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Udinese v. Napoli: Lineups, match discussion, and pure, unadulterated chaos

I this picture purely for Pereyra's derp face, even if he doesn't play for Udi any more.
I this picture purely for Pereyra's derp face, even if he doesn't play for Udi any more.
Dino Panato

This is one that Napoli need badly to right the ship after a facepalm-worthy loss to Chievo Verona. Trouble is, they're on the road, and Udinese also have some ship-righting to do after a horrid display against Juventus. Let's see who wants this one more.

Udinese are rolling out a fairly full-strength lineup with two changes. Luis Muriel hits the bench, leaving Antonio Di Natale to play as a quasi-lone striker as Andrea Stramaccioni tweaks his lineup in to more of a 3-4-3 to take advantage of Napoli's midfield woes. Ivan Piris also makes his first start of the season at right wingback, hoping to have a better time of things with Udi this season than he did at Roma a couple years ago.

For Napoli, this is an... unconventional lineup. Miguel Britos starts at left back despite Faouzi Ghoulam's availability. Who the heck knows why, it's not like he earned another start on Thursday. Walter Gargano starts again too, which is just as mind numbingly shocking to see. Even stranger is David Lopez starting alongside him, giving Napoli two ball-winners in central midfield where normally they don't play with any.

We're also seeing the first appearance of Camilo Zuninga The Winger, an idea that Rafa talked about some weeks ago but hadn't acted on yet. Michu gets his first start in place of Marek Hamsik, and Lorenzo Insige reclaims his starting role over Dries Mertens because.... well, I don't think we can be sure why. Mertens may well have been worn out after how hard he worked on Thursday, and only gotten two days of rest may not have been enough.

Udinese (3-4-3): Karnezis; Widmer, Danilo, Heurtaux; Piris, Allan, Badu, Guilherme; Kone, Di Natale, Fernándes

Napoli (4-2-3-1): Rafael; Maggio, Albiol, Koulibaly, Britos; Lopez, Gargano; Zuniga, Michu, Insigne; Higuain

The match will start shortly at 9:00 PM CET/12:00 PM EST. Television coverage will be on Premium Calcio 1 in Italy, BT Sport 1 n the UK, and beIn Sports Connect (online steaming) in America. Other live viewing options can be found here (links to illegal streams in the comments will be removed and repeat offenders banned), and as always, you can also follow along with us live on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on the Siren’s Song, and join in the discussion below!