Spalletti Takes Blame as Juventus Lose Control Against Sassuolo

Luciano Spalletti did not hide behind the scoreline or his players after Juventus let a hard-earned comeback slip away at Sassuolo on Sunday. He walked straight into the analysis and put himself at the centre of it.

“It hurts a lot because the guys deservedly turned the game around,” he said, summing up the mood in a dressing room that felt the points had been in their hands. “We lost our balance, and that's something you can't do.”

That word kept coming back: balance. Juventus had chased the win, found it, then watched it disappear as they committed bodies forward in search of more. The intention was clear. The risk, fatal.

Spalletti admitted it was his call.

“The players tried to go and win it. I was the one who pushed them to go and win this game,” he explained. “Perhaps they followed what I asked a little too literally, because in the end we had too many players pushing into the Sassuolo box.”

The game had tilted in Juventus’ favour. Momentum, territory, belief. Instead of managing that advantage, they chased a statement victory and left the back door wide open. Spalletti, though, refused to criticise the mindset of his squad.

“You also have to take the positive intention from the team: we lost because we were giving all we could to win it and not draw,” he said. “Of course, there's definitely some responsibility on our part, but it all came from the desire to go and win the game.”

For a club built on the idea that a draw is rarely enough, that explanation cuts both ways. The ambition matches the badge. The execution did not.

Vicario echoes frustration

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario struck the same chord: pride in the reaction, anger at how it unravelled.

“We’re really disappointed,” he admitted. “I understand the desire to go and win the game because Juventus have an obligation to do that, but we lost our balance and it's something we'd spoken about during the week.”

That last line will sting. This was not a new warning, not a surprise tactical trap. Juventus knew the risk. They walked into it anyway.

“There's regret and anger because the game had turned in our favour,” Vicario added. “We need to be a little more careful because we're a team with a lot of quality.”

Quality is not the question. Control is. And until Juventus learn how to hold a game once they’ve bent it their way, nights like Sassuolo will keep asking the same uncomfortable question of their title ambitions.