JUVENTUS STADIUM, TORINO, ITALY – 2025/09/27: Igor Tudor, head coach of Juventus FC during the Serie A 2025/2026 football match between Juventus FC and Atalanta BC. Juventus and Atalanta drew 1-1. (Photo by Andrea Staccioli/Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images
Can Igor Tudor fix his growing Juventus’ problem?
The confidence around the Croat coach is starting to slip ever so slightly after a second consecutive draw in Serie A.
Last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Verona was followed up with another 1-1 at home to Atalanta, and fans are beginning to feel a sense of deja vu.
For large portions of the game the Bianconeri huffed and puffed, having a lot of possession without doing anything meaningful with it. It was all very reminiscent of Juve under Thiago Motta last season.
Atalanta took the lead just before half-time through an excellent solo goal from Kamaldeen Sulemana.
Juve eventually restored parity from a goal from Juan Cabal, the left-back stabbing home after La Dea failed to clear a corner.
Stats can often be misleading, and seeing that Juve had 10 shots on target and eight off gives the impression they swamped Atalanta’s goal with a barrage of shots. Yet it wasn’t the case.
Many were half chances, luck shots from outside the box. The only clear chance to win it came from a corner, when Weston McKennie snatched at a loose ball that went into the arms of Atalanta stopper Marco Carnesecchi.
In truth, Juve failed to really trouble the Italian, and this is the worry for Tudor.
Given an influx of talent in the dying days of the window, Tudor now has almost too many options in attack. Lois Openda and Edon Zhegrova arrived to swell the ranks. Moreover, Dusan Vlahovic remained at the club despite Juve trying their best to flog him off all summer long.
The end result is Juve have three centre forwards, with Jonathan David arriving from Lille in the summer, and Kenan Yildiz, Francisco Conceicao and Zhegrova for only three attacking options.
Tudor has seemed hellbent on remaining wedded to the 3-4-2-1 system he utilised at the back end of last season and at the FIFA Club World Cup in the US.
Then, it made sense as he lacked the personnel for other systems. Yet it’s clear that’s no longer the case.
Tudor has tried 16 different options in attack since the beginning of the season, with none of them sticking. David led the line behind Yildiz and Conceicao for the opening two games, and this seemed the most promising.
Yet the arrivals of Openda and Zhegrova have muddied the waters.
Openda isn’t a classic centre forward in the traditional way and is more of a second striker. Vlahovic is a leading man, while David works better being paired next to someone.
The abundance of forwards means a shift to a 4-3-3 could be a genuine alternative for Tudor, or shift to a 4-3-1-2 or 3-4-1-2. With Juve playing games every three or four days from now until Christmas, Tudor will have time to experiment with systems.
Yet Juve can’t afford to drop more points. A credible title challenge was always going to be wistful thinking, but with AC Milan resurgent under Max Allegri, Roma looking good under Gian Piero Gasperini and Napoli and Inter almost guaranteed top four places, Tudor needs to react.
Is too many options a bad thing? In his case, it could be.
Whether he tinkers his system going forward remains to be seen, but Juve’s lack of bite needs addressing.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmetgates/2025/09/28/can-igor-tudor-fix-juventus-growing-problem-amid-another-draw/
