Maurizio Sarri meets Juventus for the first time since the Old Lady sacked him in 2020 and Football Italia takes a look at why his relationship with the Bianconeri collapsed in less than a year.
Sarri signed a three-year deal with Juventus in 2019, replacing Massimiliano Allegri, who had won 11 titles in five seasons.
The Bianconeri directors wanted to give a new identity to the team, more modern and spectacular and Sarri had just won the Europa League in his first season at Chelsea.
However, things didn’t quite work for him in Turin and, at the end of the season, he was sacked.
The decision was taken more due to his relationship with players and directors than to his results.
In fact, Sarri won the Serie A title in an exhausting campaign that was suspended in March due to the COVID pandemic. However, the Bianconeri were eliminated from the Champions League Round of 16 at hands of Lyon and Sarri was sacked the following day.
The 62-year-old had brought a title, but Juventus’ playing style didn’t improve and the Italian tactician wasn’t on good terms with many footballers in Turin, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
It’s not a coincidence that many of them remained quiet on social media after his sacking.
Paulo Dybala was among those with a good relationship with Sarri and the Argentinean sent a social media message to his ex-coach following his Juventus exit.
Sarri provides Immobile injury update and discusses relationship with Juventus
But what didn’t work for Sarri at Juventus?
His methods were not accepted by every Juventus player. Most of them had won eight Serie A titles, including one against Sarri’s Napoli, using a different playing style.
The coach was required to adapt to his players and the players had to deal with a new mentality that didn’t quite suit them.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 31 goals in 33 games, but he never liked Sarri. Before the beginning of the pre-season, the Italian tactician went to meet him in his yacht in South France, asking Ronaldo to play as a centre forward. CR7 declined his request telling Sarri that he preferred to play on the left, cutting inside to shoot.
The Portuguese star wasn’t happy with the coach’s attitude too. Il Corriere della Sera reported that both he and Douglas Costa were not happy to see the Italian coach smoke close to their locker room before or after training sessions at Continassa.
When Sarri was sacked, he reportedly told Juventus directors that the team was ‘untrainable’ but the Italian tactician denied such reports during Friday’s pre-match press conference.
Today Sarri meets the Bianconeri again for the first time since his sacking and will be looking to get his revenge.
“This team is untrainable”, say what you want about Sarri or any other manager of Juve but currently, that is the ABSOLUTE truth. You can probably only find 4 or 5 matches in the past 5 years that actually showcase the manager’s intended playstyle and philosophy.
It’s easy to sack a manager, but the players remain the same and until Juve sort that out, we will enter a period similar to Milan and Inter of the last decade where they only looked to blame the managers and not the playing staff.
On paper, this team is good enough to fight for top 4, but mentally these players are checked out. Only the new arrivals like Locatelli and McKennie actually look like they want to be here.
But people have been saying this since Allegri left the first time and it hasn’t changed, and it probably won’t in the future as well.