The Gabbiadini dilemma: Can Napoli continue to thrive without Milik?

In Naples, the enduring image from Napoli’s 3-1 defeat to Roma was not Maurizio Sarri scowling, nor Jose Callejon lying prostrate on the turf. Instead it was of a 10-year- old boy watching in the stands.

After Jorginho missed one final chance to bring Napoli back into the game, TV cameras picked out Salvatore Annunziata sitting amidst a group of relatives and friends. Viewers got to share in his agony as he bellowed out a desperate “NO!” before covering his face with his hands.

When they cut back to him a few moments later, he was weeping.

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It was, in the opinion of Gazzetta dello sport, "probably the most beautiful image of the weekend in Serie A." A sad moment, but also a sincere one. "Unfortunately," continued the pink paper, "the scenes that people see from our stadiums are usually of a very different tone."

Soon enough, little Salvatore was swept up in a media blitz. He spoke to Radio Punto Zero, telling them he did not harbour any ill will towards Jorginho and that anyone could make a mistake. Like any dedicated fan, though, he had some pointers for his team.

"I would tell [Manolo] Gabbiadini he needs to work harder," he said. "And that the team needs to help him to give his best as well."

The question of how to achieve that second objective is vexing the whole city at present. Eleven days ago, Napoli’s attack was in rude health - with 20 goals to show for its first nine games between Serie A and the Champions League. Arkadiusz Milik had scored seven of them, helping his team to adapt effortlessly to life without Gonzalo Higuain.

And then the Poland striker tore a cruciate ligament on international duty. Saturday’s loss to Roma was Napoli’s first game without him. It was also Sarri’s first defeat in 23 Serie A home matches.

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There is danger in overreacting to a single result, and especially against such capable opposition, but more troubling than the loss itself was the evident disruption to Napoli’s attacking shape. Gabbiadini is a capable forward who one year ago was on the verge of carving out a regular place in the Italian national team. But he is a very different player to Milik.

An old-fashioned No. 9 with the height and power to dominate in the air, the Polish striker was in some regards an even better fit for Napoli than Higuain.

Besides being a natural target for crosses, he served as an effective pivot on the counter - holding the ball up and distributing it to whichever one of the club’s countless nimble wingers and energetic midfield runners happened to be passing by. It is no coincidence that Callejon has already scored five times this season - only two fewer than he managed in all of 2015-16.

Gabbiadini is something very different.

He has the height to match Milik, but he is leaner in build and more direct in his approach. He likes to launch attacks with the ball at his feet.

Before joining Napoli last January, Gabbiadini had often been deployed on the right wing by Sampdoria, cutting in to shoot on his right foot. When he does start in a central role, he has a tendency to drop very deep to get on the ball.

That action deprives the likes of Callejon, Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne of their reference point - as well as crowding the spaces that Marek Hamsik occupies in midfield. Higuain interpreted his role in a very different way to Milik, but both could be relied on to hold positions high up the pitch - pushing the opposing defence back and leaving space for their teammates to run into.

At this point, Sarri does not have an awful lot of alternatives.

There was talk over the summer of Napoli selling Gabbiadini and targeting Fiorentina’s Nikola Kalinic - a more typical No. 9 - but nothing came to fruition. In the last few days it has been suggested that the Partenopei could pursue an out-of-work striker such as Dani Osvaldo or Emmanuel Adebayor.

For now, though, Gabbiadini is the only tested centre-forward in the first-team squad. And one, it must be said, with a solid strike rate. Prior to this season, he had scored 19 times in 2,032 minutes played for Napoli between Serie A and the Europa League - an average of one goal for every 106.9 minutes he spent on the pitch.

He has just one in 292 minutes this season, but it is unlikely that he has forgotten how to connect ball with net. Gabbiadini is a talented footballer. The question for Napoli, obvious even to a 10-year- old, is simply working out how to integrate him into a team designed with a different kind of player in mind.

An appointment with Besiktas puts Sarri under pressure to come up with an answer, and fast. Napoli has started this Champions League campaign brightly, with two wins from as many games, but Milik was instrumental in both. Win on Wednesday, and the Partenopei will have one foot in the quarter- finals.

Lose to the Turkish champions, however, and there might be more tears ahead.