Luciano Spalletti admitted Juventus produced an “inferior” performance in their 3-0 Serie A defeat by Lazio and said he was surprised by the display.
Spalletti watched from the stands at Allianz Stadium while serving a touchline ban, with Marco Domenichini taking charge. Juventus were unable to respond as Oliver Provstgaard headed Lazio in front after 37 minutes and Gustav Isaksen doubled the visitors’ lead with a fine finish in the 66th minute.
Fisayo Dele-Bashiru completed the scoring after an excellent run and finish, a victory that moved Gennaro Gattuso’s side level on points with league leaders Inter.
The result leaves Juventus eight points off the pace after seven matches. It was also the first time since Lazio’s 4-1 win at the Olimpico on 18 March 2001 that Juventus had lost by at least three goals to them in Serie A.
Juventus have now lost two of their past five home league matches, alongside two wins and one draw. They had suffered only two defeats in their previous 44 such games, winning 24 and drawing 18.
The Bianconeri have collected 11 points from their opening seven fixtures, failing to exceed that total for the third time in the past 11 seasons. They also had 11 points in 2021-22 and 10 in 2022-23.
“It was certainly an inferior Juventus, a team that did not control the game, nor have ideas on where to take the game,” Spalletti told DAZN Italia.
“It’s hard to explain it even to ourselves, because we returned at 4am on Friday from Vigo, then let the players recover with the physical performance staff.
“We tried to change a few things. There were six new players, but we were slow both in legs and mind.
“In football, you can see the opponents, you can see the ball, and if you are too slow to react, show no heart or rhythm, tactics and systems become irrelevant.”
Juventus supporters jeered the team off at full-time. Lazio have won away against Juventus by at least three goals only three times in Serie A history, following 3-0 victories in March 1964, May 1995 and Sunday’s match.
Juventus created little in the final third, recording an expected goals total of 0.74 from nine shots. Only two efforts were on target, testing Christos Mandas.
“Without tempo, without ideas, without running, without the desire to work hard, and when there is fragility in duels, letting heads drop when things aren’t working, those are all things I did not like,” Spalletti added.
“The important thing is to show a reaction, not abandon yourself to events. Our careers aren’t just down to luck, we’ve got to fight for those opportunities.
“We are forced to learn that lesson. There are youngsters today who fight and others who let themselves fall down at the first stumble, but every person has a different character.”
Juventus’ 11 points are one fewer than they had at the same stage last season under Igor Tudor, while Thiago Motta had collected 13 after seven games during his brief spell in charge.
“Clearly, we need to analyse and there are only two possibilities. We can either discuss the way we talk to the team, or the working method,” Spalletti said.
“Something has to be modified, evidently. I was surprised by this performance too, so I need to think hard about it, because I haven’t changed my way of talking to the players. They will recognise themselves that what we did today is not good enough.”
