“There’s a medical report for Angelino and they’re running tests. It’s not something I can talk about. You have to go on what the doctors say. We hope to have him back as soon as possible. Apart from him,
fingers crossed, everyone is available at the moment.”
With that Gian Piero Gasperini cleared the way for his entire roster outside of Angeliño for Thursday’s match against Viktoria Plzen. However, the manager also ruled out the possibility of seeing Leon Bailey from the start after he made his season debut on Saturday.
“I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times before: anyone who plays is a first choice, both the starters and the subs. He could play and anyone who plays is a first choice. Unfortunately only within what the rules allow. The others can’t play. In this specific case, he’s unlikely to start because he’s been out for a long time. The most important thing is he’s recovered physically. It will take him a few weeks to get back into peak condition but he’s able to contribute during the game.”
And Gasperini wouldn’t clarify who his number one striker is, but at the moment Artem Dovbyk is being tipped to start.
“Nowadays strikers have to rotate at every club in Italy and Europe. Just look at the substitutions made. On Saturday Inter brought on [Francesco Pio] Esposito. With five subs, at least a couple of them are forwards. That’s what we’ve seen since Covid, with the five subs rule. As I said, everyone who plays is a first choice. When you’re playing two games a week, you have the chance to use lots of players in the same game, especially up front. You only need to look at the transfer activity of all the clubs and substitutions made in every match. You try to get back into the game or kill it off with your attackers. That’s why it’s like this.”
He’s expected to be joined in attack by Stephan El Shaarawy and Paulo Dybala. With Dovbyk leading the line, Dybala will return to his more traditional role behind the striker after being deployed as a false 9 against Inter. And based on the comments from Gasperini, it’s something we could see again moving forward—just not this match.
“The game was affected by the fact we conceded a very early goal. The plan was to play with a ‘light’, very technical front three to make it hard for our opponents to keep tabs on us. Partly what happened at the end of the game in Florence. In any case, I’m happy with what we tried to do. It was the right thing at the time. Conceding so early on caused a few problems for us. It was a different game in the second half, partly because of what we did and partly because Inter dropped off. That’s why I say that you have to look at the whole 90 minutes because over 90 minutes you might have two or three different games. It was difficult to start the game with the set-up we had at the end. I don’t think it was feasible. Games evolve, but the first half was bad. What happened afterwards was partly a result of what happened in the first half. Not for Dybala. I think he’s a player who’s in good shape, who’s getting better, and who can play anywhere in attack. The main thing is he’s fit.”
In addition to Soulé, Bryan Cristante and Evan Ndicka could be rested in this in one as well. Neil El Ayanoui is expected to form the central midfield pairing with Manu Koné. Meanwhile, Gasperini was asked about the possibility of Jan Ziolkowski starting in the back three.
“No, I wasn’t surprised because I see him in training. He’s a player with great prospects who’s already a Poland international. He’s shown his qualities in training. We’ll have to see. He has this habit – which is something he needs to work on – of often sliding into tackles. And in Serie A that can be a problem because the first time you make contact you can get booked. That’s the only flaw we’re trying to work on, but otherwise I’m sure he has an excellent future. I haven’t decided for tomorrow yet. The only thing is Cristante and Ndicka will train separately as they haven’t had a full week of training for a while. I’ll decide today after the final training session whether to use him from the start or from the bench.”
While we could see Ziolkowski start this one, it’s more likely that Mario Hermoso is given the starting nod.
Probable Formation
ROMA (3-4-2-1): Svilar; Çelik, Mancini, Hermoso; Wesley, Koné, El Aynaoui, Tsimikas; Dybala, El Shaarawy; Dovbyk.
