Politano stays undroppable for Allegri, not for Napoli's fans

No head coach has ever dropped Matteo Politano from Napoli's starting eleven. Yet this season the winger finds himself on trial with a section of the fanbase.

The question doing the rounds is always the same: why does he keep starting when he scores so little? According to his agent, that question has hit home — Politano is unhappy with the situation and bitter about the criticism he has received.

On the pitch, Napoli's vice-captain keeps running for two players, honours the shirt to the final minute and rarely asks to be substituted even when he is exhausted. That attitude has earned him the trust of three different head coaches: Spalletti, Conte and now Allegri.

The paradox is that Politano's last big showing of reliability came in one of the most painful moments of the season. At San Siro on 5 September, in a 3-2 defeat to Inter, he put Napoli 1-0 up in the 50th minute, and Höjlund doubled the lead three minutes later. That two-goal cushion disappeared in the second half: Lautaro Martinez scored twice, in the 56th and 90th minutes, and Thuram added a third for Inter in the 82nd. Politano had done his job as an undroppable starter; it was the rest of the team that gave way.

The case Politano and his entourage are trying to make is that a forward should not be judged on goals alone, but on the balance he gives to the team's play and his tactical usefulness. It is an argument that only holds up to a point: those defending him argue that if Politano had fewer defensive duties, he would show more consistently the scoring qualities that have kept him a starter for years.

The wrong target

The context behind the criticism is not incidental. Napoli have lost three matches in a row — to Como, Inter and Arsenal in the Champions League — and sit 12th in Serie A on 3 points after three games, with five goals scored and five conceded. The defence has conceded 76 shots across those three matches, an average of 25 per game, on top of the 4.05 expected goals conceded to Arsenal on Wednesday 9 September — the highest figure Napoli have ever recorded in Opta's data. With the team struggling to score, and struggling even more to stop conceding, targeting the one winger who provides balance risks being the wrong criticism aimed at the wrong player.

Napoli host Bologna at the Maradona on Sunday 13 September at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK), still without a home league win this season. In the lineups reported ahead of the game, the midfield battle is between Vergara and De Bruyne — not on Politano's wing. Whatever the reason, for Allegri, the winger's shirt remains the least contested of all.