Chiellini: ‘Juventus want Tudor to continue, there is no crisis’

Juventus director Giorgio Chiellini insists the club ‘wants nothing more’ than for Igor Tudor to continue in the role and there is no ‘crisis’ within the Old Lady.

The match with Real Madrid kicks off at the Estadio Bernabeu at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Atalanta-Slavia Prague on the Liveblog.

“We as Juventus have some very positive memories of Real Madrid, some negative too, but every era is different and it’s tough to compare them,” Chiellini told Sky Sport Italia.

The tension is palpable in the Bianconeri camp after going a month without a single victory between Serie A and the Champions League, to the degree that there are multiple reports Tudor is on the verge of being fired.

“A lot has been said and written this week that is not true. Igor is the Juventus coach and we want nothing more than for him to continue. People wrote about supposed bad relations, but like all families there are discussions, sometimes you agree and sometimes you don’t, but you keep going together,” insisted Chiellini.

Tudor reportedly surprised Juventus by ranting against the calendar that they have been dealing with so far this season.

“It has been a tough fixture list and we could’ve had a few more points, but we are clear-headed in analysing this moment,” added Chiellini.

“There is a big game tonight that is separate from the dynamics of Serie A, after that we’ll have matches against Lazio, Udinese and Cremonese where we’ll dive into a different atmosphere eager to pick up some of the points we’ve dropped along the way.

“Naturally, we expected to have a few more points, but that’s a long way from calling this a crisis.”

The Juventus chief was also asked if the club had pressured Tudor to continue playing Teun Koopmeiners after the huge investment made last season or contract rebel Dusan Vlahovic.

“The coach is free to make his choices, we never talked about getting value out of players based on their contracts. Tudor has our support, we never pressured him into making any choices. He picks his team, we hope it is the right one this evening, but the attitude is more important than the starting XI. This is a team that needs to feel confidence and some certainty, unfortunately in these last few games we lost some of the confidence and solidity that Igor had helped create over the summer, but once those return then the results will arrive as a consequence.”