Before Monza Vs Napoli, Giovanni Manna did not try to dress things up. Napoli have been missing McTominay and Anguissa for months, and that matters. A lot. You can talk about system, structure and rhythm all you like, but if two players who shift the balance are absent for that long, the conversation starts there and nowhere else.
That is why his remarks to Dazn were so revealing. Napoli are not pretending they have been operating at full capacity. They are not hiding behind excuses either. Manna was blunt enough to admit the obvious: this squad has had to cope without two key midfielders, and the club are fully aware of the situation. In a season where margins are thin, that kind of honesty matters.
De Bruyne is not Lobotka — and that is the point
The most eye-catching line was Manna’s explanation of Kevin De Bruyne. He described him as “a mezz’ala offensiva, a ten, a player with different characteristics from Lobotka,” before stressing that Lobotka has been “for years the best playmaker in the Italian league.” That is not a contradiction. It is the point. Napoli are not trying to force one player into the image of another. They know De Bruyne and Lobotka are different footballers, and they are treating that difference as a strength rather than a problem.
That is sensible, because too many clubs make the same mistake: they buy a name and then panic when the player does not behave like a clone of the one already in the squad. Manna’s language suggested Napoli want choice, not confusion. “We are fortunate to be able to choose,” he said, adding that they hope De Bruyne can help. That is not just polite sporting-director talk. It is a window into how Napoli are thinking about the next phase of this team.
And, crucially, it says something about their current reality. If Lobotka has been the metronome for years, and McTominay and Anguissa have been out for months, then Napoli’s midfield has not simply been weakened. It has been reshaped by necessity. De Bruyne, in that context, is not a like-for-like replacement. He is a different solution to a different problem.
Varela is on the radar too
Manna also spoke positively about Gustavo Varela after Napoli had sent a scout to Torino-Monza. The forward is 21 years old, has scored 7 goals in 7 matches, and is attracting interest from multiple clubs, including Benfica. Manna was direct again: “They are strong up front, they did a good job. Varela is a strong player, he has many qualities.”
That is exactly the sort of comment that tells you Napoli are watching closely. Not every praise line turns into a deal, of course, but when a sporting director speaks this openly about a player’s level and the club has already been in the stands, the message is clear enough. Napoli are monitoring the market while also trying to keep one eye on the match in front of them.
And that is the real subtext of this pre-Monza-Napoli conversation. Napoli need to stop the drift, but they also need to keep building. Manna’s comments showed a club trying to be practical about the present while staying alert to the future. The balance is not perfect. It rarely is. But at least the thinking sounds coherent.
Against Monza, that matters. Because the club cannot afford to fail in games like this, and they cannot afford to act as though midfield balance, squad depth and market timing are separate issues. They are all part of the same problem. Manna, at least, sounded like a man who knows it.
