Napoli's leaky defence costs Allegri control at the Maradona
A 3-3 draw with Roma extended Napoli's run of conceding to sides they led, and ended with Allegri sent off and openly questioning his own place on the touchline.
Napoli led Roma twice at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and surrendered both advantages, the second deep enough into stoppage time that Massimiliano Allegri was no longer even watching from the technical area to see it happen.
Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Scott McTominay had put the hosts 2-0 up, only for Matias Soulé and Leonardo Balerdi to level inside five minutes. McTominay restored the lead from distance at 3-2, but Balerdi headed in a stoppage-time equaliser that Napoli's bench felt should never have stood, believing Sam Beukema had been fouled by Balerdi in the build-up.
A pattern that keeps repeating inside matches
The collapse fits a shape Napoli have shown repeatedly this season rather than a one-off lapse. Three days earlier they had won 4-3 against Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League, a scoreline that again saw them concede heavily after building a position of control. Allegri's sides have historically been built around a settled low block and disciplined defensive shape, so a team shipping this many goals under his management is a genuine departure from type, not a minor dip in form.
What links the goals conceded against Roma is less a breakdown of structure across ninety minutes than specific moments where Napoli's defensive line was caught transitioning, first from attack to defence after pushing numbers forward at 2-0, then again in the closing seconds when a mistimed challenge in their own box handed Roma a set piece they converted via Balerdi's header. Defending a corner or a dead ball in the 95th minute is as much about concentration as organisation, and Napoli failed that test twice in the space of a week.
Allegri's red card and the dissent it followed
Allegri was sent off for dissent as Balerdi's header went in, convinced the goal should have been chalked off for a foul on Beukema. Speaking to DAZN Italia, as reported by Football Italia, he said the fourth official had intervened to have him dismissed despite, in his account, saying nothing: "The fourth official called the referee and got me sent off, but I said absolutely nothing."
He went further, suggesting he might need to change his touchline conduct altogether after being fined €80,000 in fines last season for similar incidents, telling reporters: "Next time I will have to sit on the bench and not move, because every time I move, I get sent off."
Asked whether the volume of goals Napoli are conceding sits awkwardly with his reputation as a defensive-minded coach, Allegri responded with visible sarcasm, according to Football Italia: "I changed my way of playing now, it is all on the attack. Since the start of the season, I even try to use four strikers if I can."
Why the table tells its own story
The draw left Napoli with one point from their last two Serie A matches, following a 3-1 defeat at bottom side Venezia, and they have still not managed consecutive wins in any competition this season. For a club built on positional control and game management in Allegri's earlier spells elsewhere, that inability to close matches out once ahead is the more concerning thread than any single red card.
Individually, the pattern extends to Rasmus Hojlund, who has gone eight competitive appearances without scoring. Allegri defended the striker's contribution against Roma, noting he had "three very favourable situations this evening" and had worked for the team, adding that "the goal will arrive eventually."
Benoit Badiashile's withdrawal with a muscular issue added to the night's complications; Allegri said the club would assess it over the following 48 hours. By his own admission, the coach was not in a state to offer a clear verdict on the performance as a whole, telling reporters he could not say whether the result left the glass half-full or half-empty and that, after 25 years in the job, he too was entitled to misjudge a situation in the heat of the moment.