Claudio Marchisio: ‘Juventus players don’t know what it means to wear the shirt’

Former Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio believes managerial upheaval and a shortage of players who “understand what it means to wear the shirt” are to blame for the Turin club’s struggle to recapture past glories.

Seventh in Serie A following Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Napoli and languishing at 23rd in the Champions League standings before the visit of Cypriot champions Pafos on Wednesday night, Juventus are without a league title since 2020.

In late October, former Italy manager Luciano Spalletti became the club’s third full-time head coach since last summer, succeeding Igor Tudor after the Croatian was sacked seven months into his reign following an eight-game run without victory. Tudor was himself a replacement for Thiago Motta, who completed just seven months of the three-year contract he signed in June of last year after taking over from Massimiliano Allegri.

A turbulent period in the dugout has been compounded by uneven recruitment and upheaval in the boardroom, and Marchisio is of the view that the malaise at his former club has deep roots.

‘How many times have Juventus fired a coach in the first few months?’

“The team’s construction has been going wrong for two or three years,” he told Gazzetto dello Sport. “How many times in its history has Juve fired the coach in the first few months? And how many times has the management been changed after a year?”

“In my opinion, you can’t spend so much money every year, changing so many players. You have to recognise your level and change little, not reshuffle everything. You need to give the project solidity, and that hasn’t happened for a few years.”

Marchisio, who joined the club as a seven-year-old and went on to win seven Scudetti with the club across the course of almost 400 appearances, called out the attitude of the players and said all could be contributing more. The former midfielder singled out the performances of Jonathan David, the Canada international who joined this summer from Lille, as a symptom of the club’s wider problems.

‘We need something more from everyone’

“We need something more from everyone,” said Marchisio. “It seems to me that there are players who haven’t understood what it means to wear the Juventus shirt. 

“Jonathan David comes on the pitch and trots: you’re in a difficult situation at Juventus, there needs to be a different attitude. This is what the fans see today: many aren’t giving everything they need.”

Marchisio backed Spalletti to pull Juventus out of its tailspin, although he admitted that he feared for the club’s prospects of qualifying for the Champions League.

He also expressed disappointment that did not make a move for Gianluigi Donnarumma when it became clear that the Italy goalkeeper, who has since joined Manchester City, would leave Paris Saint-Germain. The 39-year-old likened it to the club’s failure to sign another Italy international, Davide Frattesi, who joined Inter Milan from Sassuolo on a season-long loan two summers ago before signing permanently.

“You shouldn’t have let him slip away, like Frattesi, on an Italian journey,” said Marchisio. “Now, in the locker room, who’s going to tell you what Juve is?”