Viviano says Allegri's football 'no longer exists at any level'

"His football no longer exists, at any level." Emiliano Viviano, speaking live on Twitch, did not hold back on Massimiliano Allegri.

He started with the team. "He isn't managing the group well. The team doesn't play well, even if it has good spells in games." Then he raised the most sensitive issue: "The team has problems if the players are telling each other where to go, and here too Allegri isn't succeeding. You can see it in how tense he is after games."

It is not hard to see what he was referring to. In Porto, the 4-1 was followed by news of a row between Lucca and De Bruyne. On 8 November, Lang answered boos at the Maradona by cupping his ear. Two days later he posted a photo of the ear, and four teammates liked it, captain Di Lorenzo among them. A dressing room that puts this kind of thing in public is not a settled one, and the man in charge of it has to answer for that.

The way forward: stay in their half

The second half of Viviano's argument was a proposal as well as a criticism. "For me, a team like Napoli should only sit back and defend against two or three teams. Otherwise it has to stay in the opposition half and even risk a counter-attack." He pointed to the last game: "You saw it against Lazio. In 15 minutes they could have scored three."

"The way forward is to stay in their half, compact, and win the ball back higher up."

Viviano believes Allegri has understood this. But if he goes back to "what made him a winner, the team will blow up", because it does not have those qualities.

The numbers from Napoli-Lazio only half support him. In the first half Lazio had 12 shots to our 5, and Frattesi put them ahead in the 28th minute. By full time it was 15 shots each, and all six of ours on target were saved. We have said it before: this team only becomes dangerous when it raises the tempo. The trouble is that it only raises the tempo once it is already behind, and the equaliser came only from Pedraza's own goal in the 48th minute.

In Porto, Allegri's first substitution came in the 78th minute. By then the game had already turned, and Porto's goals had come from their bench. Sitting in this position in the table, a coach who waits for games to sort themselves out has run out of time.

Viviano finished on a split that comes up in every conversation about Napoli in the city: "A divide has formed between those who are for him and those against." He is right, and it is the most dangerous part of all this.

After 11 rounds Napoli are tenth on 15 points. That is 9 points off fourth place, the target Allegri set himself, and 14 behind Lazio. Allegri's answer was: "The boat has to be brought into port." Our question is a different one: into port by which route? If the problem is the idea of how to play, the international break was the time to change it. Torino will show whether that time was used.

That is where things pick up again, at the Maradona on Saturday 21 November at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET). Neres and Favasuli are back, Di Lorenzo is still out, and Manchester City away at the Etihad follows three days later. Against Torino, at home, in the first game since the fans' protest, only a win will do. Viviano adds one more thing to watch: where the team stands when the opposition has the ball.