Allegri's plan works for Lang but not yet for Neres

In the hours since Napoli's 3-0 win over Frosinone, two contrasting stories have emerged under the same heading: Allegri's handling of Lang and Neres. Lang got his minutes, and he scored: his goal in the 32nd minute, his second in Napoli colours, closed out the game after De Bruyne's penalty in the 29th. Neres, by contrast, has not started since — left out despite being in contention on the eve of the game for the same attacking shirt that Lang kept until the final whistle.

Before this season, Lang was talked about mainly for a disciplinary exclusion, an episode that weighed on him for months more than his technical ability did. Now he is building up minutes, trust and a goal that mattered — even if in Italy he has not yet shown everything he showed at PSV, where he was a winger capable of deciding games on his own. Watching his recent performances, the sense is that Allegri's management could be the right opportunity for him to become that type of player again: unplayable, not just useful.

For Neres, the picture remains far less settled. Nine months without a starting shirt before this season left a heavy void for a winger who, in December, showed his most dangerous version in the 2-0 win over Bologna in the Italian Super Cup. That level has since become more a memory than a fact: against Frosinone he lost the straight battle for a starting place too, and Allegri chose someone else.

Two different standards

Here the distinction deserves no softening: talking about an Allegri cure for both players after a single match puts a decisive goal and zero minutes played on the same level. Lang took his trust on the pitch; Neres is still waiting for his, and the responsibility for when that moment comes belongs to whoever picks the starting eleven — Allegri — not to the player left on the margins.

The next test is not the league: it is Villarreal, on Tuesday 13 October at 21:00 CET (20:00 UK, 15:00 ET) at the Estadio de la Cerámica, in the second matchday of the Champions League league phase. Napoli go into it off the back of an opening 0-1 defeat to Arsenal, with a need for European redemption felt around the club as much as any other target this season. It will be there, rather than in analysis written beforehand, that the real answer emerges: whether Allegri's approach works for one of the two wingers, or for both.