Allegri set to start Beukema, drop Politano for Frosinone

Friday's papers split between tactics and dressing-room talk on the eve of Napoli-Frosinone, with conflicting reports on McTominay's fitness and a piece on pressure around Allegri.

by Gennaro SanninoFriday 9 October, 08:40 CET· 49 min ago

Atalanta e Bologna cercano Beukema, difensore rivelazione dell'AZ Alkmaar — Foto: tuttomercatoweb.com

Sky Sport report that head coach Allegri will start Beukema and leave out Politano, with "several changes" to the side returning from the international break. A second Sky piece raises the possibility of a back three, flags a midfield battle for a starting spot, and names one attacking player under special watch at Castel Volturno (the training ground). More hints than certainties, but the suggestion is that Allegri is genuinely reshuffling his side.

On McTominay's return, the papers tell two different stories. Il Mattino writes that despite the Scotland midfielder being cleared to play, "the blood-thinner issue remains" before the Frosinone game. Sky Sport's headline points the other way, saying "confidence is growing" over his call-up. Same player, same eve of the match, two opposite readings — worth noting the gap rather than picking a side.

Il Mattino also tries to open a window onto the relationship between the club and the head coach, with a headline on "pressure" around Allegri's position and a mention that "De Laurentiis's conversation with Max" has come up, with something "leaking" about the trust placed in the coach. The headline does not go beyond that: nothing in the available material details what was actually said.

Corriere dello Sport, in its "NazioNapoli" ratings column, headlines "Hojlund-De Bruyne show, but one player flops" — two positive marks and one negative, though the name of the player marked down is not in the headline available to us.

Finally, a service note: DAZN have announced that one match from the sixth round will be shown free-to-air.

Our take

The day before a match that, on paper, Napoli should win without argument, the papers split between formation talk and dressing-room gossip, leaving the more uncomfortable question in the background: why, in three of their last five games, has Napoli taken the lead only to be pegged back within minutes. The split headlines on McTominay, one cautious and one upbeat, say more about confused sourcing than about the midfielder's actual availability, and should be read carefully either way. The piece on "pressure" around Allegri is the most interesting story of the day, but it remains a headline without substance: before believing it or dismissing it, we would want to know what De Laurentiis and the head coach actually said to each other at Castel Volturno. For the rest, tactics matter less right now than the two matches arriving in quick succession, with the team already ninth and with no excuses left in the fixture list.