Palmeri rates Napoli: Politano and Höjlund 7.5, Marín and Badiashile 4.5

The Sportitalia journalist posted his own player ratings for Napoli on X after the 3-2 defeat at Inter's San Siro, rewarding the pair who scored the goals in a lead the team then threw away. His harshest marks went to the two centre-backs.

by Gennaro SanninoSunday 6 September, 21:14 CET· 1 hour ago

BEHIND THE GAME | Ep. 01 | L'era #Allegri parte con una vittoria — Foto: SSC Napoli (canale ufficiale)

Tancredi Palmeri, the Sportitalia journalist, published his own player ratings for Napoli on X after the 3-2 defeat at Inter's San Siro. Two names share the top mark of 7.5: Politano, who put Napoli ahead in the 50th minute, and Höjlund, who doubled the lead three minutes later with an assist from Di Lorenzo.

High marks also went to those who held the line before that spell. Meret, Di Lorenzo and Anguissa all scored 6.5, as did Alisson Santos, back in the starting XI at left-back in place of Noa Lang. Lobotka and Vergara — the latter preferred to De Bruyne in the pre-match selection battle — both got a straight 6, along with Spinazzola.

The heaviest bill went to the centre-backs. Rrahmani was marked down to 5, but the harshest verdict was for Rafa Marín, on 4.5: the Spaniard started in place of a Beukema who was still recovering fitness, and finished the night with the lowest score of any starter.

The substitutes fared no better. De Bruyne and Gilmour got 6, Neres and Lucca 5.5. The lowest mark of all, 4.5, went to Badiashile: on his first call-up in Napoli colours, the French defender's debut ended with the harshest verdict of the evening.

The penalty, reconsidered

Palmeri also returned to a second-half incident, when Rrahmani held back Curtis Jones to stop him getting into the box. Watching the replay, the journalist changed his mind from his in-the-moment verdict.

I'm only seeing it now, but that really was a second penalty for Inter.

It is a moment that, in the story of the San Siro night, sits alongside the elbow from Lautaro Martinez on Marín that went unpunished with no red card.

Beyond that single incident, the ratings point to a problem Napoli have carried through two matches now: the back line. With Rrahmani on 5 and Marín on 4.5, and with Beukema left on the bench despite being fit enough to return, the question doing the rounds for days is the same one — whether that centre-back pairing needs rethinking before the goals conceded, five in the last two games by Allegri's own count, start to cost more.

Napoli are 12th with 3 points from three games, six points behind leaders Roma and Inter on 9. But before the league returns there is the Champions League: Arsenal visit the Maradona at 21:00 CET on Wednesday 9 September, and the defence marked down on Saturday 5 September will have three days to be ready.