Frosinone to Lazio: nine games that will define Napoli's season

The official fixture list packs six league games and three Champions League matches into six weeks, starting with Frosinone on Saturday 10 October and ending with Lazio at the Maradona. It's the first real test for head coach Allegri after Napoli's worst start to a season in a decade.

by Gennaro SanninoMonday 28 September, 18:15 CET· 1 hour ago

Frosinone, Villarreal, Roma, Juventus: le nove partite che diranno chi è questo Napoli — Grafica Arena Napoli

Nine games in Serie A and the Champions League inside a month and a half — that's the run Napoli face from 10 October, fixture list in hand. It starts at home to Frosinone, matchday 6, and ends against Lazio, matchday 11, also at the Maradona.

The fixtures

Napoli-Frosinone (Serie A, matchday 6); Villarreal-Napoli (Champions League, matchday 2, at the Estadio de la Cerámica); Venezia-Napoli (Serie A, matchday 7, at the Penzo); Napoli-Bodø/Glimt (Champions League, matchday 3); Napoli-Roma (Serie A, matchday 8); Monza-Napoli (Serie A, matchday 9, a midweek round, at the U-Power Stadium); Juventus-Napoli (Serie A, matchday 10, at the Juventus Stadium); Porto-Napoli (Champions League, matchday 4, at the Estádio do Dragão); Napoli-Lazio (Serie A, matchday 11).

The run lands at the lowest point of the season so far. After five matchdays Napoli are ninth with 7 points — two wins, a draw and two defeats, 7 goals for and 6 against — their worst start in ten years, according to Opta. The last result, a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina with goals from Gilmour in the 23rd minute and Jiménez in the 51st, kept alive a run of two unbeaten results but did nothing to quiet the discontent around Allegri, who arrived in the summer and is already facing criticism from part of the fanbase.

Two away trips in Europe stand out — Villarreal on 13 October and Porto later in the block — alongside three away league games, at Venezia, at Monza in a midweek round, and at the Juventus Stadium. In between come two home Champions League nights: Bodø/Glimt arrive on 20 October at 21:00 CET, after Napoli's only home game in the league phase so far ended in a 0-1 defeat to Arsenal, with Odegaard scoring in the 75th minute. UEFA's ranking, updated on 18 September, has Napoli 25th.

Allegri takes on this block of fixtures with a squad that Corriere dello Sport has called the oldest in Serie A, and with several places still to fill. McTominay is on an individual training programme after surgery on 9 September; Anguissa is out with a myofascial adductor injury; Beukema has yet to play a minute this season. It is not a context in which supporters — who, after the club's worst-ever home defeat in Europe in last season's Champions League, are demanding continuity rather than more announcements — are willing to grant much room for learning on the job.

Nine games to find out whether this Napoli side can really compete for a place in Europe and climb back into the positions that count, or whether the run becomes just another confirmation of a team built and coached without the solidity it needs. It starts on Saturday 10 October at 20:45 CET, at the Maradona, against Frosinone.