Well this certainly could have come at a better time for us, but so be it.

Juve will always be difficult and doubly so at home. I can't see us actually doing a triple over them but it can't hurt to try

No way dude. Just no way. And in their stadium too. I hope we hold on for a draw to take it back to San Siro.

Anyone got lineups? If we repeat the same thing and play Calabria-Gomez plus Pašalić in the midfield it could get very ugly and messy.

Best I can do is a predicted team right now:

Gigio, Calabria, Romagnoli, Zapata, Abate, Berto, Loca, Kucka, Jack, Bacca and Suso.

Zapata starting... Montella doesn't seem all that interested in the Coppa going by this choice

Hmh? He's better then Gomez for sure, yes?

And we concede. What a poor reaction from Antonelli.

Ridiculously easy. Dybala goal

Meh, I've actually been impressed with Gomez considering all the circumstances

Impressed? I think he's very unstable and inexperienced. He has potential, but I would still prefer Zapata over him.

...

We just can't cope atm

Our FBs are getting absolutely run ragged

This Kucka is cancer. His surename speaks for him.

Awful first half. Montella has to shake things up.

And perhaps there's still time in the transfer window to do something about certain positions.

HT. That was simply brutal

We haven't been outplayed like this in a while

Man, Napoli outplayed us. How that match endend 2-1 is beyond me. Just think of the big chances Mertens managed to miss for them.

The midfield is simply clueless atm. Bertolacci is a complete waste of space. Locatelli isn't providing much of anything in terms of ideas or opening up play and Kucka is an accident waiting to happen. He's practically inviting the ref to give him that 2nd yellow

I really liked Sosa against Napoli in the regista role, I'd bring him on and shift Loca to the side. Bring in the new kid and move Bona back into midfield.

Obviously taking off Berto and Kucka

??

We were by far the better team against Napoli for the majority of the game imo

Mertens had a couple of chances on the counter, but we had several guilt edged ones ourselves.

I personally think the Napoli game was one of the best ones we've played in a while now (aside from conceding 2 stupid goals).

That's the biggest battering we've taken in a match for years. It might only be 2-0 but the gulf is easily 6 or 7.

That was absolutely horrific. Montella tactically nowhere, and Juve are like the big kid holding the forehead of the little kid at arm's length as little kid swings aimlessly. Only we're not even aiming.

This is the gulf between us and the best team in Italy - Napoli are a strong side but Juve are streets ahead of even them.

We've been shocking as well, dreadful sideways passing which goes nowhere. A clueless display all round but yet another symptom of the worrying loss of steam I've been warning about for weeks. We just don't HAVE anything to offer. Until we get in some quality new players, this is us for the rest of the season I'm afraid.

No changes... Montella is so slow with the subs

BACCA!!!

BACCA!!!

What a goal!!

Now that was dumb.

Locatelli sent off!!

FFS why go down there!!! You're on a yellow man!

Just when we were about to get into the game...

The chances Mertens managed to miss cannot be compared to the ones we had. We had one good period but afterwards but then lost composure and started falling back to simple crosses and passes that ended nowhere. Napoli were in control and with a bit more precision and determination they could have easily beaten us by a bigger margin.

My money were on Kucka to go off TBF, who would have thought Locatelli was dumber.

Stupid, stupid. And very inexperienced. I guess now we must defend and wait for the last 10 minutes or a counter to equalize perhaps.

Inexperience.

Living on the edge now. Juve should have probably scored twice already

Pasalic for Abate? Why?

I though we will make a double sub, otherwise this doesnt make sense. Maybe Kucka will go at RB or Zapata, but I dont understand this swap.

Who knows.

Kucka almost now.

I honestly dont know why we waste so much energy on a no-worthy competition. Who cares if we advance further ? If we went win second team in this game, even if we lost team morale wouldnt drop even more 'cos we would be prepared to loose, but if we loose with our first team, their morale get's even worse.

Btw Zapata is joke, even I would react faster to that pass than him.

Antonelli

Antonelli instead of letting that high ball get out to the side line, tries to pass with his head in a space that we had no player. Situations like this one, make me reconsider their intelligence.

Bonucci is awesome, he just stood there and said to our 7 "you shall not pass" - just as Juve did to us.

Well Antonelli isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed...

