Roma return from the international break with their toughest test of the young season when they host Inter Milan at the Olimpico later today. So, Gian Piero Gasperini will need to ensure his lineup choices and tactics are just right if Roma are to beat last year’s Champions League finalists.
For this match, Gasperini will be without Angeliño and Leon Bailey, who is still not ready to return from the injury suffered during his first training session with Roma. Gasperini was asked about Bailey during his pre-match press conference.
“No, I certainly didn’t expect it. We were all hoping his injury would be less serious, but it took as long as it took. The only good thing is that we’re pretty close now. I think he should be available in a week or two.” I don’t think he’ll come right in and get going. It will take time. But we need to start looking to the future. I certainly think he’s a player who can help us a lot. He offers slightly different things to the other players in the squad. He is a player we all count on.
And with Angeliño’s absence, Kostas Tsimikas is expected to replace the Spaniard. Gasperini left open the possibility that Devyne Rensch also plays on the left.
“It’s an option. We have [Kostas] Tsimikas at left back, then we have Rensch and Wesley who can play on the left. We have these three players and two of them will play.
One of the key men Gasperini was asked about is Paulo Dybala, who returned from injury to play 30 minutes against Fiorentina before the international break.
“Everyone knows the options available to us and we won’t give them up. Like everyone else who stayed, Dybala had a good two weeks. We were able to train well. It was certainly helpful for him and [Lorenzo] Pellegrini, and for everyone in fact. “I have to say I’m happy with what we’ve done. Of course you have a better idea of how the players who remained are doing. It’s a bit more difficult to know how the players who were on international duty are doing. A lot of them have played, some a little more, some a little less. That’s always the big question mark that everyone has after the international break.”
Now, the latest reports coming out of the peninsula suggest that Dybala could actually start this match with a false 9 to distract attention from Inter’s three central defenders. As a Dybala starter, Gasperini would lose a physical presence in attack but would gain fluidity in the exchanges between Dybala, Matías Soulé and Lorenzo Pellegrini.
If Pellegrini starts, he could also be tasked with trying to take Hakan Çalhanoglu out of the game defensively, as he was tasked with doing with Niccoló Rovella in the derby.
“Yes, it’s an option. When we play, there are always different options, not just one. But it’s definitely one of our options.”
Meanwhile, further back in midfield, don’t expect any changes in the Manu Koné-Bryan Cristante pairing for a match of this magnitude despite the good performance of Niccolò Pisilli for the Italian U21s.
“He has no difficulty in a two or three player midfield. He is a player with enormous potential. At the moment we have excellent players. Would you like to leave out [Manu] Koné or [Bryan] Cristante? Currently Koné, Cristante and [Neil] El Ayanoui plays. Actually, Pisilli has played and I hope that with time he will play more, but at the moment others are playing. “We have a very strong, very solid core, which is always there, whether we win or lose, which constantly produces top-notch performances and results. Then we have a bunch of players, young people, who are improving and growing. Now we will have Dybala back and soon we should have [Leon] Bailey too. And then we have Pellegrini back, [Devyne] Rensch, El Ayanoui… We don’t just have eight or nine players. It is obvious that more is needed. It’s a team and in some areas we have an abundance of them. You need more matches to get better performances.
ROME (3-4-2-1): svilar; Çelik, Mancini, Ndicka; Wesley, Koné, Cristante, Tsimikas; Soulé, Pellegrini; Dybala.
