Napoli head coach Massimiliano Allegri said his side made it far too easy for Inter to score their second goal as they slipped to a 3-2 defeat in the Italian championship.
The result came in the third round of the campaign and leaves Napoli 13th in the table with three points. Inter collected victory after a five-goal contest, while Allegri focused on the moment when his team allowed their opponents to regain the advantage.
“We allowed the opponent to score the second goal too easily,” said Allegri, whose comments formed the main reaction to Napoli’s defeat.
The Napoli manager’s assessment was centred on the defensive concession rather than the overall scoreline. His remarks indicated that he believed the second Inter goal was preventable and that his side had not done enough to make the opposition work for it.
The defeat means Napoli have taken only three points from their opening three matches. That record places them 13th after the latest round of fixtures, leaving the club with ground to make up in the early stages of the season.
Allegri was also asked about the substitution of Rasmus Højlund and the decision to change Napoli’s formation to a 4-5-1 system. The source report identifies those issues as part of the discussion following the match, but does not provide his response to either question.
The tactical change was therefore mentioned alongside the Højlund substitution, while Allegri’s published remarks concentrated on the ease with which Inter scored their second goal. No further explanation of the formation switch or the substitution was included.
Napoli’s 3-2 loss was their latest result in the Italian championship and leaves them with three points from three games. Inter’s win, meanwhile, came in a match in which both teams scored three times between them, with the decisive difference being Napoli’s inability to prevent the second goal.
For Allegri, the immediate issue was the quality of his team’s defending at that stage of the contest. His short assessment provided a clear indication of where he believed Napoli had fallen short, even though the available report did not include further details about the goal or the sequence that led to it.
Napoli will now have to respond from 13th place in the standings, with the early season table still taking shape. The club’s next challenge will be to improve on a return of three points while addressing the defensive problem highlighted by Allegri after the defeat by Inter.