The knives aren’t exactly being sharpened, but they’ve been taken out of the drawer.

The pressure is ramping up on Juventus boss Thiago Motta in the aftermath of their Supercoppa Italiana exit to AC Milan in Saudi Arabia.

The Bianconeri had been leading in the match for the majority of the game, with Kenan Yildiz’s superbly-taken goal in the 21st minute the difference between the two sides. But capitulation followed in the final 20 minutes.

Christian Pulisic converted a penalty he won after racing ahead of Manuel Locatelli inside the box and being brought down by the former Milan midfielder.

Four minutes later and Federico Gatti scored a comical own goal, after Juve goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio found himself in no man’s land, and unable to stop Gatti’s wicked deflection from going in.

The win ensured Milan’s progression to the final of the competition and a derby meeting with Inter, while also ensuring the club will take home at least €5m (£4m) in prize money.

For Juventus, the defeat doesn’t mean the end of the world, but the manner of it, and a lack of ruthlessness, is being questioned by many former players. 

“Juve’s biggest flaw is the lack of obsession with wanting to win matches,” said former midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi. 

“This team is ‘quite’ good too many times, playing well, but getting distracted and then conceding.”

Meanwhile, another former Juve player from the 1990s, Alessandro Birindelli, believes this iteration of the The Old Lady doesn’t have the complete desire to win games yet. 

“The obsession with winning is a habit, it’s the attention to the smallest details from the first minute to the last. It is foreseeing everything that could happen,” stated the former right-back.

“It is a quality that can be trained, and in Juve’s case, must be trained.”

“You have to know how to read the game, and you also have to have that mentality: Playing the ball without taking risks, without risking counter attacks, which in my opinion have become a bit ridiculous,” remarked Angelo Di Livio, a Juve stalwart who perhaps personified the ‘grinta’ that epitomised the great Bianconeri sides of the late 90s.

“Motta’s priority now has to be to get the players who have been out for a long time back to their best condition. From Nico Gonzalez to Douglas Luiz and most importantly (Teun) Koopmeiners.” 

When the summer transfer window closed, many felt Juve had conducted their best business in years. Cristiano Giuntoli had provided his new coach with all the tools necessary to mount a serious title challenge.

Yet it’s those last three names Di Livio mentioned that’s caused the greatest concern. Nico Gonzalez and Douglas Luiz have both barely kicked a ball in Juve colours, with both being injured for large parts of the season, and the Brazilian struggling to adjust to Motta’s demands when fit.

Such has been Douglas Luiz’s lack of playing time — admittedly not helped by injuries — that there’s been constant talk of Juve cutting ties already. The Brazilian is clearly a talented player, but his languidness and lack of intensity simply isn’t going to work at a club where hard work is valued above all.

You also get the impression Motta doesn’t know his best position, and when he’s given the former Aston Villa player minutes, he’s looked lost in Motta’s 4-2-3-1 system.

Gonzalez has performed well in patches, but injuries have blighted his season, and the Argentine winger will find it difficult to usurp Francisco Conceicao from the starting XI.

This brings us to Koopmeiners.

Juve’s biggest signing of the summer, at the expense of some €60m, has so far looked a shadow of the midfielder who was comfortably the best in the league last season for Atalanta. 

Motta can be given a pass for Gonzalez and Luiz, but he’s come in for justifiable criticism for not utilising Koopmeiners correctly. 

The Dutchman did his best work playing in a double pivot alongside Ederson in Bergamo, yet he hasn’t been afforded the chance to play in that role too many times since moving to Juve.

Shoehorned into a No10 role within Motta’s three attacking midfielders, Koopmeiners has demonstrated he’s simply not a 10. Better coming on to the play rather than attempting to build it in the final third, he’s looked lost and has just one league goal to his name in 14 appearances.

More is expected from Koopmeiners, but it’s evident the 26-year-old struggles playing that far forward and needs to be paired alongside Locatelli or Khephren Thuram in midfield.

Yet it should also be remembered that the likes of Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane and Pavel Nedved all struggled in the early months of their Juve careers. Nedved didn’t register a goal until January 2002, six months after arriving.

Juve aren’t losing many games — in fact, the defeat to Milan was the first time Juve have lost against Italian opposition this season — yet they aren’t winning many games neither. 

With Lazio and Fiorentina resurgent this season, there is a real chance of Juve missing out on the Champions League next season, a scenario that would be catastrophic for the club’s already-fragile financial situation.

The lack of a killer touch, with Dusan Vlahovic, like Koopmeiners and Luiz, still struggling to adjust to the new manager’s demands, is undermining progress. 

Vlahovic has a hefty contract, he’s the highest-paid player in Serie A and his reported refusal to take a pay cut means divorce is almost inevitable, either this month or in the summer.

Juve have been linked with saving Joshua Zirkzee from his English nightmare at Manchester United. The Dutchman, of course, worked with Motta at Bologna last season, yet he’s not a goalscorer (11 goals for the Rossoblu in 2023-24 hardly screams prolific), and that’s what Juve need in the second half of the season.

Moreover, a replacement for the injured Bremer has been touted, with Milan Skriniar, Feyenoord’s David Hancko and Fikayo Tomori all linked. 

Reinforcements are needed, in defence above all, yet Motta still has his hands on one of the best squads in the league and there’s little doubt Juve should be doing better.

The chances of a dismissal are slim, and clearly the 42-year-old needs time, but a sense of urgency is beginning to form; a need to bring back the ruthlessness that Juve are famous for. 

The club are 11 points worse off than at the same stage a year ago with Max Allegri in charge. The football might be slightly easier on the eye, but style over substance isn’t the Juve way.

As Juve great Franco Causio said in the aftermath of the Milan defeat: “You can’t buy character from the supermarket. The coach has to bring it to the group.”

And character is what Juve need.