Fabio Capello labelled Juventus' display in their 3-0 loss to Milan "embarrassing" as the pressure continues to grow on head coach Andrea Pirlo.
Juve's first home league defeat at the hands of Milan since March 2011 leaves them fifth in Serie A and a point off the Champions League spots with three games to go.
Brahim Diaz opened the scoring for the visitors on the brink of half-time and Ante Rebic added a second 12 minutes from time after Franck Kessie had a penalty saved.
Fikayo Tomori rounded off the scoring late on at the Allianz Stadium in a game in which Juve managed only one shot on target across the 90 minutes.
It is the third time in five games they have failed to test the opposition keeper before half-time, with Alvaro Morata and Cristiano Ronaldo touching the ball once in the penalty area between them during the first 45 minutes.
At the opposite end of the field, the Bianconeri have conceded goals in each of their past 11 Serie A games, which is their worst streak since April 2010.
While Capello does not believe Milan deserve any special praise for their performance in Turin, he has questioned whether Juve can currently be classed as an elite club.
"What we saw from Juventus was embarrassing," he told Sky Sport Italia. "In the first half they did not exist. It was the same against Udinese last week.
"They were without ideas and Milan did their part, without having to do difficult things. Juventus tried to press but without aggression and never managed to recover the ball.
"In the first half there was a huge amount of wrong passes. Watching the game, I had to ask, 'are these Super League teams?'.
"The second half was a bit better. Milan's goals unlocked the game and Juve woke up after the missed penalty, but not enough. Gianluigi Donnarumma made only one save."
Having missed out on the Scudetto for the first time in a decade, Juve now risk failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2010-11.
Pirlo insisted after his side's sixth league loss of the season that he has no intention of stepping down, with club officials reportedly discussing his future on Monday.
Capello, who both played for and managed Juventus, believes Pirlo has to take responsibility for confusing his players with a change of system.
"Juventus' problems are in midfield. Ronaldo did not have the service and [Giorgio] Chiellini is the only player who played some throughballs," he said.
"It should not possible that Chiellini is the key man in midfield. There has been confusion from the beginning – they started with a three-man defence then changed.
"The players feel the coach does not have clear ideas. They smell the situation and find it difficult to follow him. Juventus need a clear direction to improve."
Juve are back in action on Wednesday with a trip to Sassuolo.
'When's it going to stop?' – Ref Support chief calls for end to 'silent' response to officials abuse
Football's governing bodies must do more to protect referees amid a "considerable rise" in abuse that has often been met with a "silent" response.
That was the message from Ref Support chief executive Martin Cassidy, who referenced issues with Bruno Fernandes, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Andrew Robertson in the Premier League this season.
Fernandes appeared to make contact with an assistant referee in Liverpool's 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United, while Mitrovic was banned for eight games after pushing Chris Kavanagh.
Robertson was another involved in an altercation with an official, when assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis seemingly made contact with the Liverpool left-back with his elbow, though the official faced no further punishment after an investigation.
A couple of seasons earlier, former Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero came under scrutiny for placing his hand on the shoulder of assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis during a home victory over Arsenal.
Cassidy believes the response to the rise in these issues has been inadequate, calling on the likes of the League Managers Association (LMA) and Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) to do more.
He told Stats Perform: "From a domestic point of view, what's been going on over here with the situations that [there has been] a considerable rise in contact with match officials from what's happened with Sian Massey-Ellis, Bruno Fernandes, Mitrovic, Robertson – it’s on the rise.
"When's it going to stop? And there are people who are silent on this who shouldn't be silent on this – the LMA, the PFA and even the Football Supporters' Association, they're all quiet on this, they comment on everything else.
"They will talk all these white papers and governments, and they tweet about enough is enough about things [that are important] to them, but they never come out and publicly condemn their behaviour by their members.
"The LMA never do it. We wrote to them, and we got a very benign, weak response. [The] PFA never say anything about the behaviour of their players – their members.
"Certainly, there never seems to be any stance from supporters associations who really want to stand up and say: 'Look, we are going to do something here, what's the protocols, what's the code of conduct for managers in the LMA, what is the code of conduct for a professional footballer with regard to how they behave with these post-match comments here?'
"So, there are a lot of silent people here who need to step up like the FA have in this country. When these people criticise the FA, the LMA and the PFA need to look at themselves and say what they are doing to address the situation that's caused directly by their members."
Cassidy acknowledged the problems span wider than English football, with the ill-tempered Europa League final between Roma and Sevilla marred by abuse of referee Anthony Taylor after the game.
