Spalletti's Juventus job on the line as Landucci leads Napoli to Turin

Juventus have more than three points riding on Sunday's game against Napoli at the Allianz Stadium, which kicks off at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET). They could lose their coach. Luciano Spalletti is the first name under pressure, and the scenario taking shape involves us directly. If Napoli win, the Juventus job could go, and Antonio Conte could step in.

The scenario rests on a fact that needs no interpretation. Allegri, Spalletti and Conte have all coached both Juventus and Napoli, and two of them have also managed Italy. Spalletti won the 2022-23 Serie A title here, the cycle that Giovanni Manna says has "probably reached its end". Conte won the 2024-25 title with us and left at the end of the season. Allegri replaced him on 3 July, on a contract to 2029. On Sunday the three paths cross in a game where two of them will not even be on the bench.

One line is enough on Juventus right now. After the 2-0 in Genoa, Spalletti locked the squad away at the Continassa, the club's training base, until the match. Before he did, chief executive Carnevali had held talks with the players. It is a club looking for a response. A team in an enforced retreat can fall apart or find some anger. Anyone travelling to Turin expecting an opponent already beaten could get the game badly wrong.

Conte matters little to us: the 14 points do

One point risks getting lost in all this. Napoli are seventh on 14 points after nine rounds, level with Juventus and 11 behind the leaders, Inter and Lazio, on 25. Como, fourth, have 20. A win would take us to 17 and leave Juventus behind. That is the only consequence of this game that should concern us. Who sits on the Juventus bench in January is their problem.

Allegri arrives with a little more breathing room after three games unbeaten and the 1-4 at Monza, but he will be in the stands. That does not settle the debate dividing the fanbase: some want him sacked, many want him to be braver. Meanwhile the defence keeps conceding. We have let in 11 league goals, and at Monza we allowed 12 shots to a side that had just 35% of the ball.

Neres, Badiashile and Spinazzola are out on Sunday. Lobotka is a doubt with a left-ankle problem, and Rrahmani took a knock to the sternum that the staff do not consider worrying. Meret returns in goal and De Bruyne will start.

The thought we take to Turin is a different one. If it goes well on Sunday, the talk will be of another chapter in the Juventus soap opera and almost nothing about us. Yet a Napoli side winning at the Allianz Stadium with half the defence injured and the coach in the stands would say something about our season, not theirs. It would be a second straight away win after the defeat in Venice, and proof that the recovery at Monza was no accident.

Landucci has already led the side in Allegri's place, and he won at Monza. Sunday's game is the biggest of his spell in charge. On Wednesday 4 November, Porto await at the Dragão.