Juventus Loss to Napoli Highlights Continued Woes for Ailing Serie A Champions

Juventus travelled south to Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo in poor form this weekend, the Bianconeri having won just once in their opening five league games. Those five games had seen them fall 10 points behind early league leaders Inter, and the reigning champions knew they needed to quickly return to form.

Yet they would once again drop points, losing for the third time in a campaign that is looking increasingly like it will be a difficult one to endure. Suffering a 2-1 defeat, Massimiliano Allegri’s men never looked as if they could secure a result, playing badly from start to finish in what was a desperately disappointing performance.

Of course there were mitigating circumstances, with the club’s injury list clearly at the forefront. Summer signings Mario Mandzukic and Sami Khedira were joined on the sidelines by Claudio Marchisio and Stephan Lichtsteiner, while Alvaro Morata was only fit enough to take a place on the bench.

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The quality of that group of players is undeniable, and their absences would weaken any team, while Martin Caceres’ continued health problems led to Allegri once again relying on Simone Padoin as a makeshift full-back.

However, the first four names mentioned are also significant in another area in which the team was lacking on Saturday evening: leadership. Continually talking about the players who left this summer is senseless at this point, but there is no denying that the presence of Marchisio, Mandzukic, Khedira and Lichtsteiner would address—if not fully alleviate—that problem.

All four are proven winners and examples to follow, and watching the side labour against Napoli, that was clearly something the team was sorely lacking here. Without them, Paul Pogba was certainly guilty of trying to do too much, snatching at shots rather than making simple passes and bringing others into the game.

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According to statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com, the 22-year-old was dispossessed a game-high seven times and connected with just 75 percent of his pass attempts. In fact, over the course of 90 minutes and despite having 62 touches of the ball, Pogba made just 32 successful passes.

Beside him, Hernanes—deployed in the centre of the three-man midfield—turned in a noticeably poor display and was directly at fault for Napoli’s second goal. The Brazilian is clearly more comfortable farther up the field, and using him as a deep-lying playmaker is simply not working, the team looking much stronger without him elsewhere.

The performance of Mario Lemina was one of very few positives for Juventus, the young Frenchman netting his first goal for the club and turning in a solid showing that bodes well for the future. Figures from WhoScored show he connected with 89.4 percent of his passes while making four tackles and one interception.

Speaking to Sky Sport Italia shortly after the final whistle, Allegri was in no mood to concede that the campaign was already lost for his side, despite the early lead opened by Inter, and insisted his team could re-enter the title race.

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“I can picture a Juve that will go back to fighting for the top of the table,” the coach said (h/t Football Italia). “I don’t know if we can win the Scudetto, but we must certainly try. We have the Champions League and the Coppa Italia too.”

Returning to European action on Wednesday evening, he and his players must hope to rediscover the form that saw them defeat Manchester City when they take on Sevilla at home. That is followed by another game in Turin, with newly promoted Bologna making the trip to Juventus Stadium in what will now be a high-pressure encounter.

Two wins ahead of the international break would be a huge boost for the Bianconeri, also giving them time to recover some, if not all, of those injured stars and regather themselves for a charge back up the table.