Anyway, FT and we're out

Let's hsift all our focus to the league, starting with Udine, we better not have anymore hiccups or we can kiss Europe goodbye for next season

Locatelli has been pretty weak for some time, more mentally than anything - he's been struggling with the demands of playing for Milan, in such a crucial position, at the age of 19. He can't handle it and tonight that showed.

Oddly enough we really did play better without him, but again those subs are just becoming a joke.

Why take off Bacca when we needed a goal? Why play with NO STRIKER! And why put on Honda with 3 minutes to go?

Starting to lose a bit of faith in Montella now - getting fed up with his uncanny knack of ruining his good work almost every time.

PS Deufoleu had a decent cameo, hope to see more of our 'Everton Reject'

Really? You didn't kiss it goodbye already? It's done buddy, we are NOT making Europe.

This conceding 2 goal thing in the first half trend is simply getting too annoying to quantify now. Why do we seem intent on starting games completely switched off and then wake up when things are too bad to recover from

Montella should have gone with Paletta as well, I don't understand resting him to play Zapata who's been out for months. Antonelli was also absolutely horrific.

Locatelli with his dumb move ruined any chances for us in that second half

He also destroyed Asamoah for pace earlier in the match. He's flawed for sure but he's not at fault for tonight.

No. Antonelli was horrible. Perhaps the worst player overall today.

He thought we will score a goal and then we he would bring Lapadula in for Suso or Bonaventura.

In the other hand he "needed" a debut, so we couldnt switch Bacca with let's say Lapadula. Also we needed more creativity and speed. I relatively agree with Montella on that sub.

As for sending Kucka to RB and Pasalic playing as CMF, bad mistake, I would rather send Zapata to RB and bring a CB instead of Abate.

As for Honda, it was over already. He needed someone who could pass, has physical abilities and also attack if needed, he saw that in Honda.

As for Locatelli, the guy is very young, he has qualities and potential but giving him so much time vs strong teams will damage him more than will serve him good. Did anyone saw 1 on 1 passes with Donna he made in the first half, almost cost us a goal, cos he couldnt react fast and past to the full backs or at least just loose the damn ball.

I think that Bonaventura should get back and play in midfield with Bertolacci and Pasalic/Kucka, while the new player Deulofeu or however his name is play in the left win.

IMO we still are not out of Europe, we just need an injection. But saying "that was a good match, you did good" to players after a loss or a draw will not help at all. Montella should be more tough.

Why should I?

We've had a rough couple of weeks no doubt about that but look at the teams we've faced. Aside from Crotone none of them are what you'd call a walk in the park.

Look we were bound to face struggles at certain points during the season, it's simply unrealistic to expect this team to keep the pace we set up for ourselves during the first half of the season (which was on pace with our last Scudetto winning season btw). We don't have the quality, the depth or the strength in said depth.

If we win the next 3 games in the league (which is doable if we don't mess up) Udine, Samp and the game in hand against Bologna, we're back in business.

There will always be ebbs and flows when you don't have a squad that's as filled with quality to the brim and as well drilled as Juve are (and even they are struggling a bit for consistency this season), we're experiencing a bit of a down turn atm, but I have absolute faith in Montella to turn it around. These last couple of games we've played (against the 2 best teams in the league and a truly dogged Torino side) have shown how resilient this team has become under Montella and how truly ready to fight they are. There were points in that second half when we almost turned it around there against Juve at home with 10 men. Before this season we would have lain down and got absolutely spanked in that type of scenario

I understand your concerns, don't think that I'm not worried about a scenario similar to the one you've painted happening, sure I'm worried that this team has already given all it has to offer and is just running on empty now, but I choose to have a little more faith for now. And if it turns out that I'm wrong, I won't be crushed, it's not like this is the first wasted season we've gone through. We've just been given hope thanks to Montella and the work he's done with this team. Give him a proper squad next season and I'm confident we'll do very well

+1

I think EL is still possible, CL rather unlikely. But we cannot afford to drop more points, especially against "lesser teams". I am concerned about recent results, but Montella has shown he can pull the team back together, and hopefully he will do just that.

+1

I absolutely agree. Coming back to draw against Torino, almost making a comeback against Napoli and Juventus are something we would have not been able to manage in the past 2-3 seasons. I see fighting spirit in our team which was almost non-existent before. This team will not back down easily. I think we will recover in the next fixtures.