Mauricio Sarri laments 'bad game' as Juventus fall to Napoli | OneFootball

Mauricio Sarri expressed his disappointment following his Juventus side’s ‘passive’ display in their 2-1 defeat to Napoli.

It was Sarri’s first time facing his former club since taking over at the Old Lady.

He missed the reverse fixture that Juve won 4-3 in Turin last August due to illness at the time.

It was Napoli who produced the more Sarri-ball performance on Sunday to hand Juve just their second league defeat of the season.

“We were passive for the entire match, thought we could play with a slow tempo, taking five touches, always distant between areas, extremely bland,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.

“It was a bad game, we had the wrong approach, intensity and psychological interpretation, which was followed by physical interpretation. This cannot be us, evidently.

“We put Napoli into a situation where they only had to do the bare minimum to beat us.

We were always late to every ball.

“It was as if we were in slow motion and nothing worked, it was all through the team.”

Despite the loss, Sarri did little to hide the affection he still holds for his home town club, where he spent three seasons in charge before leaving for Chelsea.

“I am happy for the lads, as I will always be fond of them.

“If you have to lose, I guess I’d rather it be here to help Napoli get out of their current problems.

“I’d rather they started winning next week, of course.”

Juve will look to get back to winning ways at home to Fiorentina next weekend.