Why Jorginho vs. Montolivo Will Be the Key Battle in Napoli vs. AC Milan

Yes, you read that headline right.

Conventional wisdom would say that any "key matchup" in a game involving Napoli would revolve around Gonzalo Higuain. With 24 goals this season, the Argentinian striker has an outside shot at setting the league's single-season scoring record.

Any hope of beating Napoli must start with containing him, right? In fact, it might be the way to beat the Partenopei—according to WhoScored.com, Higuain has scored a whopping 47 percent of Napoli's goals this season.

Keeping Higuain under control is certainly the main objective to any opponent, and AC Milan will be no exception on Monday night. But trying to do that one-on-one when he has the ball at his feet has been nigh-on impossible this year. He's scored in four straight games or more four separate times this year and has an incredible seven multi-goal games.

Containing him directly in the form he's in might be too tall an order for any team—especially Milan, whose defense is still rising from the doldrums and who may well be without star center back Alessio Romagnoli after Milan's official web site reported he sat out Friday's training after coming down with the flu (h/t Football Italia).

But direct containment isn't the only option available to an opponent. Last week's game between Napoli and Juventus has shown there is a second option available—denying Higuain the chance to ever come in contact with the ball in the first place.

This strategy starts in the midfield—which is where Jorginho and Riccardo Montolivo come in.

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Jorginho has been revitalized under Maurizio Sarri. After hardly finding the field last year under Rafael Benitez, he's played in 22 games this season (19 of them starts) and has turned into the engine of the team. According to WhoScored, he has completed 91 percent of his passes and averaged 1.8 key passes per game. It's his passing ability that gets Higuain and Lorenzo Insigne going.

Last week against Juventus, he wasn't able to set the table. Not only did Juve's defense do an incredible job keeping any and all deliveries away from Higuain, but their midfielders hardly gave Jorginho, Marek Hamsik and Allan any space.

Claudio Marchisio in particular was everywhere, sallying forth from his regista position to completely disrupt the Napoli midfield. WhoScored clocked him at one tackle and an impressive four interceptions. It was this effort, combined with the solid defensive performances of Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci, that held Higuain to a single shot and Napoli as a whole to seven—only one of which found the target.

Even though Jorginho completed more than 92 percent of his passes, he didn't register a single key pass and couldn't trigger the attack.

For Milan, the player most analogous to Marchisio is Montolivo. He's the only real regista on the roster, and even though coach Sinisa Mihajlvoic has been playing without a true regista since the calendar turned to 2016, Monty is still the closest he has to a natural at that position.

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This season, Montolivo's play suggests that he could do what Marchisio did. He has averaged two tackles and four interceptions in his 22 games, which suggests that he could be up to the task. If he can be the kind of disruptive force that Marchisio was a week ago, Milan could keep Higuain and Insigne—who together account for 67 percent of their team's goals—away from the ball and away from the goal.

The midfield battle is always important, but in this game it could be the ultimate key. If Montolivo and the rest of Milan's midfield can shackle Sarri's mids, it would deprive their top striker of their vital service.

Given the fact that Milan may have to field a makeshift line with Romagnoli out—and that the unit is generally inconsistent to begin with—it will be imperative for the midfield to do their part in keeping the ball away from Napoli's dangerous forwards. If they do it, they will have a much better chance of stealing the game at the San Paolo.