Pressure on Allegri and Tedesco as Napoli Faces Bologna

The season is barely underway, yet the air around the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona already feels heavy.

Massimiliano Allegri and Domenico Tedesco walk into Sunday evening’s Serie A clash knowing the table, the form book and the noise around them are all pulling in the wrong direction. One of them will leave with the pressure dialled up another notch.

Allegri’s bright start fades fast

Allegri’s Napoli began the 2026-27 campaign with exactly the sort of clean, controlled performance the club hoped he would bring: a 2-0 win away at Genoa on the opening weekend.

Since then, the wheels have started to wobble.

Three straight defeats across Serie A and the Champions League – against Como, Inter and Arsenal – have dragged the Partenopei down to 12th place ahead of kick-off. The schedule has been unforgiving, but the numbers are blunt: no points from the last three, questions already forming about balance, resilience and depth.

The Champions League loss to Arsenal in midweek hurt more than just morale. It also stripped Allegri of key pieces.

Alisson Santos limped out injured and will not feature against Bologna. Goalkeeper Alex Meret also came off hurt and is set to be replaced by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic between the posts on Sunday.

Scott McTominay remains sidelined until after the international break, so Kevin De Bruyne is expected to continue as the central creative force in midfield. Billy Gilmour should join him and Stanislav Lobotka in the engine room, with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa only recently back in training and still working his way towards a return in the coming weeks.

Noa Lang, left out for disciplinary reasons against Arsenal, is in line for a recall and is expected to start. Antonio Vergara is also tipped to feature at some stage, adding another option between the lines if Napoli chase the game.

Tedesco still hunting first win

On the opposite bench, Tedesco will not even be in the technical area.

Bologna’s new head coach is suspended for the next two rounds of fixtures, leaving his staff to direct operations from the touchline while he watches on from the stands. His team, though, showed a flicker of life last weekend.

A 2-2 draw at home to Sassuolo brought Bologna their first point of the season and at least a sense of movement after a slow start. They arrive in Naples sitting 16th, still without a competitive victory under Tedesco, still waiting for that one result to shift the mood.

They will have to do it short-handed.

Nadir Zortea and Artem Dovbyk are both out, and with Dovbyk unavailable, Roberto Piccoli stands as the only senior centre-forward at Tedesco’s disposal. Piccoli did his part against Sassuolo, finding the net and celebrating like a man who knows his role just became even more important.

The Rossoblu will look to the supporting cast behind him – with creativity and running from the line of three – to unsettle a Napoli defence that has looked anything but secure in recent outings.

Team news and probable line-ups

Allegri is expected to stick with a 4-3-3, trusting that continuity and quality will eventually drag Napoli out of this early slump.

Napoli (4-3-3): Milinkovic-Savic; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Marin, Spinazzola; Gilmour, Lobotka, De Bruyne; Politano, Hojlund, Lang.

Rasmus Hojlund leads the line, flanked by Matteo Politano and the returning Lang, with De Bruyne tasked with knitting everything together and finding the runs in behind.

Bologna are set to respond with a 4-2-3-1 shape designed to protect their back line and spring forward when the gaps appear.

Bologna (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Holm, Heggem, Theate, Miranda; Ferguson, Pobega; Bernardeschi, Odgaard, Cambiaghi; Piccoli.

Lewis Ferguson and Tommaso Pobega anchor midfield, while Federico Bernardeschi, Jens Odgaard and Niccolò Cambiaghi operate behind Piccoli, looking to exploit any uncertainty around Milinkovic-Savic and a reshuffled Napoli defence.

How to watch

Kick-off is set for 17.00 BST.

For viewers in the UK, the match will be shown live on BBC Alba, with streaming available via BBC iPlayer and DAZN. Supporters in the USA can watch on Paramount+.

Two coaches under scrutiny. One stadium simmering. Early-season or not, this feels like a night that will shape the tone of their campaigns.