Juventus manager Thiago Motta admitted that his side were in “a difficult time” as the Bianconeri played out yet another draw, 2-2, at home at Bologna on Saturday.
In his post-match press conference, Motta reflected; "It's clear that it's a difficult time because there's not enough time to work and these are situations that we can improve.
“Indicatively, I would really like our defence to be able to slide outside and that the midfielder can stay in position. We can do it well because we have high-level players to improve in every aspect of the game.”
Bologna had taken the lead on 30 minutes, when Dan Ndoye got himself onto a slide-rule pass from Emil Holm. He fired the ball into the roof of the net at the near post, with Perin helpless after anticipating him going for the far post.
Thiago Motta’s reunion with the side he led to their first Champions League qualification last season went from bad to worse after the restart, when the manager was shown a straight red card for dissent.
Motta had already been warned in the 37th minute, after complaining about a one-way approach in the officiating to the match director.
In the 52nd minute, the coach challenged the whistle's decision to book Juve full-back Marc Rouhi, leaping off his bench and vehemently protesting. Referee Matteo Marchetti thought his actions were excessive, immediate sending him off.
On the red card, Motta admitted post-game; "Marchetti was right and he was right to expel me. I made a gesture that I had to avoid, the expulsion is right. I complained and exaggerated."
Moments later, it was 2-0 Bologna when Federico Gatti was sent to the shadow realm, nutmegged by a back heel from Santiago Castro. The ball fell to Tommaso Pobega, who dinked the ball over Perin to double Bologna’s lead.
Nine minutes later, managerless Juve gave themselves a lifeline as Teun Koopmeiners grabbed his first goal for the club to reduce the deficit. Francisco Conceicao sent Danilo down the right hand side. Danilo pulled himself back from the by-line, passing it off to Koopmeiners to fire into the roof of the net from 12 yards out.
Juventus turned up the heat with twenty minutes to go, finally getting an equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time. Vlahovic found Samuel Mbangula on the edge of the box. The Belgian then took a touch, curling a beautiful right-footed effort into the far top corner to rescue a point and keep Juventus’ undefeated streak alive.
Asked about his first goal after the game, Koopmeiners gave a downbeat assessment stating; “I can't be happy just because of my goal, for me it's important to win so I can't be happy today.
“Not just me, but the whole team performed well in the last 20 minutes: we have to play the whole 90 minutes like that, because when we can attack with energy, we make passes forward and press in the right way in defence. We must aim to play like the last 20 minutes, that's very important.”
“We know that only 20 minutes is not enough, we have to control the game from start to finish. Dusan is dangerous outside the box and inside the box, I can also create an assist or a goal like today, it's one of the many ways we can help the team.”
This was Juve’s fourth draw in a row, with the club sitting in sixth place in Serie A, eight points behind leaders Atalanta. Napoli are able to regain top spot and stretch the gap to nine points with a win tonight at home to Lazio.
Asked about the season so far, Motta explained "I don't like to judge the work of others, imagine mine, I leave it to you, I respect your opinion, I continue to work with great need to improve our level.”
Juventus welcome struggling Manchester City to the Allianz Stadium on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League.