Crushed 4-0 by AS Roma and trailing Serie A leaders AC Milan by eight points, Juventus are asking themselves an unusual question -- what happened to our title-winning defence?

Marcello Lippi's side, winners of the past two Serie A titles, have had the tightest defence in Italy for each of the past four seasons.

But having conceded 25 goals so far in this campaign, they have the worst defensive record of any of the teams in the top eight.

After just 20 games of the season, Lippi's team have already conceded more goals than in their entire title-winning campaign in 2002.

At the Olympic stadium on Sunday, Roma's Francesco Totti and Antonio Cassano tortured the Juve defence throughout the game and their combination of invention and speed proved too much for the central defensive pairing of Nicola Legrottaglie and Paolo Montero to cope with.

Uruguayan Montero had a nightmare game, conceding the penalty shortly after the break which allowed Totti to put Roma 2-0 up and then minutes later getting himself sent off for a crude kick at Totti.

The 33-year-old's lack of pace was frequently exposed and his hot temper, always a problem, left his team 2-0 down and with ten men.

Legrottaglie, who joined Juve from Chievo in the close-season, has struggled to settle in and has never looked as comfortable as during his impressive performances in Verona and with Italy.

The veteran Ciro Ferrara, who will be 37 on Wednesday, watched the match from the bench but it is strange that a club with such huge resources now has such little cover at the back.

WOEFUL DEFENDING

After the woeful defending in the recent 3-3 draw at lowly Empoli, many experts predicted Juve would make a late move in the transfer market to shore up their back line.

It did not happen and Lippi insisted that with Croatian Igor Tudor and the experienced Mark Iuliano, as well as French full back Lilian Thuram, he had plenty of options.

On paper that may be true, but Montero's drastic loss of form and Legrottaglie's failure to raise his game leaves Lippi with little choice but to turn to Ferrara and possibly ask Tudor to drop back from midfield.

Lippi insists that despite the crushing defeat at the Olympic stadium, Juve remain in the title race.

"If there's anyone here who thinks that by losing here we've given up on the title, he should think again. Juventus never gives up," he said.

Certainly the season is far from over and Juve, also in the last 16 in the Champions League, are past masters at making late bursts for the title.

But for the first time in years Juve's defence looks weaker than their rivals.

Roma have the powerful Argentine stopper Walter Samuel and classy Romanian Cristian Chivu at the heart of a defence which has conceded just nine goals in 20 games so far this season.

Milan's pairing of Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini has bags of experience and quality and so far has conceded just a goal every other game.