SB Nation • 6 min read

Probable Formation: Roma vs Lille

“The fatigue of the past few matches is not physical, but it can affect the players’ mental energy. It’s not easy to go on after a derby, which is very tiring. The first Europa League match and then Verona.

Verona were more proactive than we were. And scoring early on may have had an impact. But I never thought it was a physical problem. Between the match in Nice and Sunday there was also an extra day of rest. We also need to think about our opponent. You may think that out of the three matches Verona would be the least tricky, but then the match turned out to be very complex. These are the habits we need to pick up. In today’s football world, you always play three games. It needs to become the norm, rather than the exception.”

Those were the words of Gian Piero Gasperini when he was asked about rotating his line-up for Roma’s second match of the week. We should see some changes tomorrow at the Olimpico. However, one place where we likely won’t see much change is in defense where he seemed to shoot down the idea of starting either of his young center-backs, Daniele Ghilardi or Jan Ziolkowski.

“We’re doing very well defensively and many players are getting a chance to play. 19 players in the squad have already played three times and we’ve played a total of six matches, including the Coppa Italia game. [Mario] Hermoso, [Evan] Ndicka, [Gianluca] Mancini and [Zeki] Celik are the ones who have played the most. Ziolkowski made his debut on Sunday, Ghilardi will too in the future. They’re both promising players. They’ll do well. The defense’s results are very good; all the players will get their chance.”

One area where we might see a change is at the top, where Evan Ferguson is expected to start after consecutive starts for Artem Dovbyk.

“Ferguson is a young player: he’s 21 years old. He had a very good season two years ago. Last year he struggled because of an injury. He joined another team in January and didn’t play much. We’re trying to get him back to the level he was at, as at that point there were great expectations. He’s working hard, he’s doing well, we’ve been alternating between him and Dovbyk. What matters is that both of them grow from a physical point of view, first and foremost. We’ll work on the rest later on.”

That being said, Gasperini will likely rely on Matías Soulé as his creative force in attack again, with Paulo Dybala and Leon Bailey still on the shelf.

“As I said earlier, to me, there is no physical problem. The only issue we could have with playing so frequently could be injuries, but fortunately that hasn’t happened to us yet. We are also playing in different temperatures now; in our previous matches it was very hot. Players might suffer from some cramps, but they recover. Perhaps we have fewer alternatives upfront with [Leon] Bailey and [Paulo] Dybala out. And that forces us to use the same players, whether from the start or during the game.”