Motta heralds balanced Juve performance after Derby della Mole victory

It certainly wasn’t the same kind of wild ride as the Derby d’Italia a few weeks ago, but Thiago Motta’s first experience with the Derby della Mole as Juventus manager proved to be quite the rewarding one.

It helps when his team plays well, too.

Juventus got goals from Timothy Weah and Kenan Yildiz to bookend a strong performance against city rivals Torino in the 159th edition of the Derby della Mole on Saturday night. It gives Juve two straight wins in Serie A as the November international break looms come the start of the new week. And for Motta, who has certainly seen his team struggle to pick up wins on a consistent basis through his first three months in Turin, it’s quite the good sign to see his team play well as they wrap up arguably their busiest stretch of the season thus far.

“It is always important to play with balance and it was another good performance where we bring three points home,” Motta said after the final whistle. “I am happy both with the result and the performance, in a derby on home turf, and thank our fans for their support. I also want to thank the players, because it was not easy playing the third game in a week, but we remained solid, focused and effective when needed. We certainly deserved the victory.”

Despite Francisco Conceição being one of this season’s best performers, Motta decided to to give the start to Weah after his own very strong run of form of late. Weah only added to that with his put back of an Andrea Cambiaso shot to score his third goal in his last four appearances. It was Weah’s fourth goal of the season in Serie A, which is already a career high in domestic competition.

Conceição came on in the second half and ended up providing the assist on Yildiz’s late diving header.

“They both had very good games,” Motta said of Weah and Yildiz. “Kenan scored and I’m pleased because we are working to improve his runs into the box and attacking the back post area. Timothy is more used to doing that and also in the defensive phase they distinguished themselves, helping their teammates to stem Torino’s attacks. (Dusan) Vlahovic and (Teun) Koopmeiners also gave their all, great games from them, too.”

Motta continued: “We started with Tim today because he is going through a great period of form. The game lasts over 90 minutes now, we must be on our toes throughout and realize anything can happen, so we need options off the bench. We can do that by alternating the forwards, while they can and already have also played together.

“Torino man-mark and go for individual duels that leave you little room to play, so it was not easy.”

After such a busy schedule, Motta will now have a chance to breathe and work with his squad — albeit it a reduced one because of the internationals being gone — on the training field for the next two weeks.

With their win over Torino, Juventus are level on 24 points with second-place Inter, who have a top-of-the-table clash with league leaders Napoli on Sunday night.