Lazio won 3-0 in Turin, and Spalletti no longer knows whether Juventus still follow him

Luciano Spalletti watched Juventus lose 3-0 at home to Lazio on Sunday night without being allowed near the bench, and he came out of it unsure whether his players are still with him. Asked by DAZN if the team still follows him, he said: “Until yesterday, I thought I could say yes, then today I probably don’t know.”

Lazio went home level on points with Inter at the top of Serie A. Gennaro Gattuso’s side have 19 from seven games, the best start in the club’s history, and only goal difference has them second.

How it went at the Allianz

Spalletti was serving a touchline ban after his altercation with Cagliari’s Fabio Pisacane at the end of the 1-1 draw the weekend before, so his assistant Marco Domenichini took the side. It made little difference who was standing there.

Juventus were whistled off at half-time, and by then they were behind. In the 37th minute Mattia Zaccagni swung the ball in and Oliver Provstgaard, a centre-back, got his head to it between Gleison Bremer and Jhon Lucumí and past Guglielmo Vicario.

The second came in the 66th minute. Nuno Tavares switched play with a long ball to Gustav Isaksen, who came inside past Zeki Celik and curled a left-footed shot into the far corner. In the 89th, with Juventus stretched, the substitutes Andrea Pinamonti and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru broke from deep and Dele-Bashiru beat Bremer to the finish, past Vicario. The fans who stayed to the end jeered the players.

“Slow both in legs and mind”

Spalletti did not hide behind the schedule, though he mentioned it. Juventus had won 2-1 at Celta Vigo in the Europa League on Thursday and got home at 4.30am on Friday. He made six changes. “We were slow both in legs and mind,” he said, and he called it an inferior Juventus that had no idea where to take the game.

What will worry the club more is where he went next. He said either the way he speaks to the players or the way they work has to change, and that he needed to look at his own relationship with the squad. Bremer had already had his say to Sky: he could not carry everyone, he said, and some players hide when they hear the whistles. Spalletti’s answer was that before judging the group, a player should look at his own performance.

Worse than Tudor

The numbers do not help Spalletti. Juventus are eighth on 11 points, eight off the top, with three wins, two draws and two defeats. Igor Tudor had 12 points after seven games last season, and Juventus sacked him on 27 October 2025.

None of that means a decision is coming this week, and the club has said nothing. But when a coach tells the cameras he no longer knows whether his dressing room is listening, the next couple of results tend to decide it for him.

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