Aside from refereeing issues, the ongoing racially motivated problems with Vinicius Junior and Spanish football continue – and Cassidy believes UEFA must improve.
"UEFA hasn't really got a good track record on what they've done with racism," he added. "So, they have been quite weak on that really and very erratic.
"Look at what has happened in Spain, they haven't really taken control of that. So, I'm not very hopeful that they'll respond to this in a manner that football wants it to respond to, but hopefully they prove us wrong.
"UEFA does, in particular with the UEFA foundation, some wonderful stuff. But when it comes to stuff like this, they don't seem to – look at what happened in the Champions League final last year, Liverpool-Real Madrid – they never really covered themselves in glory there.
"Let's take this opportunity, UEFA, let's make the game better. Let's come out hard and tough and let's send a message that this behaviour is totally unacceptable in our game."
Rodri insists Man City have learned from past failures in Champions League
Manchester City have learned from past failures in Europe as they prepare to face Inter Milan in the Champions League final, according to Rodri.
City were beaten to the trophy in 2021 by Chelsea after a 1-0 defeat in Porto before throwing away a late lead to crash out against Real Madrid in the semi-final a year ago.
It leaves Europe’s top competition as the only major honour the club has yet to land, but they go into next Saturday’s meeting with the Serie A side in Istanbul as firm favourites to complete an historic treble.
The second leg of that feat was achieved with a 2-1 victory against Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday, with a goal in either half from Ilkay Gundogan sealing the win and adding the cup to the Premier League title they won in May.
With Europe’s biggest prize having continued to elude them, Rodri pointed to last month’s sensational win against Real in the last four as confirmation that the team can right the wrongs of previous seasons.
“As I tell you before, we try to learn a lot from the past,” he said.
“It’s something you learn and I think the desire…how we played Real Madrid, for example, before a defeat there last year, so we’re going to play in the same way, trying to solve the situation, come back from the situation and try to win the final.”
The 4-0 victory at the Etihad against the reigning European champions that sent them to Istanbul saw City at their dazzling best, Bernardo Silva scoring twice together with goals from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez to complete a 5-1 aggregate win.
It was in stark contrast to the feeling surrounding the club as they were eliminated by the same opponent at the same stage the previous campaign, letting a two-goal aggregate lead slip in the final minutes at the Bernabeu before losing in extra-time.
“I think that the experience is a very good point,” said Rodri. “Also the players that came in make a massive impact to give us extra every year. I think that the squad in general, you learn as a group. We try to innovate and push ourselves to the minute every time.
“I think Pep said that you will not be ‘big, big’ if you don’t win in Europe. It’s the exam we have to pass again. Another final and we are ready, that’s all I can say. I’m just going to push the guys to be ourselves. Be confident, be ourselves and try our best and fight for the final.
“We have a squad of 23 players and all of them have been important at some part of the season. The team wins trophies and the 23 were part of this from the first round until the end in the Premier League, the same in the Champions League to have into the final. The team is so important.”
Fred is yet to talk to Erik ten Hag about future at Manchester United
Erik ten Hag is yet to speak to Fred about his Manchester United future with the midfielder about to enter the final year of his contract.
The Brazil international has played 35 times in the Premier League this season and started United’s 2-1 FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, but said afterwards that he is unsure about his future at Old Trafford.
This season has been by far the 30-year-old’s best campaign in terms of appearances with 56 games across all competitions.
He has played a key role as United have returned to the Champions League after a season away, as well as winning the Carabao Cup in February.
Ten Hag’s team were defeated by their city rivals on Saturday, thwarting them in their bid to win both domestic cups and stop City’s charge towards the Treble in its tracks.
“Of course I always want to be playing, to be helping my team and gladly today I started and I think we played well,” said Fred.
“(About my future) I still don’t know, I have to talk with my family, I still have one year left on my contract here. Now it’s holidays time and a good opportunity to rest. I’ll talk to my staff, to the club and see what’s everyone’s decision.”
Fred joined United for £47million from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018 but struggled to win a regular place in the side during his first season.
In all he has scored 14 goals in 213 games for the club, and during his time at Old Trafford has nailed down a place in the Brazil squad. He currently has 32 international caps and played for his country at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
He added: “I do have to talk with Ten Hag as well, he’s the manager and the conversation has to involve everyone. We have to see how next season will pan out.
“I want to be important, I want to help the team, so we’ll see. But I’ve always been and still am very happy at Manchester United.”
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