From Kvara to the defense, all the reasons for the Napoli crisis: this is how Conte's machine broke down

Almost, it doesn't seem like an Antonio Conte team at all: three points in four games, leaving four in the very last minutes, represent not a missed opportunity but a genetic change compared to the (recent) past. However, something happened and it cannot have been simply a crisis of hunger or malice that triggered this indisputable crisis of results. In short: in Rome, at minute 91' and 40", therefore three and a half before the end of the 5 minutes of recovery, Angelino catches Napoli; again in Rome, with Lazio, 41' and 27", he catches Napoli with Dia, again and again. To add to this black February, the home draw with Udinese, yesterday's defeat in Como. Napoli doesn't know how to win anymore, especially Napoli can't hold up in the final stages, even better in the second half, and for a while now the team has given the impression of having athletically normalized.

The worst attack of the top five is certainly a relevant fact: Inter has Lautaro Martinez and Thuram, Atalanta has Retegui and Lookman, Napoli has only Lukaku, not the best at the moment, with nine goals, and behind him is McTominay, as a scorer, who has scored six despite being a midfielder. Lukaku is torment - rarely ecstasy - and in Como, the statistics tell us, eight balls touched.

Before there were protections and certainties, now a crack has opened up: two goals from Como as well as from Lazio, the "poor" Meret has been forced to suffer for six games and on Sunday he even had to discover friendly fire, contained in the unfortunate back pass from Rrahmani.

Something must have broken - unknowingly - after the sale of Kvara, who perhaps had not offered much statistically but for Napoli represented a top-level resource. The rest was done by the chain of injuries on the left: the full-backs (Olivera, Spinazzola and finally Mazzocchi) but above all Neres, who was supposed to represent Kvara's heir.

But there are twelve games left, Napoli awaits Inter in a sold-out Maradona, they must find the physical and mental strength to resist and stay alive in a fight that did not seem to belong to them and that instead is still to be faced. "I hate losing" said Conte. Imagine losing again.