After Thiago Motta’s dire defensive football, the American duo will have new life under a more attacking coachThiago 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 the Bianconeri 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.
