Juventus 1-2 Sassuolo: 3 takeaways from Juve’s stunning last-gasp defeat

1. On-field mistakes and Juventus are far behind in the title race

Ever since the 3-2 victory over Sampdoria, Juventus haven’t scored more than one goal in a single game. And if we talk about Juve winning games convincingly, that hasn’t happened many times this season — barring the Malmo victory. Yes, that bears the worrying sign for Bianconeri, and Allegri acknowledged that in his post-match interview.

As quoted by the @BianconeriZone Twitter, Allegri said,

"“One goal per game is not enough. We need balance. Tonight is a defeat that hurts but that makes us think. We can never lower our attention, this year more than ever, in order to achieve results, we need to do much more than what we are doing.”"

In terms of goalscorers, Alvaro Morata and Paulo Dybala were lined up as the two frontmen for Juve on Wednesday against Sassuolo. Since returning from injury, Morata has not found his best self in front of goal, missing a couple of chances in the opening quarter of the game. After those chances passed, there was nothing to mention from him.

Paulo Dybala, on the other hand, was instrumental. In the first half, his shot striking the upright was the closest Juve came to breaking the deadlock. He created a plethora of chances, three of which were key passes, according to Sofascore.com. He sent in the cross, from which McKennie scored his first goal of the season. While Dybala was playing his regular role of controlling the game, the Juve midfield looked confused.

Having missed some games due to injury lately, Rabiot was another returnee in Juve’s starting XI on Wednesday evening. He looked totally out of pace and consequently got subbed off at half-time, making way for Juan Cuadrado, who looked attentive but was unable to impress the spectators massively. Manuel Locatelli and Matthijs de Ligt were not at their best either, with them allowing Davide Frattesi to have a free run at the goal for the opener.

There were also loads of miss passes made between the Juve defenders and midfielders. Leonardo Bonucci was culpable of losing possession nine times against Sassuolo. As such, it was overall a puzzling performance from the men in black.

Now, where has that left Juventus in the points table? At the end of the tenth round in the 2021/22 Serie A campaign, Juventus are seventh with 15 points from ten games, meaning a gap of 13 points has already taken shape between the Old Lady and the table-toppers. It would be an extremely tough task to catch and then surpass them – despite the primitive stage of this season’s competition.