Massimiliano Allegri has challenged his Napoli side to "change that trend" of things not going their way after losing to Venezia.

Napoli fell to a 1-0 defeat against Serie A's bottom side, with Akor Adams scoring the only goal before Kevin De Bruyne missed a penalty.

De Bruyne has missed just three of the 14 penalties he has taken in his career across Europe's top five leagues in all competitions – his previous unsuccessful kick was in November 2020 for Manchester City.

Napoli have now lost five of their last nine matches in all competitions (W3 D1 L5), as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 29 games (W16 D8 L5).

They have lost five of their first nine matches in all competitions (W3 D1) in a season for the first time since the 2001-02 campaign (W2 D2 L5 under Gigi De Canio, when the club was in Serie B).

However, despite failing to score against Venezia, Napoli did create 2.44 expected goals (xG) from their 29 shots, 10 of which hit the target.

Allegri believes his side are doing a lot of things right, but he knows they must find a way to change their recent results.

"We created a great deal, but continue to be penalised for costly errors," Allegri told DAZN Italia.

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"Considering how many chances we created, it's a concern that we were unable to score a goal. We've got to analyse this moment with clear heads, there is time to recover.

"Venezia defended very well, and we didn't stretch them out to create space between the lines. It was a different match after the break, the spaces opened up, but we didn't make the most of them.

"There's no point being worried now, we need to do what we're doing, but do it better.

"At this moment, incidents just aren't going our way, and we conceded at the first opportunity. It is up to us to change that trend."