Tudor: ‘Juventus in a bad moment, but I don’t care about my future’

Igor Tudor was critical of Andrea Cambiaso and Jonathan David after Juventus suffered a third straight defeat to Lazio, but insisted he ‘doesn’t care about my future.’

Jonathan David made his first start alongside Dusan Vlahovic today, but it was his poor header back that sparked the Lazio goal, handing it straight to Danilo Cataldi for Toma Basic to fire in from outside the area.

Tudor evidently wasn’t happy, as within 10 minutes he had Filip Kostic warming up and was shouting at Cambiaso, who was eventually replaced at half-time.

“Kostic was warming up because I saw Cambiaso was not doing well, but in general the team had the right attitude from the start, apart from Johnny’s error and that goal,” Tudor told DAZN Italia.

“It is a bad moment, a difficult moment, we need to stay united and all work together. There is disappointment, because I think we prepared it the right way, but we are always missing something. We get to the penalty area and then don’t put the ball in the net.

“We also keep telling ourselves don’t make mistakes, but there is always a mistake, and we lose games. We feel terrible, but we have to stick together.”

Check the Football Italia Player Ratings for Lazio 1-0 Juventus

Their biggest problem would seem to be clear, as this was Juve’s fourth consecutive match without scoring a goal, something they hadn’t seen since March 1991 under legendary flop Gigi Maifredi.

“We tried with two strikers from the start, then four attacking players, we tried everything, but are certainly missing something upfront,” confessed Tudor.

The Bianconeri are now without a victory in eight competitive games, having drawn five in a row, followed by three consecutive defeats to Como, Real Madrid and Lazio, their longest negative streak since May 2009.

“We are all responsible. We must try to do better and stay united, we have another game in a couple of days, I think a victory will get us on the right track. It’s a problem if we need four strikers to score and 10 midfielders when defending. It is a problem if someone always makes a mistake.

“As I said, there’s no need to make a drama out of it, we play again soon and need to stay focused.”

Tudor had tried to change things today with Vlahovic and David together, plus Francisco Conceicao out wide, then added Kenan Yildiz at half-time too.

“It was a decision because Kenan needed rest. Johnny and Dusan have goals in their blood, but we put the crosses in and in the final third someone has to put it in the net, otherwise nothing happens and you get punished for every tiny error at the back.”

Cambiaso swapped places with Weston McKennie after 25 minutes, putting the USMNT player in the attacking wing-back role.

“I saw Andrea was struggling with Isaksen and when attacking we wanted him to cover the whole wing, but I didn’t like the way Andrea was interpreting the role. McKennie can cover the wing and Andrea can be a mezz’ala, so I swapped them.”

Juventus have repeatedly said they are backing Tudor, but how long can the coach realistically continue with such poor results, especially as they seem to be deteriorating rather than improving?

“People keep asking me if I feel safe or worried, but I don’t think about myself. I don’t care about my future, what I care about is doing what I can, being aware of all the problems and trying to improve things. My future is of zero interest.”