Jean Butez, Como's Belgian goalkeeper, conceded twice as the Lariani fell to defeat away against Frosinone on Sunday, ending a run that Cesc Fàbregas's side had built carefully across the opening weeks of the 2026-27 Serie A season. The loss was Como's first of the campaign after three wins and a draw from their previous four matches.
The significance is not merely three points dropped. Fàbregas had publicly warned before the match that his side would need a perfect performance against Frosinone, acknowledging that Como could not afford to approach the fixture with the comfort of a club that considers itself above the contest. That caution proved prescient. After the final whistle, the coach described it as Como's first bad game in five months and spoke candidly about his players, noting that in every match he sees things he does not like and that the squad is very young — a pointed critique from a manager who has otherwise spoken with measured optimism about a squad he acknowledges is very young.
That youth is the lens through which Butez's season must be read. At 31, the goalkeeper is one of the more experienced presences in a dressing room Fàbregas has repeatedly flagged as a work in progress. Butez has appeared in four of Como's five Serie A fixtures so far, carrying an average match rating of 6.89 — a figure that reflects steady rather than exceptional output, consistent with a side that has conceded six goals while scoring nine across those five games. An AI overall of 72 out of 100 places him in functional rather than elite territory, which is honest: Como at eighth in the table are a team building identity, not yet one demanding heroics from their last line of defence every week.
The Frosinone defeat complicates that picture. Fàbregas's system depends on collective discipline, and when the structure in front of Butez breaks down — as it evidently did on Sunday — the goalkeeper is exposed without the defensive scaffolding the coach designs around him. Butez cannot manufacture clean sheets from disorder.
What the result does not do is unravel Como's early-season work. Ten points from five matches, with three wins, remains a creditable return for a side that finished the previous campaign in fourth and is now recalibrating expectations under a coach who has made no secret of the developmental nature of this project. Fàbregas's willingness to criticise publicly, rather than deflect, suggests he views the Frosinone loss as correctable rather than symptomatic.
For Butez, the challenge is straightforward: perform when the team is disorganised, and be reliable when it is not. Five matches into a long season, neither his position nor Como's trajectory is defined by one afternoon in Frosinone.