Problems are facing Juventus before the AC Milan game.

The fierce rivalry between these two teams can see either team being labeled as in crisis if either loses on Sunday.

Juve's recent performances have been anything but what you'd expect from the team that had consecutive scudetto wins in the last two years and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League (only to be knocked out by eventual winners Bayern). The midweek game against Galatasaray, which had seen many of Conte's first choices rested the weekend before in a lacklustre derby game was perhaps an even worse performance. Galatasaray played how most teams have against Juventus this seasons- deep, and ready to pounce on the counter attack. Again juventus had problems breaking their opponents down and looked disinterested and lacked the drive and movement needed to really break through the galatasaray line, which has been a problem this season.

Conte faces a challenge finding the right partnership upfront

The system that Conte plays, a 3-5-2 screams out for a target man like Llorente, however the strike partnership of Vucinic and Tevez has been Conte's first choice so far. Vucinic plays as the trequartista or classic number 10 and links up play with the midfield aswell as dragging defenders out of position and creating space, however he was unable to do either midweek and ended up coming off in the first half after picking up a knock being replaced by Quaglirella who put in a solid performance and scoring a header to goal 2-1 up for an extremely short time. Tevez was also non-existent in the first half aside from the last five minutes. He is a 
highly rated striker and rightly so, but although scoring 3 goals this season and being joint top scorer for Juventus, has struggled to find space to fully utilise his skill set and struggles when team play deep. Llorente joined Juventus on a free this summer after a horrid season at Athletic Bilbao that saw him make 26 appearances and 18 being from the bench with only 4 goals in La Liga. He has been chomping at the bit and being to hasty with goal scoring chances but hopefully after his 1st goal of the season he will be more relaxed and able to relax and return to the form he had two seasons ago that made Juventus move for him in the first place.

Pogba put in a largely uninspiring performance on wednesday evening.

The midfield on Wednesday also lacked the movement and drive we saw from them last season, Marchisio is not up to full fitness after a ligament injury left him out of the team for a month so Pogba-Pirlo-Vidal was preferred. All three played with a lack of movement and at times looked dis-interested in the game with many passes completely missing there desired target. Although vidal scored the eventual equaliser from the spot, he gave the ball away at an alarming rate especially towards the end of the match and Pogba lacked his usual drive and ability to find space. Pirlo's performance was largely poor and unable to deal with the pshyicality and only towards the end of the first half when he upped the tempo and played the ball to the flanks did he manage to stretch play and give Juve the dynamism they needed although a goal never came of it.

Unfortunately Lichtstiener had to come off at half time with a injury after a promising end to the half and Asamoah although ending the first half brightly squandered many of his chances in the second. Isla came on for Lichtstiener and put in another dissapointing performance that have accompanied his time at Juventus. His apparent lack of ability to listen to instructions and hug the touchline and lack of awareness led to him giving the ball away and being the main culprit of blame for Galatasary's 2nd goal. At the back Juve suffered from a lack of concentration and Bonucci's botched back pass under minimal pressure along with Buffon getting himself caught in no mans land was to blame for the first goal. The 2nd came extremely quick with te confusion of a formation change and Isla being massively out of position leaving Barzagli defended two players and without a chance.

Myself and many others on twitter will be hoping Llorente starts on sunday

Conte has told media he 'might' play Llorente against AC Milan this weekend seemingly in a move to take advantage or Milan's lack of aerial presence in defense this season. Hopefully Lichtsteiner will be fit as he is a key player for Juve and can really help to stretch the play as well as whip balls into the box for Llorente to hopefully get on the end of. I'm also hoping Marchisio gets the nod ahead of pogba because he has a more defined forward role within the midfield and really helps to bring movement and stretch play creating space along with Vucinic who is also a doubt.

Juventus have being the architect of there own shortcomings at the back this season, however if they can keep their concentration (something which shouldn't be as hard considering the importance of this game) and Bonucci puts in a stellar passing performance like he has a few times already in the league this season having 3 assists, they should be able to come out on top at home aginast a weaker Milan team.