Luciano Spalletti gave a frank assessment of Juventus’ performance following their Champions League defeat to Galatasaray, admitting that his side regressed both in character and quality during the match.
“We ended the first half badly, but then we dropped off, especially in terms of personality and character,” said Spalletti to Sky after the game. “We didn’t take one step back, we took three.”
Cabal for Cambiaso
The Juventus coach explained his decision to substitute Andrea Cambiaso at half-time, replacing him with Juan Cabal.
“Cambiaso? He risked a second yellow card at the end of the first half,” Spalletti revealed. “If you have a player already booked, you need to manage things with substitutions. Then, after about 20 minutes, we paid the price. They caused us problems, but we contributed to that ourselves — we didn’t realise how dangerous our choices were.”
Defensive Phase and Style of Play
Spalletti stressed the importance of controlling the ball to ease pressure defensively, noting that Juventus lacked the solidity to rely only on physical defending.
“You can lighten the difficulties in the defensive phase if you’re able to play proper football,” he explained. “We don’t have players with the kind of defensive solidity to stop everything. We have to start from the idea of playing, showing that we can manage the match. Otherwise, if we drop below a certain level, we’re always at risk of conceding goals.”
The Error from Thuram and Kelly
The coach was also critical of the mistake made by Khephren Thuram and Lloyd Kelly, which led to one of Galatasaray’s goals.
“I can’t understand this need to always play the ball — to play it inside the pitch to build something,” Spalletti said. “It’s clear that in that moment, he should have cleared it away. If people say you must always play from the back, that’s not true — sometimes you have to get rid of it and lighten the load. I’m one of those who wants to build play, but with ten men, the situation is difficult. If someone picks up two yellows in 20 minutes, everything becomes harder. We’ve gone backwards in several ways.”
Mental Work and Accountability
Looking ahead, Spalletti underlined the need for a stronger mental approach and personal accountability within the squad.
“We must take responsibility for the decisions made during matches,” he stated. “From now on, we need to face up to certain situations. It’s pointless to talk a lot if we don’t act. In this period, we’ve done some good things, but we keep adding our own mistakes. We weren’t yet at our best, and tonight we made things worse — then came the sending-off. Still, we’re here to work, to collect ourselves. We owe answers to our fans, the club, and the city — we must take responsibility.”
Bremer’s Condition
Finally, Spalletti provided an update on Gleison Bremer’s situation. “Bremer needs to be assessed carefully,” he said. “He might have some issues.”
