Juventus understand that they have to “shut up, listen and work” after crashing to a new low with a Serie A defeat at Monza on Sunday, claims assistant boss Marco Landucci.
Landucci was overseeing the 1-0 defeat in the absence of boss Max Allegri, who was serving a touchline ban following his red card from last weekend’s draw against Salernitana. However, Allegri’s number two was unable to help turn the club’s alarming slump in form – they have won just one of their last eight matches in all competitions.
Newly-promoted Monza had picked up just one point from their opening seven league games but were thoroughly deserving of their victory over a shambolic Juve, who had Angel di Maria sent-off in the first half for violent conduct. Chris Gytkjaer’s second half goal secured a deserved victory for the hosts.
Juve have fallen into an early-season crisis; despite a 3-0 opening day win at home to Sassuolo, they have won just one of their following six league outings and have slipped to eighth in the Serie A standings. Furthermore, they have lost each of their two opening Champions League group stage games – against Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica – for the first time ever.
All that has ramped up the pressure on under-fire boss Allegri, who oversaw an overwhelming campaign back in the Bianconeri hotseat last time out. The defeat at Monza was particularly damning and has ramped up the pressure on the coach’s future.
His assistant Landucci said after the game: "When you lose, the fans will complain: we have to shut up, listen and work. It's normal that there are complaints, Juve must do better. It would have been better to play another game immediately but you have to wait for (after the international) break. You have to give a strong signal and definitely do better."
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Landucci continued: “Perhaps the defeat to Benfica was more of a psychological blow than we realised, but again these are excuses and excuses are of no help. Obviously, nobody is happy right now, but in order to emerge from this situation we can only work hard and do better.
“We seem to start well and then stop playing, so the only method is to work and everyone raise their game to work in the same direction. Allegri is suspended and not allowed into the locker room, so I haven’t seen him yet.”
Juventus return to action after the international break with a home game against Bologna on 2 October but it remains unclear if Allegri will still be in the dugout for that clash as fans of the club increasingly call for a change in approach.
