Napoli tests back three with Beukema, Rrahmani, Rafa Marín

Two days out from Napoli-Frosinone, Allegri is not sticking with the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 tried so far. At Castel Volturno (the training ground) the head coach has also tested a back three, a variant that would shift Napoli into a 3-4-2-1.

Di Lorenzo remains a real alternative. The captain could take Beukema's place, leaving the two centre-backs unchanged, moving from full-back into the back line. The final call will only come at the final training session on Friday 9 October.

On the flanks, covering both the attacking thrust and the defensive cover a back three demands, Politano and Spinazzola are the candidates — the latter back from injury and available again.

A tactical lab born of necessity

The experimentation reflects the crisis on the flanks already reported this week: Favasuli out for around six weeks, Olivera a doubt with a groin injury, Vergara sidelined with a soleus problem. Faced with a shortage that one switch cannot fix, Allegri is not just moving a makeshift full-back around — he is changing the system.

Napoli go into the experiment ninth in the table, with 7 points from 5 games and two unbeaten results in a row since the draw in Florence. Changing the shape of the defence two days before Frosinone, with the captain at risk of switching position, is not the mark of a team that has found its identity — it is another patch on an emergency that keeps spreading week by week, one that Friday's final session will somehow have to resolve before 20:45 CET on Saturday 10 October at the Maradona.