It isn’t easy being a Roma academy product. While there are countless successful players scattered across Europe who trained with the Giallorossi in their youth, the number of players who are able to train with the Giallorossi Primavera
system and then stay in a Roma kit as a senior player is quite low. Even if you do break through into the senior side, a drop in form may make the Director of Sport look at you more as a plusvalenza waiting to happen than a future building block. Just ask Lorenzo Pellegrini what that feels like—and he’s the most successful Roma academy graduate to stay with Roma since Daniele De Rossi.
That’s the environment that Niccolò Pisilli is facing right now as an exciting 21-year-old prospect for club and country. Pisilli had a breakthrough season for Roma’s first team during the 2024-2025 campaign, making 41 total appearances and scoring 3 goals and 1 assist; by comparison, this season has been a bit of a dud for the youngster. He’s been used almost exclusively off the bench, logging only a handful of minutes in Serie A so far, and he’s certainly not recreating the attacking impact he managed last year. With Roma continuing to add competition for midfield places and looking to tie young players to long contracts as part of a broader transfer strategy, the club has reportedly been open to offers to send Pisilli out on loan so he can find regular minutes—a reminder of how quickly promise can be remodeled into pragmatism at the club.
There’s no doubt that the Giallorossi still value Pisilli; that’s why Frederic Massara politely declined Tottenham Hotspur’s inquiries over the summer regarding Pisilli’s availability for a permanent move. Yet I can’t help but wonder why Pisilli hasn’t been able to find space in the starting eleven under Gian Piero Gasperini, particularly in the context of his very impressive play over this international break for the Azzurrini. The U-21 side’s most recent match against Sweden was practically the Pisilli show, with the youngster dictating the tempo with ease and scoring two in the first half to put the result beyond doubt.
Maybe the best way to describe Gasperini’s handling of Pisilli so far is cautious. Gasperini has always demanded tactical precision from his midfielders, and Pisilli’s strength—his natural inclination to push forward, combine, and break lines—doesn’t always align with that demand for faultless structure. Pisilli thrived last year when he ws given license to roam, but under Gasperini, every player needs to stick to their role religiously. Roma’s midfield already leans heavily on players like Bryan Cristante and Manu Koné to anchor possession and dictate tempo, which often forces the third midfielder to do the dirty work off the ball. Perhaps Pisilli, despite his work rate, is just taking a bit longer to learn how to apply that side of his game within Gasperini’s meticulous system.
Another factor is that Gasperini seems to be in the middle of recalibrating Roma’s midfield identity altogether. His tactics emphasize verticality and man-oriented pressing, but Roma’s squad and youth players were trained under a different philosophy, one favoring controlled buildup more than Gasperini does. That means young academy players, Pisilli included, are being asked to adapt not only to Serie A pace but to a whole new tactical grammar. Players with more experience handling pressure and positional rotations like Koné have been given the early nod (and for good reason, Koné‘s been superb), while Pisilli has found himself on the outside looking in, despite his clear technical gifts.
Then there’s the historical precedent that might explain why Pisilli has been riding the pine. Gasperini’s storied history with youth development shows a pattern: when he’s been handed world-class talents like Dejan Kulusevski, Alessandro Bastoni, and Jeremie Boga, Gasperini often holds youngsters back until they’ve internalized every tactical demand, only to unleash them all at once. Pisilli might simply be in that same incubation phase those future stars went through under GPG.
I’m not entirely against Pisilli going on loan to gain minutes, but I’m skeptical that experience with a small side would seriously prepare him for the environment that has crushed many Roma academy graduates before. What Pisilli really needs isn’t just playing time, it’s playing time in a system that challenges him the right way. A mid-table Serie A loan where the midfield is often bypassed by long balls and second balls might give him minutes, but it won’t refine the traits Gasperini will want once he returns to Trigoria. Pisilli’s best growth would come from learning to thrive within Gasperini’s structure, not away from it. Gasperini’s Roma will live and die by tactical intelligence: knowing when to break lines, when to track back, and when to rotate out of possession. That’s the kind of rhythm you only learn inside a team that plays with that same precision. Sending him elsewhere, where he’s the most talented player on the pitch but doesn’t have to think the same way, could risk unlearning what he’s been trying to absorb.
Overall, I’d say the best-case scenario is that Gasperini is slow-cooking Pisilli for the long term like he did with Kulusevski and the rest, instead of freezing him out or prepping him for a loan away. If Pisilli can perform for the Giallorossi like he did for the Azzurrini, with a strong blend of confidence and control, it’s hard to imagine Roma—or Gasperini—keeping the youngster benched much longer.
