“Lacking the right attitude” – The three Juventus stars who enraged Thiago Motta revealed | OneFootball

Juventus coach Thiago Motta was absolutely furious with his players following the Coppa Italia elimination at the hands of Empoli.

Khephren Thuram’s second-half strike was only enough to register a disappointing 1-1 draw after 90 minutes, thus taking the contest to penalty shootouts. The brave Tuscans kept their composure to score four out of four, while Dusan Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz failed to convert for the Old Lady.

Therefore, Motta was livid after the contest. He insisted he was ashamed of the performance, urging his players to feel the same.

“You can misplace passes, you can miss shots. But you can’t lack the correct attitude. It was a very important game for us and we got it completely wrong,” said the former Bologna coach in his post-match comments.

While Motta thankfully didn’t mention any names, he was obviously infuriated with the demeanour of some of his players.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Giovanni Albanese, the manager was displeased with three Juventus stars in particular.

The first was obviously Teun Koopmeiners who endured another miserable showing in the middle of the park. Motta also mentioned how he was disappointed with his players who kept passing the ball back to Mattia Perin rather than advancing the play, and this seems to be a direct reference to the Dutch midfielder who was guilty of several uninspiring back passes.

As the source notes, Motta could have spared Koopmeiners the fan’s backlash by hauling off at half-time, but instead hooking him at the 55th minute. Hence, the former Atalanta man was forced to leave the pitch under a wave of boos.

Albanese also mentions Nico Gonzalez who squandered an early chance with a complacent finish. He also received a raucous reaction from the fans upon his exit.

The last name on the list is Vlahovic who failed to inflict the damage upfront and also scuffed the first spot-kick wide in an ominous fashion.