Kevin De Bruyne's Napoli surrendered a two-goal lead at San Siro on Saturday, losing 3-2 against Inter in a collapse that leaves Allegri's side 13th in Serie A with three points from three matches.
The result is the sharper problem. Napoli had Inter beaten — twice over, on the scoreboard — and still left empty-handed. For a club rebuilding its identity under Massimiliano Allegri, and for a 35-year-old midfielder brought in to provide the creative intelligence that turns possession into points, conceding a comeback of that magnitude is not a tactical footnote. It is a structural question about whether this squad can manage a game when it matters most.
De Bruyne himself has contributed nothing in the goals column across his two Serie A appearances this season — no goals, no assists — with an average rating of 6.50. That number is not a verdict on his quality, which the data rates at an AI overall of 83 out of 100, but it does reflect a player still finding his register in a new environment. The Belgian arrived with a reputation built across years in the Premier League, statistics earned in a different competition entirely. Serie A asks different questions, and three matches in, the answers are still forming.
Allegri did not spare his own side after the final whistle. He acknowledged that Napoli need to improve and described the result as evidence that football has no logic — a characteristically blunt assessment that doubles as an implicit acknowledgement of how badly the game slipped away. Inter coach Cristian Chivu, for his part, called it a great advertisement for Italian football, which is the sort of thing you say when your team scores three times in the second half to win.
Lautaro Martínez sealed the comeback for Inter, and both he and Marcus Thuram spoke afterwards with the confidence of a side that had found something they felt was missing the previous season. That is the team Napoli face in this division — one that can absorb a deficit and accelerate through it.
For De Bruyne, the international break now offers a pause before the season resumes. Two matches, a rating that suggests competence without dominance, and a team sitting in the bottom half of the table. The Belgian's value to Napoli is not yet visible in the numbers. The next weeks will determine whether that changes, or whether the gap between his ceiling and his current output becomes the story of Allegri's season.