After Thiago Motta's dire defensive football, the American duo will have new life under a more attacking coach

Thiago Motta made headlines in 2018 when he claimed to have reinvented football with a brand new, ultra-groovy 2-7-2 formation. The mathematics were misleading. That did not mean that the then-PSG Under 19 coach planned on playing without a goalkeeper. Nor did it mean that there were no wide defenders whatsoever.

Rather, the former Italy midfielder was envisioning an approach of total control. His goalkeeper could be so good with the ball that he could effectively function as a defensive midfielder. Around that, he insisted, he would implement a series of no-nonsense central players, and a couple of clinical strikers. The school of thought in modern soccer is that if you control the center of the pitch, you can control the game.

The idea was basically numerical. The more you have there, the more likely you are to win. Or, in Motta's case, the less likely you are to lose.

Some were excited. Most were skeptical. And pretty much everyone was fascinated. How could this man, still 36 and barely done with his playing days, claim to have revolutionized football? Surely, he must be a tactical genius.

Well, that was nearly seven years ago, and on Sunday, Motta was officially sacked by Juventus. He was not the visionary that many had hoped. Instead, for at least, Motta was a manager who was so scared to lose that he basically became averse to winning. And after the draws that had come to dominate the campaign started turning into losses, the club acted swiftly.

Unfair as it may appear to remove a manager with two months remaining in the season, Juve might just have a point here. They are, effectively, running in place, and slipping outside of the Champions League football picture. In abstract, this is neither revolutionary nor new. Big clubs have acted this way before.

Still, it will undoubtedly have some impact for two key players: Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah. The USMNT duo were maddeningly inconsistent under Motta, used all over the place and struggling for form. But the new manager, Igor Tudor, offers promise. Finally, these two interesting attacking footballers might have a purpose.

Getty Images SportThe Motta conundrum

It's still not quite clear whether Motta was a particularly good coach or not. Context is everything. He was brought in after the turgid football of Max Allegri. His predecessor, in abstract, did an agreeable job in his second stint in Turin. He won a Coppa Italia in 2024, and navigated periods of abysmal financial mismanagement with a depleted squad that needed to be rebuilt.

The football was boring, but it was somewhat effective, keeping Juve in Europe despite their man-for-man inferiority to most of the sides they lined up against. But everything turned stale by the end of 2024 – and even a trophy couldn't save him.

Motta was supposed to be the exciting replacement. He had Bologna overperforming in 2023-24, sneaking them into the Champions League for the first time in nearly 60 years, and tallying a club-record 68 points. Here was a manager who did a whole lot with very little. Throw in the lore of the 2-7-2 formation, and you had a winner.

Instead, things quickly turned tepid in Turin. Fans wanted something exciting, a team that could wash away the memories of Allegri's anti-football. What they got instead was more of the same. Motta made the Bianconeri immensely effective defensively, but painfully predictable at the other end of the field.

Despite the attacking weapons at his disposal, Juve became masters of stalemates, racking up 13 draws in the first five months of his tenure.

AdvertisementAFPIssues for McKennie and Weah

That was particularly frustrating for McKennie and Weah. Both Americans – still in their mid 20s – would seem to be most effective under an attacking coach. After all, they are both incredibly talented going forward. Weah can change a game with his pace and trickery out wide. McKennie can do a bit of everything, and his late runs into the box evoke memories of the kind of impact a certain Frank Lampard used to have at Chelsea.

Give them a manager who wanted to make things happen, and it looked a fine fit.

Instead, they were awkwardly shoehorned in all over the pitch. McKennie was nearly sold, then worked into the XI, but never really found a consistent position. He played in seven different spots over the course of the season. Motta rationalized it with praise, claiming that the midfielder was, effectively, too good to be left out of the side – more an act of placation than good faith.

Weah had things even worse. He, too, was a master-utility player, sometimes used out wide, others chucked into the middle. For a while, he was charged with starting at right back – painful when he was forced to mark Ademola Lookman in a 4-0 loss to Atalanta. There were bright spots – a couple of memorable Champions League combinations between the duo offered hope – but this was an otherwise bleak period.

ImagnWhat they need

Most top footballers these days have two managers: one at the club level, and a second for their international team. It is not uncommon to see them play better for one than the other. Very few are able to perform at a top level for both. Such has been the case with McKennie and Weah for the USMNT. Watch their performances under first Gregg Berhalter and then Mauricio Pochettino, and their potential is fully unlocked.

McKennie's best arguably came under the fluidity of the 'MMA' midfield. With Tyler Adams to sit and Yunus Musah to run, McKennie could do all of the bits in between – drive forward, create, and press without the ball. For a while, that trio was one of the most effective in any international side.

And McKennie worked so well because Berhalter created a system that suited him. The former USMNT manager was often criticized for his insistence on playing possession-based football, and allowing some off-the-cuff creativity. But that suited McKennie, who thrives in unpredictability, just fine.

Weah, for his part, has looked at his best under Pochettino. That was especially clear in the USMNT's Nations League quarterfinal against Jamaica last fall. Used, unexpectedly, on the left, the winger was allowed to run, create and stretch the game with his pace. A fine half volley – rifled into the roof of the net to round off a 4-2 win – showed in full how impactful he could be.

Getty ImagesThe new manager

And Tudor might just be the man to bring the best out of the Bianconeri, including their American duo. Motta may have made all of the right noises about attacking football but Tudor actually believes in it. His teams are high-intensity, fiercely vertical, and tactically sound. Pragmatic thinking here might have suggested that Juve employ a manager who could get them over the line with shrewd defensive football. Instead, they have gone the opposite way.

Tudor's tactical principles are built on chaos and of running. At Marseille, his side pressed high, won the ball back, and transitioned it up the pitch as quickly as possible. Buoyed by creative players in Dimitri Payet and Alexis Sanchez, they were able to hit teams on the break with ease.

His Lazio side offered more of the same – but also showed some of the frailties associated with his aggressive style. The Rome-based club were stocked full of footballers used to playing Mauricio Sarri's conservative, often languid 4-3-3. The ideas never quite jelled, and although Tudor managed to get them into the Europa League, he resigned in June 2024 amid rumors of disputes with the board.