Luciano Spalletti Faces Pressure at Juventus After Sassuolo Draw
Luciano Spalletti is already under siege in Turin, and it’s only September.
The wild, chaotic finale against Sassuolo – a match where Juventus somehow managed to score and still concede twice in stoppage time – has lit the fuse. The Allianz crowd did not hide its frustration, with sections of the fanbase openly calling for the return of Antonio Conte, the club’s old standard-bearer of discipline and certainty.
Inside the club, though, the message is very different.
Carnevali closes ranks around Spalletti
CEO Giovanni Carnevali moved quickly to defend his coach, using his appearance on Radio Anch’io Lo Sport to draw a clear line.
“Changing the manager frequently is not in my MO. I'm not considering it at all. We must plan and build,” he said, stressing continuity over panic. “There'll be some disappointments along the way, but also some satisfactions eventually. Spalletti is an extraordinary coach, one of the absolute best for how he works on the pitch.”
It was a firm backing, not a lukewarm vote of confidence. Carnevali underlined that the club’s assessments are “constant,” but insisted that decisions must be rooted in a clear idea.
“You must know what you're doing. I've been here for three months, and we tried to understand the opportunities and the possibilities. We need a bit of time. We must forge ahead without dwelling on what has been done in the past.”
The subtext was obvious: this is a new project, and it will not be torn up after a handful of games and one disastrous stoppage-time collapse.
A shared plan blown apart by injuries
According to Corriere dello Sport, Spalletti has not been a passive passenger in this new era. He and the revamped management reportedly worked side by side in the summer, aligning on every signing with a clear tactical blueprint in mind.
The idea was simple and ambitious: a credible 4-2-3-1, with two solid options in every role, depth across the board, and a squad built to dominate rather than simply endure. Juventus spent heavily to assemble it, and crucially, they did so without cashing in on any major departures.
On paper, it looked coherent. On the pitch, that plan has been ripped up by early, serious injuries.
Key absences have forced constant reshuffles, robbed the side of rhythm, and left Spalletti searching for reliable reference points in both phases of play. The structure he and the hierarchy imagined has barely had a chance to exist.
Not a crisis, but no time to waste
Spalletti has cut a subdued figure on the touchline in recent weeks, his team drifting through spells of games without authority. The end of the Sassuolo match was not just bad; it was abominable for a club that prides itself on control and game management.
Even so, a coaching change now would be wildly premature. Juventus are not in full-blown crisis. The table does not yet scream emergency. But the warning signs are there, and Serie A does not pause to let anyone catch their breath.
This group needs new leaders to emerge, both technically and mentally. They need a fresh internal hierarchy, a different balance, a version of the 4-2-3-1 that works even with half the original cast missing. They need it quickly.
Conte, by all accounts, is not the type to walk into a job mid-season. His name, though, hangs over the club like a storm cloud. Every dropped point, every late collapse, every flat performance will drag that shadow back into the conversation.
Spalletti still has the backing of his CEO and the blueprint he helped design. The question now is simple: can he turn that into a team that looks like Juventus before the calls for Conte become impossible to ignore?
