“Regarding our general condition, the team is definitely in a better place than it has been the last 15-20 days, around the end of December and start of January. [Evan] Ndicka is back and we got through the suspensions of [Mario] Hermoso, [Gianluca] Mancini and [Bryan] Cristante. [Lorenzo] Pellegrini will return and probably Ferguson too. He picked up a nasty knock but he seems to have got over it after a week. We’ll look at him today and he could be in the squad. We have two new signings and that
helps us numbers-wise. We’re going to Torino upset after getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia but we’ve had some excellent results in the league and we’re in a good position, so it will be a different game.
“As for the new players, Vaz has trained twice and Malen once. They’re two completely different signings. One is clearly for the future: a very young, quality player who we’ll get to know over time. The other is Malen, who is a Netherlands international, and I’m very happy he’s joined. I think it was made possible partly thanks to Ryan Friedkin being here; otherwise it would have been very difficult. It was organised very quickly: when the opportunity arose, I spoke to Ryan and [Frederic] Massara, we got the green light and the deal was wrapped up in a very short space of time.
“I think we’ve signed a really good player and I’m sure he’ll do very well. He has the right qualities but like any new player he might need a bit of time to settle in before he can play consistently. However, he played quite a lot at Aston Villa and he regularly starts for the Netherlands. I’m sure he’ll be very popular.”
Gian Piero Gasperini provided positive updates ahead of Roma’s trip to Turin, as the Giallorossi aim to avenge two previous losses to the Granata this season. The recoveries of players like Pellegrini, along with Ndicka’s return from AFCON, and the availability of both new signings for this match mean that Gasperini’s bench will be significantly stronger compared to Tuesday’s Coppa Italia loss to the same Torino side.
With Ndicka returning from AFCON, Gasperini will have his preferred starting defense back in play. Expect to see the Ivorian anchoring the back line alongside Mancini and Hermoso. Gasperini also mentioned that Ndicka is now focused on the Giallorossi after spending nearly a month with the Ivory Coast national team.
“That’s an important point because when players come back from these competitions it always takes a while to readapt to what can be different habits. A month away is a long time. We haven’t had much time. I put him straight back in then he had one training session and another today. Obviously it’s a different way of playing to what he’s used to with his national team. Here you need great focus in marking, which is a bit tighter. Hopefully he’ll be able to revert immediately to the focus levels he had before, which were exceptional. We’ll see that tomorrow. In any case, it’s only a matter of days or perhaps a week. Hopefully he’ll be in the right condition for Roma tomorrow.”
One place where Roma will still be shorthanded is up front, where both Evan Ferguson and Artem Dovbyk. That means it could be a surprise start for Malen after just one training session, as the club currently views him as a center-forward.
“We’ll see. We can’t be thinking too much about the future now. At the moment, he’s a centre forward. That’s the position he prefers, where he can exploit his pace and his ability to shoot quickly and powerfully with both feet. So I think he needs to play close to the goal.”
If it is Malen leading the line, he’ll be supported by Paulo Dybala and Matías Soulé. Meanwhile, the central midfield will feature Bryan Cristante and Manu Koné, and the wings will be manned by Wesley and Zeki Çelik.
ROMA (3-4-2-1): Svilar; Mancini, Ndicka, Hermoso; Wesley, Koné, Cristante, Çelik; Soulé, Dybala; Malen.
