Motta: Juventus’ win, performance against Udinese ‘was a huge response’

Juve manager comments on his team claiming their first win since mid-October.

Juventus entered Saturday night’s trip to Udine far from a team that’s firing on all cylinders. As much as they are still unbeaten against Serie A opposition, their midweek draw against Parma was their sixth draw through their first 10 league fixtures.

All of the dropped points recently have caused Juventus to fall back in the Serie A, with Juventus entering their first meeting of the season with Udinese — one of Italy’s biggest surprises so far this year — having fallen from just behind league leaders Napoli to sixth place within the span of a few weeks.

But Saturday brought a bit of a reprieve from the recent struggles, as Thiago Motta’s side built a two-goal first-half lead en route to a 2-0 win over Udinese to begin the process of getting back on track and, at least momentarily, jump back up into second place ahead of next weekend’s Turin derby.

“It was a huge response and a team victory because we approached the game in the best possible way for the full 95 minutes,” Motta said of his team’s performance against Udinese. “In the first half, we could have been a bit more adventurous, as Udinese allowed us to play out from the back and we managed to create some chances. However, we lacked depth, especially out wide. After going 2-0 up, it was natural for Udinese to try to react — they’ve been strong at home this season and are a confident team.

“We managed to regroup, defend well, and counter-attack effectively, switching between long and short balls. This win was fully deserved.”

Khephren Thuram played a big role in Juventus’ first-half performance, making the run and ultimately taking the shot that lead to the own goal off the back of Udinese keeper Maduka Okoye that put the visitors up 1-0. Nicolo Savona doubled Juve’s lead 18 minutes later when he took advantage of another Juve shot that hit the post, this one off the foot of Kenan Yildiz.

It was Thuram’s first goal at Juventus after signing with the club his dad, Lilian, called home from 2001 to 2006 over the summer.

“Today he showed his unique dynamism,” Motta said of the 23-year-old Thuram. “I was very impressed with his performance: he was extremely focused in defence and brought quality to our attack. He not only excels in his role but also when carrying the ball, which makes him an important player. He scored a beautiful goal, but more importantly, he delivered a strong team performance with his teammates.”

Motta floated out the idea of potentially resting Dusan VLahovic — who entered the day having played over 90% of Juventus’ minutes this season — during his pre-match press conference on Friday, but rolled out the big Serb for the 14th straight time to begin the 2024-25 season.

But Motta did go with something we have seen little of this season — taking Vlahovic out in the second half with a good amount of time to go and Yildiz moving up into a false 9 role.

“We have different players, it’s always important to have diversity in in-game situations,” Motta said. “Udinese attacked with lots of numbers, it was natural that they were a bit exposed, and we have Kenan, who is fast, and with (Teun Koopmeiners0, he bothers defenders.”

Motta continued: “When the time comes, we will do whatever is best for the team. Today we have to enjoy this important victory, and then recover because it’s the Champions League again on Tuesday, an interesting game against Lille, who have an extra day of recovery.”

Juve are now set for their last two games of their hectic three-week stretch in which they will play seven times in 22 days. First up is a return to the Champions League when they travel to France to play one of the tournament’s biggest surprises thus far, Lille, on Tuesday night.

“Now, we need to shift our focus to the Champions League and recover well to face Lille at our best,” said Motta, whose team currently sits in 14th in the new league phase table. The top eight teams after the league phase get an automatic berth into the knockout rounds.