Massimiliano Allegri conceded that Napoli are struggling to cope with the demands of their busy schedule amid an injury crisis, following their heavy loss to Porto.
Allegri rues late errors from tired Napoli in Porto loss
Napoli fell to a heavy loss against Porto in the Champions League, with Massimiliano Allegri saying his depleted squad were up against it.
Allegri is coming under increasing pressure at Napoli, which was compounded by their 4-1 Champions League defeat to Porto on Wednesday.
Despite Scott McTominay cancelling out Jan Bednarek's early header to take Napoli into half-time level, Gabri Veiga, Jakub Kiwior and Samu Aghehowa all scored in the final 20 minutes to secure a big win for Porto.
Napoli were without nine players through injury, including the likes of Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Mathias Olivera, Benoit Badiashile and Leonardo Spinazzola.
With the majority of his absentees coming in defence, Allegri, who was only able to name seven substitutes on his bench, tweaking Napoli's formation to a 3-5-1-1 to try to combat his issues.
However, they had little success as Porto had 19 shots (eight on target) worth 3.1 expected goals (xG), while they also hit the woodwork twice.
"We made mistakes on two set-plays; the team had, in my view, a good performance up to the 70th minute," Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.
"It was an aggressive performance. We went man for man but then conceded this second goal on a bouncing ball and, with fatigue, we didn't push up in time for the offside.
"These are errors that unfortunately can happen when you are tired. The tempo is high in the Champions League, and in those final minutes we were struggling, as they hit the crossbar twice just before the goal and were cutting through us fairly easily.
"I know the limitations of this squad. In the first game with Genoa, I was accused of having a bad first half, but it was because we needed to control the tempo.
"Lately, we've had good first halves, but then fallen away in the second half; it's because we have a limited squad.
"If the same lot play every three days, the tempo is high; by the 70th minute, it becomes a different match. You can only control that if you have eight or nine players on the bench. Now we've got one more game to play with Lazio; then we'll see what happens when more players return."
Napoli have lost five of their last seven group- or league-phase matches in the Champions League, as many defeats as they suffered at this stage of the competition across their previous 23 games combined.
The Partenopei sit 27th in the table at the halfway stage, but their troubles span across all competitions as they also sit eighth in Serie A after just one win in their last four games.
They face Lazio in their final league game before the upcoming international break, and Allegri says he is well aware of how important it is for them to get three points.
"We have a game on Sunday against Lazio and need to recuperate, because these are the only players we've got," he said when asked if he could turn things around.
"You win and lose matches on details, not the big things, but the small ones. The team fought and chased Porto around man for man as long as they could, but then we ran out of fuel.
"It's like a cup final for us against Lazio, and then, hopefully, we can recover some players during the break for international duty."
