Juventus made a significant investment at the start of the season to bring Douglas Luiz to the club, identifying the Brazilian midfielder as one of the finest talents available in Europe. As part of a wider effort to rejuvenate the squad under a new manager, the Bianconeri committed both financial resources and two players to secure Luiz’s signature, signalling their belief in his ability to strengthen their midfield options.
Luiz had just concluded an impressive campaign and arrived in Turin with high expectations. He was eager to take the next step in his career and welcomed the challenge of playing for a club with Juventus’s stature. However, his time in Italy has so far failed to live up to those expectations. His debut season has been marked by a string of injuries that have prevented him from building momentum. Even when fit, his performances on the pitch have largely fallen short of the standard anticipated when he joined the club.
There is growing concern that Juventus may have erred in committing to the deal, given Luiz’s lack of impact. However, questions have also been raised regarding how he has been managed. As cited by Football Italia, former Juventus midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi pointed to a specific example involving Thiago Motta’s handling of the player.
Tacchinardi recalled, “Juventus played against Cagliari just a few days after that handball against Leipzig. Motta was asked if he had spoken to Douglas, but he replied: ‘No, but he had a good attitude in training.’ I immediately thought: ‘Motta doesn’t talk to certain players.’ If you see somebody as one of your players, the next day in training, you try to motivate them. To me, it made no sense, but that was Motta’s approach. Perhaps, Emery made him feel important and texted him every day, saying, ‘You are my best player.’ I don’t think Douglas has forgotten how to play.”
Tacchinardi’s comments suggest that Luiz’s underwhelming performances may not solely be a matter of form or fitness, but also of management style. A player of his quality is unlikely to have lost his abilities entirely, and with the right guidance and motivation, he may still deliver on the promise that led Juventus to pursue him so aggressively.
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OR: Luiz was never the quality player we thought he was, he just had a good season in England. I looked back at the highlights and goals from that time. Honestly, I wouldn’t have bought him based on that. He seems overvalued.
I disagree. Luiz was an excellent midfielder for villa for the previous two years. I watched a lot of him and he was excellent. But what type of player he is and what they wanted him to do is not the same. He doesn’t suit a system that ask him to be tactically savvy. He’s much much more suited to the frenetic pace of the prem. And it’s clear from the get go he and Motta weren’t not getting along. Otherwise how do you explain a 40million dollar transfer with two additional players going the other way, and the first match of the season he isn’t starting and comes off the bench. That was a massive red flag from the get go. He needs to play in Thurams position with a holder next to him like locatelli. But they brought him in to replace locatelli – that was a massive mistake. Also look at Motta saying they shouldn’t have got rid of caviglia, which I completely agree with, who would have been that understudy/rotation for loca. Again much like koopmeiners who has been misused for the whole season, they aren’t being played in the right positions/roles and asked to do the things they are good at. They being played out of position/role and asked to do things they are mediocre at and then we wonder why they are mediocre.
Unfortunately, Luiz only had bad, terrible and horrible games in Turin. He didn’t have a good game.
Motta tried him in at least 2-3 positions, he was a Regista, Trequartista, etc., he was a big disappointment in every position.
I’m also angry with Motta, but we can’t blame him for everything.
Luiz came here in bad shape, and later he was injured more than healthy.
The difference between Koopmeiners and Luiz is that Koppmeiners didn’t just have fun on the pitch like Luiz, but he always fought as if his life depended on it. And he had good and outstanding games too, not just bad ones.
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