Spalletti: ‘Juventus players must keep their roles, Cagliari sniffed an opportunity’

Luciano Spalletti said Juventus must ‘tip our hats’ to Cagliari following a 1-0 defeat, but also criticised his players for wandering out of their roles in a frenetic fightback.

The coach had suffered only one defeat in all competition since taking charge of the Old Lady, but after winning six of the last seven Serie A games, this was an entirely unexpected result.

Check the Football Italia Player Ratings for Cagliari 1-0 Juventus

They dominated possession in Sardinia, wasting scoring opportunities and punished by a set-play routine, Luca Mazzitelli volleying in the Gianluca Gaetano free kick with his back to goal.

Incredibly, Cagliari won with an xG of 0.16 compared to Juve’s 1.28.

“Cagliari deserved it, because they fought for every ball, closed up and tried to go on the counter. We were unable to be determined enough in preparing the situations, there are games that go like this, we move on,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.

“The substitutes got swept up in the frantic nature of the game. Zhegrova and Conceicao dropped back to get the ball in midfield rather than stay up there, so got too far away from the ‘hot’ areas of the pitch.

“Kalulu and Kelly then started pushing up the flanks, but no, they are defenders and needed to be defending. We can complain about that, players need to stay in their roles, but in general we played our game, suffocated every attempt at a counter-attack. It was destined to go like this, there’s no point crying over spilt milk.

“We needed to be more determined and make more of our chances, but also the free kick where they scored was so unnecessary and they used that opportunity. Maybe next time luck will turn our way, but it’s nothing unusual,” continued Spalletti.

“It is our duty to be so picky with ourselves that we work on the tiniest detail, because they can be decisive for the result. That’s our profession.”

There was an incident in the first half when Juve were awarded a penalty, but it was revoked after the VAR review because Mazzitelli got his foot in front of Fabio Miretti’s to shield the ball.

However, their best chance saw Kenan Yildiz’s scorcher deflected off Yerry Mina to thump the upright.

“Yildiz was unlucky on two or three situations. I saw some moments where the ball had a different spin on it, bounced slightly harder than expected, it’s down to those tiny details in the end,” continued Spalletti.

“These things happen, you tip your hat to your opponents, who brought home a victory that perhaps they didn’t deserve, but sniffed out the opportunity and took it. Maybe next time we can learn from that and sniff out our chance too.”

It had been such a big opportunity for Juventus to put themselves in the Scudetto race, knowing they are set to face Champions of Italy Napoli next weekend.

Instead, they risk falling further behind the top four, especially if Roma get a result away to Torino tomorrow, and are now 10 points adrift of leaders Inter.

Juve don’t have time to feel sorry for themselves, as they have a big Champions League match coming up against Benfica on Wednesday evening.