Allegri greeted by fans at Salerno airport after 4-1 defeat in Porto

The day after the 4-1 defeat in Porto, the only applause Massimiliano Allegri heard came from Salerno.

The chant was for the coach: "Mister, mister", the Italian way of addressing a manager. Videos circulating online show supporters asking for photos and autographs. Allegri looked visibly strained and kept his voice low, but he did not walk past. He posed for a few quick pictures and then got on the bus.

It was a scene at odds with everything else this week.

The Napoli side that landed in Salerno had lost two in a row. In Turin, Juventus won 2-0, with one Napoli shot on target to Juventus's four. On Wednesday at the Dragão, Porto's stadium, McTominay's goal had it 1-1 at half-time. Porto then scored three times from the 71st minute: Veiga, Kiwior and Aghehowa, the last from the penalty spot. That leaves Napoli on 3 points from 4 games in the Champions League, with Manchester City to come on 24 November. In Serie A they are eighth with 14 points after ten rounds, 9 short of the top-four place Allegri himself set as the target.

A mood you cannot hear outside Naples

In Naples the mood is different. The fanbase is turning on the coach over results and a style of play seen as too cautious. Some season-ticket holders are thinking about staying away from the Maradona on Sunday. From 19:00 on Friday 6 November, the squad will be in a training retreat at the Gli Dei hotel in Pozzuoli until the match. The decision was Aurelio De Laurentiis's.

Allegri is covered by a three-year contract worth €6m net a season until 2029, with no release clauses. He also has the backing of the president, who phoned him after Turin. Porto was his first game back in the dugout after a two-match ban.

We do not know who those fans were, and we have no interest in hunting them down. A photo with a Serie A coach outside an airport is not a referendum. But that is exactly the point. The only warmth Allegri found all week came far from Fuorigrotta, the district around the Maradona, in a place the team ended up only because of a building site. The verdict of the people who live Napoli every Sunday is still the 4-1, and a second half at the Dragão in which the team stopped competing.

The applause that matters is heard at the Maradona. On Sunday 8 November at 12:30 CET (11:30 UK, 06:30 ET), Napoli host Lazio, who top the table with 28 points, exactly double our total. Napoli will be without Di Lorenzo, Olivera, Spinazzola, Favasuli, Buongiorno, Badiashile, Lobotka, Neres, Alisson Santos and De Bruyne, and Marianucci is suspended. Nobody there will be asking for autographs. They will be asking for a performance.