“There is a medical report for Angelino and they are doing tests. It’s not something I can talk about. You have to trust what the doctors say. We hope to have him back as quickly as possible. Apart from him, fingers crossed, everyone is available at the moment.”
Gian Piero Gasperini thus paved the way for his entire team apart from Angeliño for Thursday’s match against Viktoria Plzen. However, the manager also ruled out the possibility of seeing Leon Bailey from the start after making his season debut on Saturday.
“I repeat what I have said many times before: whoever plays is the first choice, both the starters and the substitutes. He can play and whoever plays is the first choice. Unfortunately, only as far as the rules allow. The others cannot play. In this specific case, it is unlikely that he will start because he has been out for a long time. The most important thing is that he has recovered physically. It will take a few weeks for him to get back into shape, but he will be able to contribute during the match.”
And Gasperini did not want to specify who his number one striker is, but for the moment, Artem Dovbyk is tipped to start.
“Nowadays, strikers have to alternate in every club in Italy and Europe. Just look at the substitutions made. On Saturday, Inter brought in [Francesco Pio] Esposito. With five substitutes, at least two of them are attackers. This is what we have seen since Covid, with the rule of five submarines. Like I said, everyone who plays is a first choice. When you play two games a week, you have the chance to use a lot of players in the same game, especially in attack. Just look at the transfer activity of all clubs and the substitutions made in each match. You try to get back into the game or kill it with your attackers. That’s why it’s like that.
He should be joined in attack by Stephan El Shaarawy and Paulo Dybala. With Dovbyk up front, Dybala will return to his more traditional role behind the striker after being deployed as a false 9 against Inter. And based on Gasperini’s comments, this is something we might see again in the future, but not in this match.
“The match was affected by the fact that we conceded a goal very early. The idea was to play with a “light”, very technical trio, so that our opponents would have difficulty following us. This is partly what happened at the end of the match in Florence. In any case, I am happy with what we tried to do. It was the right thing at that moment. Conceding so early gave us some problems. In the second half it was a different match, in part because of what we did and partly because Inter filed. That’s why I say you have to look at the whole 90 minutes, because over 90 minutes you could have two or three different matches. It was difficult to start the match with the configuration we had at the end. I don’t think this is feasible. The games evolve, but the first half was bad. What happened next was partly the result of what happened in the first half. Not for Dybala. I think he is a player who is in good shape, who is improving and who can play anywhere attack. The main thing is that he is in good shape.
Besides Soulé, Bryan Cristante and Evan Ndicka could also rest on this one. Neil El Ayanoui should form the central midfield duo with Manu Koné. Meanwhile, Gasperini was asked about the possibility of Jan Ziolkowski starting in the bottom three.
“No, I wasn’t surprised because I see him in training. He is a player with great hopes who is already a Polish international. He has shown his qualities in training. We will have to see. He has this habit – which he needs to work on – of often slipping in tackles. And in Serie A this can be a problem because at the first contact you can be warned. This is the only fault we are trying to work on, but otherwise I am sure he has excellent future I I don’t have. decided for tomorrow again. The only thing is that Cristante and Ndicka will train separately as they haven’t had a full week of training in a while. I will decide today after the last training session whether to use it from the start or from the bench.
While we could see Ziolkowski starting this one, it’s more likely that Mario Hermoso gets the nod.
ROMS (3-4-2-1): Sviar; Gaelic, Mancini, Hermos; Wesley, Koné, his father, Tsimikas; Tobala, El Caurawy; Dobb.
