Allegri could switch Napoli to a 3-4-2-1 during the break

Napoli's 4-3-3 in the first five league games has not been Allegri's own choice. According to Repubblica, the head coach has so far gone along with Aurelio De Laurentiis and the squad's wish to build the post-Conte project around that formation. But during the international break he is said to be weighing a move to 3-4-2-1, a system closer to his own strengths and his own footballing ideas.

The detail that matters most is the origin of the 4-3-3. If Allegri really adopted it to satisfy the club rather than out of conviction, it raises the question of how much that starting choice has already shaped the cautious approach much of the fanbase has criticised him for in recent weeks. A coach answers for what happens on the pitch, but a system worn more out of convenience than identity helps explain why this Napoli side has often looked like a team without a clear face through these five games.

In terms of personnel, a 3-4-2-1 would reshape more than one balance. Lucca, still searching for a role that suits him, could find more space for the aerial game that remains his speciality, while Højlund — seen more in midfield than inside the opposition box so far — would change his reference points. Behind them, a back three would involve Rrahmani, Buongiorno and Marín, with Di Lorenzo and Olivera pushed onto wider lanes. Fitness questions remain, though: Anguissa has a low-grade myofascial strain in his right adductor and his return for 10 October is in doubt, while Beukema and Giovane are still on zero league minutes and have not yet given Allegri anything to build a new shape around.

McTominay returned to Castel Volturno (the training ground) on 21 September after heart surgery in Manchester, handing the coach an extra midfielder to assess for whichever system he chooses. Meret, meanwhile, is still working his way back, with the stated aim of being ready for Napoli-Frosinone.

The break gives Allegri time to experiment but no real matches to test it in. The first look comes in Saturday 26 September's friendly at Avellino, a game that will say little about results but could already carry early traces of a new shape. The test that counts is elsewhere: Napoli-Frosinone at the Maradona on 10 October, when the league resumes in earnest and the team will have to show, in whatever formation, that it has found an identity again.