Napoli consider 3-4-3 for Bodø/Glimt with wing-backs short

Napoli are weighing a 3-4-3 for the Champions League game against Bodø/Glimt, and head coach Allegri is short of wing-backs. The match is at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Tuesday 20 October, kick-off 21:00 CET (20:00 UK, 15:00 ET).

The problem is personnel before it is shape. Alisson Santos is the latest setback, following the failed comebacks from injury of Anguissa and Neres. Napoli cannot afford another flat night after Venezia.

Alisson Santos has an MRI scan on Monday 19 October. The problem in his thigh came about 20 minutes after he came on in Venezia. He had been back training with the group for only eight days, after a grade-two tear of the left biceps femoris that kept him out of the Champions League opener against Arsenal.

He is the third player in a month, after Anguissa and Neres, to return from injury and get hurt again. The question we keep asking is how these comebacks are being managed, and it is not a minor one.

McTominay is a matter of fitness. The Scot had surgery on 8 September for a heart arrhythmia and was cleared to play on 8 October. He has not looked fully sharp in recent games, so a place on the bench is being discussed, though the decision is entirely Allegri's.

How McTominay and De Bruyne fit together is still unresolved. Match analyst Domenico Scognamiglio also calls it the coach's real tactical problem.

The context is poor. Napoli have no points from two Champions League games, after a 1-0 loss to Arsenal and a 3-1 defeat at Villarreal. The loss in Venezia was their fifth in nine official matches.

Allegri has promised that the team will come out of this spell with him. His choices on Tuesday 20 October, formation included, are the first test of that promise.