Napoli revert to back three at Monza as Landucci deputises for banned Allegri
Massimiliano Allegri serves the first of a two-game touchline ban as Napoli field a 3-5-2 at Monza, where Gustavo Varela's scoring form poses the biggest threat to the visitors' back three.
Massimiliano Allegri is absent from the Napoli dugout at the U-Power Stadium, with long-serving assistant Marco Landucci taking charge after the head coach's two-match touchline ban for dissent during Saturday's 3-3 draw with Roma, Football Italia reports.
Napoli had initially planned to appeal the suspension before Allegri dropped the challenge himself. "You never know, they might have given me four," he said, a remark that suggests he judged the ban a reasonable outcome rather than risk a harsher one on review.
Landucci's first assignment is this trip to Monza; his second comes at Juventus on Sunday, meaning Napoli navigate back-to-back fixtures without their principal decision-maker on the touchline.
A back three returns with Højlund preferred up front
Napoli line up in a 3-5-2 shape built around Rafa Marín, Amir Rrahmani and Giovanni Di Lorenzo across the back, with Mathías Olivera and Matteo Politano pushed on as wing-backs either side of a central trio of Frank Anguissa, Stanislav Lobotka and Scott McTominay.
That central three is not a conventional double pivot; with three bodies screening the back line, Napoli can afford one midfielder to step forward into the half-spaces while the others hold the base, giving Landucci's side control in possession without exposing the back three to turnovers.
Up front, Rasmus Højlund starts ahead of Lorenzo Lucca, partnered by Noa Lang rather than a second recognised striker, which points to a front two built on movement and link play rather than aerial presence.
Di Lorenzo features despite a knee knock sustained against Bodø/Glimt, and Rrahmani returns having missed the Roma game with a fever, restoring Napoli's first-choice back-three options after a week of fitness concerns.
Napoli are missing Benoit Badiashile and Leonardo Spinazzola, both injured in the Roma draw, along with Alessandro Buongiorno, Alisson Santos, Costantino Favasuli and David Neres, a list that explains why the back three leans on Marín alongside the two senior defenders.
Monza's front line carries the home side's threat
Ivan Juric sends out a front three of Cyril Ngonge, Jay Robinson and Gustavo Varela in support of a midfield built around Leonardo Colombo, Foe Ondoa, Adam Bakoune and Ricardo Mangas, with Samuele Birindelli, Lorenzo Lucchesi and Saba Goglichidze forming the back line.
Varela is the man Napoli's back three will be set up to contain: the forward has scored nine goals in eight competitive games this season, a rate that makes him Monza's clearest route to goal regardless of system.
Ngonge, who spent time at Napoli before his move to Monza, lines up against his former club, as does Exequiel Zeballos, left among the substitutes after coming close to joining Napoli from Boca Juniors over the summer.
Michael Folorunsho, on loan at Monza from Napoli, is left out of the squad entirely for this fixture, with no explanation offered for his omission against his parent club.
Monza are missing Matteo Pessina with a kneecap problem, Jan Ziółkowski with plantar fasciitis and Yvan Maye with a muscular issue, thinning Juric's options through central midfield and defence alike.
Form lines point to contrasting trajectories
Napoli occupy tenth place with 11 points from their league campaign so far, 14 adrift of leaders Lazio, a position shaped by a surprise defeat to Venezia sandwiched around a 4-3 Champions League win over Bodø/Glimt and Saturday's draw with Roma.
That sequence shows a team capable of scoring freely in Europe but inconsistent domestically, and a back three shorn of Badiashile and Buongiorno through injury has had to absorb pressure with less rotation available to Landucci than Allegri might otherwise have used.
Monza sit 15th with seven points; Juric's side beat both Sassuolo and Cagliari in their two previous home outings, then went down 3-2 away to Torino on Friday, a run that suggests the U-Power Stadium has been a more favourable setting than away trips this season.
For a Monza side relying heavily on Varela's individual output, the contest likely turns on whether Napoli's wing-backs can restrict the service into the Monza front three while still offering enough width themselves to stretch a home defence missing three regular contributors through injury.
The result also shapes the context for Landucci's second match in interim charge, at Juventus on Sunday, where Napoli will again be without Allegri on the touchline.