Juventus boss receives dreaded vote of confidence

Juventus chief Jean Claude Blanc gave coach Claudio Ranieri the dreaded vote of confidence on Sunday, a day after the Turin giants lost 2-1 at Napoli.

Brazilian forward Amauri volleyed Juve in front on 61 minutes but the lead lasted only three minutes before Marek Hamsik equalised and Ezequiel Lavazzi hit the winner nine minutes from time to send Napoli top and leave Juve in the bottom half.

Juventus have won only two of their seven league matches this season and in Europe they were held to a 2-2 draw in Belarus by debutants BATE Borisov.

They have not won in their last four league matches, losing to Palermo and Napoli while drawing against Catania and Sampdoria.

It is quickly becomming apparent that this Juve team will not be challenging for top honours this season despite their surprising third place finish last season as a newly promoted side.

But Blanc insists the club will stick by former Chelsea and Valencia boss Ranieri.

“Ranieri? Faith is given one time and the club has already done so,” Blanc told Sky cameras.

“It's a tough time. We've set an objective of returning to winning ways as soon as possible so that our confidence returns.

“I saw an aggressive Napoli, we made some mistakes in defence. We know we have to work hard.

“We also need to take into account the list of injuries, it's not an excuse but we've paid a very high price.”

Juventus did have a host of star names missing including Gianluigi Buffon, David Trezeguet, Mauro Camoranesi, Nicola Legrottaglie and Vincenzo Iaquinta for the match but more worrying was the fact that for the third time in seven league games this season they have lost a lead.

Ranieri also came under fire for his choice of substitutions, in particular replacing forward Alessandro Del Piero with midfielder Paolo De Ceglie midway through the second half with the scores level.

But the coach insisted he had done so with one eye on Tuesday's Champions League visit of Real Madrid.

“There were two reasons: firstly because I wanted to save him for Tuesday's match against Real Madrid and then because my two central midfielders had muscular problems,” he said.

“It hurts me that we're not managing to get results. It's hurting the players too and I've told them that that's the only way they'll be able to manage this situation.

“My team played well for an hour and I didn't see the difference between the team considered to be in good health (Napoli) and the one instead in crisis (Juve).”

Italy centre-back Girogio Chiellini said he couldn't put his finger on where and how things had started to go wrong.

“At 1-0 we didn't seem to be in any problems. Our build up to the match was excellent and then we made mistakes that cost us dearly,” he said.

“If we want to win we have to cut out these mistakes. Juve have never lost so many matches in a row.”