Spalletti is struggling to make Juventus understand football has changed, and Genoa beat them 2-0

Luciano Spalletti’s first words after Genoa 2-0 Juventus were an apology to the fans. His most revealing ones came a little later. “What worries me is that I am struggling to let the players understand football has changed,” the Juventus coach said on Wednesday night in Genoa.

Both goals came inside the first 28 minutes at the Luigi Ferraris. Kingsley Ehizibue opened the scoring in the 12th minute, meeting Tommaso Baldanzi’s cutback with a shot that took a big deflection off Andrea Cambiaso and flew into the top corner. Baldanzi got the second himself, tapping in at the end of a quick Genoa counter.

Juventus actually finished with the better expected-goals figure, 1.28 to Genoa’s 0.97, but most of that came late and none of it went in. Pierre Kalulu missed from close range around half-time, and Teun Koopmeiners hit the crossbar near the end.

Eighth, and 11 points off the top

The defeat is Juventus’s third in nine Serie A games, and it came three days after a 2-0 win at Lecce that was supposed to have steadied things. A week before that, Lazio won 3-0 in Turin.

Juventus are eighth on 14 points, level with Napoli. Inter and Lazio share the lead on 25, so the gap to the top is already 11 points before November.

For Genoa it was a first win over Juventus since 6 May 2022, ending a run of six league games against them without a victory. Daniele De Rossi made six changes from Genoa’s previous win, and ANSA still called his side practically perfect. It was their third home league win in a row, something Genoa had not managed since early 2025.

“There was no fight”

Spalletti did not hide behind the xG. He told DAZN Italia his side had to apologise “first and foremost” for the performance, and admitted Juventus had helped Genoa with both goals.

“We didn’t put in enough all over the pitch and now we’ve got to see if these players even have what is needed,” he said. “Admittedly, there wasn’t enough, there was no fight.”

He also pointed at the calendar. With games every few days, he said there was no time to train and “very few alternatives, so the fatigue piles up”. That is a fair point about October’s fixture list, but it sits uneasily next to his own verdict that the players lost the battles that do not need training.

Napoli next, of all teams

The fixture list has not done him any favours either. Juventus host Napoli on Sunday, 1 November, and Spalletti won the Scudetto there. “If you manage to win a Scudetto, naturally that is magnified by a thousand,” he said of facing his old club.

The two sides are level on 14 points, so whoever loses on Sunday drops further off the pace. Spalletti asked for time after Genoa. Losing at home to the club he won the title with would leave him with very little of it.

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