Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon criticised his team’s “unacceptable” performance as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Sassuolo on Wednesday night.

The Bianconeri have endured a tough start to the 2015-16 season and the loss in Reggio Emilia was their fourth in 10 Serie A matches to leave them in 12th place.

Buffon, 37, refused to blame the summer departures of star names like Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal for Juve’s problems, with the team’s current form a far cry from last season where they were only denied a treble by Barcelona in the Champions League final in June.

“Our first-half display was unacceptable,” Buffon told the club’s official website.

“If we’d been a provincial side, I might have been satisfied with the way we played over 50 minutes with 10 men. But given our objectives here at Juventus, we return home extremely disappointed.

“It’s true that we’ve undergone several changes over the summer, but this argument loses currency when almost everyone is available and we’ve come here on the back of three clean sheets.

“I believe that we’ve a squad made up of 22-23 very good players who can fill in for one another, but we were all at fault tonight.”

Juve had Giorgio Chiellini sent off in the 39th minute with Nicola Sansone’s free-kick securing victory for Sassuolo, but Buffon refused to lay the blame at the door of match official Andrea Gervasoni.

“Referees do not make mistakes on purpose and so I’m not accepting the red card as an excuse,” he added. “It’s very simple, if you don’t win any of your 50-50s or aerial battles and you can’t string together three passes, then that’s no recipe for success.”

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has taken full responsibility for his team’s surprise loss at Sassuolo on Wednesday.

“I am very disheartened by how we interpreted the game,” Allegri told Italian TV channel Mediaset.

“We cannot play the way we did tonight.

“We cannot justify this defeat. We need to grow and be more responsible.

“I’m the first responsible. We need to do better.”

Juve, who clinched their fourth straight scudetto while also reaching the Champions League final last season, have endured a dismal start to the new campaign.

They had gone into the encounter at the Mapei Stadium hoping to win two games in a row in the domestic competition for the first time this season.

“After a tragic and disastrous first half, we had a good reaction after the break and we need to be happy with this,” Allegri said.

“However, we also angry for what we did in the opening half.”

“This was an important game in order not to lose further ground in the battle for the scudetto,” Allegri said. “But we didn’t have the right approach.

“We need to come out of this situation and we will do so by working hard all together.

“Now we must prepare for Saturday’s game before thinking about the Champions League.”

Juve host Torino in tomorrow’s city derby before playing away to Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League next week.

Serie A

Played yesterday

Sampdoria 1
Eder 68;
Empoli 1
Pucciarelli 60;

HT: 0-0. Att: 21,000.
Red card: Diousse (E) 88.