Badiashile struggles on Napoli debut as defensive crisis drags on

Allegri's summer plan was built around Rrahmani and Buongiorno, but injuries to both first-choice centre-backs, and a shaky start from the Chelsea signing brought in to cover them, have left Napoli without a settled back line four games into the season.

by Gennaro SanninoThursday 17 September, 20:21 CET· 2 hours ago

Benoît Badiashile — Foto: Werner100359 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Benoît Badiashile's first appearance for Napoli was meant to be a relief. Instead, in the closing minutes of the 3-2 defeat at San Siro against Inter, it turned into a warning sign: the French centre-back looked well short of match fitness, and head coach Massimiliano Allegri has not risked him since.

It is a long way from where Napoli's summer defensive plan started. Allegri had built his back line around the pairing of Amir Rrahmani and Alessandro Buongiorno. Injuries to Buongiorno and to Sam Beukema, signed from Bologna, dismantled that plan before the season had properly begun.

In their absence, Allegri turned to Rafa Marín, the Spanish defender from Real Madrid's academy whom Antonio Conte had left out for much of last season. Then, in the closing days of a transfer window that shut on 1 September, Napoli brought in Badiashile from Chelsea — a signing meant to plug the gap, not to sit outside it.

Instead, the Frenchman has become a question mark. His only game time so far came in that defeat at San Siro, one of two losses in Napoli's opening four fixtures alongside a home defeat to Como.

A back four for now

Allegri has resisted switching to a back three, preferring to give his group certainty with the established back four. Even a shift to three centre-backs would not solve the numbers problem: with Di Lorenzo playing as the right-sided centre-back, Napoli would still need two out-and-out central defenders. For now those two are Rrahmani, a pillar of the club's two Scudetto-winning seasons, and Marín, still trying to establish himself.

A defender signed on deadline day to cover an emergency, then sent on before he was ready, was always a risk. That risk landed at the worst possible moment: after four rounds Napoli are tenth with six points from two wins and two defeats, and need certainty at the back more than another unknown.

The problem to come

The real issue arrives in a few weeks' time, once Buongiorno and Beukema are back to full fitness and Badiashile has shaken off his lack of sharpness: Allegri will have four centre-backs competing for two shirts, an abundance of options after months of crisis. First, though, comes the trip to the Franchi on Sunday 20 September at 12:30 CET (11:30 UK) against Fiorentina. Without Buongiorno, without Beukema, and with Badiashile still on the margins, Rrahmani and Marín will start once again.