Napoli vs. Crotone: Match preview, team news, TV schedule, and how to watch Serie A

Napoli are, to put it bluntly, in a tailspin right now. They’re in fifth place, seven points out of first, and in poor form. They need to reverse their current trend, because the gap between where they are and the bottom third of the table is perilously thin. Perhaps fortunately, the table has them set for a date with Crotone in Pescara, but before they add three points to their season total, they need to make sure to earn those three points first.

Crotone are obviously struggling, winning just one lonely point in eight matches and getting widely battered in most of their matches. Talent-wise, they’re easily out-matched by most Serie A teams — which makes it somewhat concerning that Napoli loanee Eddy Gnahore hasn’t played a minute this season — and the partenopei should, on paper, be able to rotate their tiring squad and still win with relative ease.

But “should” and “do” are often very different things for Napoli. They should have beaten Besiktas on Wednesday. They should have been much better against Roma a week ago. They should have beaten Pescara in the season opener. Should. Should. Should.

Napoli now need to make sure that they can actually turn “should” into “did.” Yes, they’re dealing with injuries and fatigue, but right now they need to dig deep and make things happen in their favor anyways. They have the talent and the means to do it, they just have been struggling to deal with their adversity. Now they need to fix those problems and get three points, no matter what.

Get. It. Done.

One last note: my sincerest apologies for the site’s silence of late. Between real life issues, an untimely internet outage on a matchday, and several miserable sick days, time has been severely tight. I appreciate your patience, and apologize for the darkness.

Projected Lineups Sure To Be Wrong

Napoli: Pepe Reina; Elseid Hysaj, Nikola Maksimovic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ivan Strinic; Allan, Jorginho, Marek Hamsik; Jose Callejon, Manolo Gabbiadini, Dries Mertens

Crotone: Alex Cordaz; Aleandro Rosi, Claiton Dos Santos, Gianmarco Ferrari, Bruno Martella; Leonardo Capezzi, Lorenzo Crisetig, Aniello Salzano; Aleksandar Tonev, Diego Falcinelli, Raffaele Palladino

Watch It

When: Sunday, 3 p.m. CET, 9 a.m. ET

Where: Stadio Adriatico-Giovanni Cornacchia, Pescara, Italy

TV: Sky Calcio 2, Premium Calcio 2 (Italy)

Online: beIN Sports Connect (U.S.), Sky Go Italia (Italy)

You can find additional viewing options on LiveSoccerTV, and as always, we’ll have a match thread live here for discussion of the game at hand. You can also follow along with us live on Twitter, and we’ll have updates of the most important events on our Facebook page.