Under-fire Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara has been backed by club captain Alessandro Del Piero as pressure mounts in Turin.

Juventus have fallen off the pace after a promising start to the season but now they have fallen to third place in Serie A, eight points behind Inter.

According to football-italia.net, club President Jean-Claude Blanc and the club's patron John Elkann insist they have no intention of sacking Ferrara, but want great consistency from him and a sustained title challenge.

Saturday's Derby d'Italia is already expected to be decisive in determining the outcome of the title race.

"We won't hide. A difficult week awaits us, first Inter, then the Champions League, but we will get out of this difficult moment with togetherness and work," Del Piero told Sky Sport Italia.

"There have been negative moments, the most negative of all came only a few years ago. We rose again from that and we continue to do so today.

"It's the responsibility of everyone and without a shadow of a doubt the players; we have to depend on ourselves. But the beautiful thing in this negative moment that we are going through is that looking each other in the eye we have understood that we are all on the same wavelength and it's this union that makes the difference.

"The Coach is with us and we are with him, the club is also. We are at work. We have to do it. We have to correct many things and prepare ourselves well for this challenge and for the one that comes afterwards," Del Piero concluded.