Only Højlund scores as Napoli's attack stalls before Fiorentina

Five games into the season, Napoli's forwards have delivered almost nothing: the wingers are yet to score, Giovane has barely been seen, and Allegri needs goals from them at Fiorentina on Sunday 20 September.

by Gennaro SanninoWednesday 16 September, 16:19 CET· 1 hour ago

Rasmus Højlund — Foto: VietnamJ25 · CC0

Napoli have scored six goals in five games this season — the four league matches plus the Champions League night against Arsenal — and the midfield has scored as many as the forwards. Only Rasmus Højlund has managed to score more than once. With the team tenth in Serie A, this is no longer just about one player's form.

Højlund has two goals, but both came from individual moments rather than team play: in five games this season the Dane has had little real service from his teammates. Napoli risk being left without a genuine second option up front — Lorenzo Lucca's last sprint toward goal against Bologna, which went viral on social media, remains the starkest image of the problem.

The picture out wide is worse. Alisson Santos has zero goals and zero assists this season: a year ago he scored four goals in a handful of games, but that spark never turned into consistency. He had won a starting shirt under Allegri, only to lose it to the injury he picked up on the night against Arsenal. Noa Lang has the same blank record, and is still working through troubles off the pitch — his last goal in a Napoli shirt is close to a year old now, hardly something to be proud of.

Giovane is worse still. He arrived from Verona in January for €20m, no small fee, and has yet to make an impact even in his first season at Napoli. Under Allegri he has barely featured, and surgery for a groin problem has further complicated his integration. The double zero — no goals, no assists — is starting to raise questions inside the club about a signing that, a year on, has yet to pay off.

David Neres is working his way back to his best form, but the numbers are a warning sign: in the Eredivisie he averaged 0.30 goals a game, a figure that has fallen to 0.15 at Napoli, with nine goals in 58 appearances in a Napoli shirt. He too is still waiting for his first assist of the season, the moment that could finally unlock his return to form. Only a few months ago he was driving Conte's side to victory in the Italian Supercup against Bologna.

The only one to have found his scoring touch is Matteo Politano, whose end product in front of goal is now taken as a given, and Allegri continues to trust him without reservation.

The problem needs solving fast: on Sunday 20 September, Napoli travel to the Franchi to face Fiorentina at 12:30 CET (11:30 UK, 06:30 ET). Corto muso — Allegri's old mantra of grinding out narrow wins — will not be enough here: he needs real goals, not isolated moments of invention.