Lucca's 86th-minute error was his, but the wrong signing was not

Napoli-Lazio, 86th minute, 1-1. A ball played over the top drops perfectly into McTominay's run. Lucca goes for the same ball. He digs in, takes a sliding shot from an angle that was already poor, and sends it wide of the far post.

That one ball sums up the question Napoli followers have been asking for weeks: is the problem the setting, or was the signing wrong? Our answer is that both are true.

Lucca has done the job of a centre-forward before. His best Serie A season is still 2024-25 with Udinese, when he scored 12 goals in 33 appearances. In a Napoli shirt he looks lost, almost cut off from the rest of the team. Late in games he has now and then battled for a loose ball. That is not enough to change the verdict.

The context

We know the setting well. Napoli are tenth with 15 points after 11 rounds. That is 9 points off fourth place, which Allegri set as the target, and 14 behind Lazio, who lead the table. It is the same points total as in 2007-08, the lowest of the De Laurentiis era.

The summer window closed without the striker the coach had asked for, and the name that never arrived was Gabriel Jesus. The team have not won in three games and misplace even simple passes. A striker who needs good service to perform ends up getting lost in a side like that.

The fans have already made their view clear. Against Lazio, Lucca was whistled before he had even touched the ball. Then there was the row with De Bruyne in Porto, and since that night a January exit has been seen as a real possibility. His name has already come up in the talks for Varela, as a possible loan that would be passed on to Monza.

Levels, and who chooses them

Allegri often repeats that in football there are levels. It is true, and it fits this case very well. The real issue is who chose the level.

In football there are levels

If Lucca is not good enough for this Napoli, he is not the one who got the assessment wrong. The awkward question belongs to the board. With the season going this badly, nobody has yet said publicly that this deal has not worked.

The supporters whistle because they see too many errors, some of them basic, that decide matches. They are right to demand more. But Lucca's share of the blame is limited. In recent years Napoli had managed to sign the right player at the right moment, and that is exactly what is missing now.

The transfer window reopens on 2 January, and until then Lucca is still our player. Torino come to the Maradona on Saturday 21 November at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET). It is the first home game since the fans' protest, and the three points cannot wait until January.