Allegri's Call After Venezia Defeat: "We Must Change This Trend"

Massimiliano Allegri addressed his Napoli players after the defeat to Venezia, calling on them to "change this trend" with things going wrong.

Napoli lost 1-0 to the side bottom of Serie A, with Akor Adams scoring the only goal and Kevin De Bruyne failing to convert a penalty.

De Bruyne has missed just 3 of the 14 penalties he has taken in all competitions in his career in Europe's big five leagues; the Belgian star last missed from the spot for Manchester City in November 2020.

Napoli have lost 5 of their last 9 matches in all competitions (3W 1D 5L), matching in that short spell the number of defeats they had suffered across the whole of their previous 29 matches (16W 8D 5L).

The Italian side have also lost five of the first nine competitive matches of a season for the first time since 2001-02, when they were in Serie B.

Despite failing to score against Venezia, Napoli had 29 shots in total, 10 of them on target, and generated an expected goals (xG) figure of 2.44.

Allegri stressed that his team did many things right on the pitch but must change the results:

"We created a lot of chances, but we keep paying for costly mistakes. It is worrying that we did not score despite all the danger we created. We have to analyse this period with a cool head; we have time to put the situation right.

Venezia defended very well and we did not stretch the play enough to find space between the lines. The second half was a different game, spaces opened up, but we did not take advantage of them. There is no point panicking now; we have to keep doing what we are doing, but do it better. Right now the moments and the luck are not on our side; we conceded from the first chance. It is in our hands to change this trend."