Napoli's start under Allegri is the worst of the last four campaigns

Measured against the first eight games of every Spalletti and Conte spell, Allegri's side comes out worse on every count: fewer wins, fewer goals scored, more goals conceded and more defeats than any previous cycle.

by Gennaro SanninoSaturday 17 October, 12:05 CET· 2 hours ago

Massimiliano Allegri — Foto: Original: Quirinale / Derivative work: Danyele · Attribution

Four defeats in the first eight official matches. That is the number that separates Allegri's start from every recent Napoli era, none of which had reached this point of the season with such a heavy losing record.

The comparison with the Scudetto years

In the season of the fourth Scudetto (the Serie A title), Spalletti had closed the first eight official games with 6 wins and 2 draws, no defeats: 21 goals scored, just 5 conceded. The year before, his first season at Napoli and with the Europa League on the calendar, the record had also been solid: 6 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat, 18 goals scored and 7 conceded.

Conte, in his first season without European football but with the Coppa Italia (Italy's cup competition), had collected 5 wins (one on penalties), 2 draws and only 1 defeat, with 16 goals scored and 5 conceded. His second year, the more nervous one with 6 wins and 2 defeats but no draws, had still produced 14 goals scored and 9 conceded.

Allegri's Napoli, after the same eight games across Serie A and the Champions League, stands at 3 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats: 11 goals scored, 10 conceded. In Serie A the record is 3W 1D 2L for 10 points and ninth place, 10 goals scored and 6 conceded in six matchdays; in the Champions League the two games played are two defeats, 0-1 at home to Arsenal and 3-1 away at Villarreal, with a single goal scored (by Rrahmani) and four conceded.

Allegri was chosen by the ownership to deliver fourth place and a step forward in Europe, not the Scudetto, so the comparison with the two seasons that brought the title to Napoli is not an entirely fair yardstick in itself. But the reading remains uncomfortable, because the gap is not only about trophies: it covers the ability to score, which in this start is the lowest of all the recent cycles, and the ability to avoid defeat, which is the most fragile. De Bruyne scored a brace in the 3-0 win over Frosinone, but he has been isolated in an attack that hit the woodwork twice in the first 22 minutes at Villarreal before collapsing within four minutes to goals from Mikautadze and Mouriño.

The test to change that trend comes on Saturday 17 October at 15:00 CET at the Penzo against Venezia, bottom of the table on zero points after six matchdays but with Davide Nicola making his debut in the dugout. Another defeat, or another goalless game, would widen the gap from Spalletti and Conte further still — on the very day Napoli could begin to close it.