How Stuttgart Defeat In UCL Highlighted On-Going Issues For Juventus

Juventus fell short in their loss to VfB Stuttgart. (Image credit: Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)

It was bound to happen at some point, but on Tuesday night, Juventus faced their first defeat since Thiago Motta became the head coach. The Brazilian manager had led the team to six victories and four draws in his first ten matches, but he couldn't prevent them from losing to Vfb Stuttgart.

The German team quickly dominated the UEFA Champions League match, with Josha Vagnoman, Ermedin Demirovic, and Deniz Undav all coming close to scoring.

Juve faced a significant challenge with a long list of players unavailable for this match. Nico Gonzalez, Teun Koopmeiners, Gleison Bremer, and Arek Milik were all sidelined due to injuries. Additionally, Michele Di Gregorio was red-carded in their last European match and had to serve a suspension.

Douglas Luiz joined the injured list after hurting himself during the warm-up. However, Stuttgart also had several players unavailable, yet they managed to handle the situation far more effectively than their overwhelmed opponents.

Danilo And Juventus Defense Fall Short Again

This is particularly evident in the defense, as Bremer's ACL injury—which I covered extensively in a prior article—has deprived the Bianconeri of both their top defender and the clear leader of the team.

In the seven matches Bremer played before his injury, Juventus allowed only one goal and achieved six clean sheets. However, after he was taken off the pitch in the game against RB Leipzig, their opponents managed to score two goals. Since then, Juventus has only managed to keep one clean sheet in the three games that followed.

Danilo has seemed quite off his game lately, frequently caught out of position by Stuttgart’s constant pressure. He struggled with inaccurate passes and lost the ball multiple times during a disappointing display.

Besides him, Piere Kalulu was the only one who put in a somewhat decent performance, as the team from the Bundesliga clearly outplayed their opponents. Stuttgart had a total of 22 shots, with 10 of them on target, whereas Juventus only managed seven shots, and just one of those actually tested goalkeeper Alexander Nübel.

Following a second-half goal being ruled out for handball, Juve's Mattia Perin had to be at the top of his game to stop shots from Demirovic and Enzo Millot. However, Danilo committed a foul in the box, resulting in a penalty and his dismissal from the match.

Perin successfully saved the penalty but was ultimately beaten by former Atalanta forward El Billa Toure, who scored from a difficult angle during injury time. While one might argue that Juventus nearly secured a draw despite being down to ten players, that perspective overlooks Stuttgart's significant dominance throughout the match. Motta was keen to emphasize this when he addressed the media after the game.

“Stuttgart definitely earned their win; they outplayed us right from the start,” the Juventus manager confessed to Sky Italia. “We couldn't manage to take control of the match away from them, and when you're not in charge of the game, it becomes difficult.”

"I agree that we have to improve our offensive play if we want to compete with a team like Stuttgart," Motta said. "However, to perform effectively, we must significantly enhance our defensive skills compared to tonight. We let Stuttgart dictate the match, and whenever we regained possession, we found it difficult to create any opportunities and weren't in the right shape to succeed."

"A team needs to focus on solid defense to regain possession of the ball and then utilize it effectively. We struggled when we didn't have the ball, and our offensive efforts mainly consisted of a few counterattacks. We aim to enhance the areas we can and will continue to put in the hard work."

With a significant matchup against Serie A rivals Inter approaching this Sunday, the coach and his team must quickly address their challenges. They find themselves just one point behind Inter, who are in second place, and two points behind the leaders, Napoli. Juventus cannot afford to fall further behind.