to replace Motta came down to two names: Tudor or Roberto Mancini. Some Italian media outlets have reported that Giuntoli preferred Mancini and was voted down by the board. A more mundane explanation for their eventual choice might simply be that Tudor was more willing to accept a short-term deal to the end of this season. Juventus hold an option to extend.

Nobody could question Tudor’s eagerness. Upon receiving the call, he jumped straight in the car for a 10-hour drive from his home in Croatia to Turin. He had done the same when he signed as a player in 1998.

Tudor’s first game in charge was at home to Genoa, and the impact was immediate. We could talk tactics, but most tangible is the fact he set up the game’s only goal. On one of many forays to the edge of the pitch, he found himself in the perfect spot to catch a ball flying out of bounds. Tudor chucked it immediately to Teun Koopmeiners, who launched a quick throw-in down the near flank for Dusan Vlahovic. He was bundled off the ball, but it ran to Kenan Yildiz, who carved through an off-balance defence to score.

Manuel Locatelli responded to the captaincy with a superb opening goal for Juventus. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Little wonder Tudor should disregard the limits of his technical area again on Sunday. This was a far more daunting – and crucial – fixture, away to a Roma team who had won seven games in a row under Claudio Ranieri. But Juventus started it on the front foot, playing with a directness that felt alien after months of aimless horizontal possession under Motta.

Tudor immediately abandoned his predecessor’s 4-2-3-1 formation, swapping to his own preferred 3-4-2-1. He has described Gian Piero Gasperini in the past as “the model to follow” and encourages players to engage in one-on-one duels much like the Atalanta manager. When Tudor succeeded Maurizio Sarri at Lazio last season we saw an immediate increase in the height and aggression of the team’s press, and that story is repeating at Juventus.

Both teams carved out good chances in a bristling first half. Timothy Weah stung the palms of Roma’s goalkeeper, Mile Svilar, within three minutes. Juventus’s Pierre Kalulu made a last-gasp sliding challenge to deny Bryan Cristante. Svilar barely clawed a Nico González header on to the crossbar. El Shaarawy responded by nodding one on to the post for Roma.

Hardly one-way traffic, but when Manuel Locatelli put Juventus ahead just before half-time their advantage felt deserved. His was a magnificent strike, volleyed through the legs of a defender and then a further crowd from the edge of the area. The ball had looped out to him after being cleared from a corner, and he dispatched it goalwards with his instep before it could hit the ground.

Here was further vindication for Tudor’s methods. Motta rotated the captain’s armband at Juventus – just as he did previously at Bologna. Tudor has given the role to Locatelli full-time. In the Dazn TV studio, Gigi Buffon, made a case for the importance of understanding a club’s culture. “At Juve you walk into he changing room and you see photos of all the captains – 100 years of history,” he said.

Ranieri would later say his team had been “schiacciato” – smashed – by the intensity of Juventus’s press. But he has been writing another magnificent chapter of his own since replacing Ivan Juric at Roma. The Giallorossi had not only won their previous seven Serie A games before this one, but also not lost in 14.

He took the interval to tinker, replacing a central defender, Mats Hummels, with a centre-forward, Eldor Shomurodov. The substitute equalised within four minutes of the restart, forcing the ball home at a corner after Evan Ndicka’s initial header was saved.

Eldor Shomurodov rewards Claudio Ranieri’s substitution with the Roma equaliser four minutes after coming on. Photograph: Domenico Cippitelli/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

The match settled, both sides contenting themselves with a 1-1 draw. Neither wanted to gpresent an opportunity to a direct rival, but Ranieri’s tactical gambit was also pivotal. “[Juventus defender Lloyd] Kelly was pushing up too much,” he said. “With Shomurodov on he couldn’t, and the press rebalanced, meaning [Roma midfielder Leandro] Paredes got more of the ball.”

A point might suit Juventus better than Roma. They moved back level in fourth with Bologna, who play Napoli on Monday night. The Giallorossi are still one win behind. But the race for Champions League places is set up now for a grandstand finish.

Three consecutive defeats for Atalanta have dragged them back within touching distance of the chasing pack. Only six points separate them, in third, with Fiorentina, in eighth. Juventus, Bologna, Lazio and Roma sit between them, and all have reasons to believe they can make something happen down the stretch.

Tudor’s recent track record in Serie A gives Juventus cause for encouragement. He delivered 18 points in nine games for Lazio last season, qualifying them for Europe. Before that, he steered Verona to a top-half finish and their highest-scoring top-flight season in 2021-22.

It seems undeniable that he has lifted the mood already at his latest club, albeit the bar was low. One of Tudor’s early moves, last week, was to get the whole squad together with staff for dinner at a restaurant owned by former player Leonardo Bonucci.

But he was also the first one to point out on Sunday that he has only led a handful of training sessions so far. Asked where Juventus still needed to improve, Tudor replied bluntly: “Everywhere.”