“Dovbyk is not ready yet, so he won’t be called up; hopefully he will be back the following week. He’s training, he’s getting ready, but he can’t kick the ball yet. Apart from that, our week had some breaks in between because of Christmas, but we were still able to work, even though there’s a bug going around. Our main problem right now concerns Mario Hermoso and we still have to decide what to do tomorrow. He’s got a form of groin injury and we have to decide whether he’ll be able to play or not.”
“Certainly not having Pellegrini is a problem for us. He’s been a player we’ve relied on a lot, even though he underperformed in our last few matches, but he also had some great performances. Unfortunately, injuries happen.”
Those were the latest updates from Gian Piero Gasperini on the injury front. Add in Evan Ndicka and Neil El Aynaoui, who are away at AFCON, and Roma is down a considerable number of players. Gasperini pointed out that Roma will need to manage a very busy period as they approach the end of 2025 and the start of 2026.
“We’re about to have nine games in one month with two players at the Africa Cup of Nations, Pellegrini, Dovbyk recovering, Bailey and Hermoso. We’ll have to give it everything and aim as high as we can. Everyone must do their very best.”
Gasperini seemed to be holding out a slight hope that Hermoso could be ready to play against Genoa on Monday. However, that looks increasingly unlikely, which means Roma will again have to play the same makeshift backline we saw against Juve. That would consist of Gianluca Mancini, supported by Jan Ziolkowski and Devyne Rensch.
It appears Gasperini prefers to keep Zeki Çelik at right wing-back and Wesley at left wing-back rather than slide the Turk into the three-man backline. With El Aynaoui away on international duty, the central midfield pairing will again be Bryan Cristante and Manu Koné.
Gasperini was also asked about making a choice between Dybala and Ferguson up top.
“I’ve already explained that Dybala is a top-level player if in the right physical condition. And that is exactly what the question was about, why Dybala and not Ferguson. So I stand by what I said. Dybala is a high-level player and his condition is clearly not good. My goal is for him to reach optimal physical condition because it’s hard to have another player with his quality. Then, if other problems emerge, he doesn’t always perform as well as he could. If I have to choose between this type of player and another one, I will always choose Dybala. It wasn’t about Ferguson. Ferguson needs to perform well.
“Compared to Dybala, since he’s 21, he’s very young. They just can’t be compared from a technical point of view, but they can be compared in terms of ambition, wanting to succeed, knowing where he stands, and taking the other player’s place by using attributes that are more suited to the game than Dybala’s. I know that distinguishing these things is sometimes hard, but it’s true.”
It’s expected that Dybala starts this match with Gasperini choosing between Stephan El Shaarawy or Tommaso Baldanzi in the attacking midfield place usually manned by Pellegrini.
ROMA (3-4-2-1): Svilar; Mancini, Ziolkowski, Rensch; Çelik, Cristante, Koné, Wesley; Soulé, El Shaarawy; Dybala.
