open his pre-match presser<\/a>, Gasperini gave an update on the status of his squad.<\/p>\n\u201cIn terms of numbers, yes, because we can have 23 players on our squad list \u2013 that\u2019s what UEFA allows us, particularly for the Champions League. At the moment we still have two spots free, so that\u2019s where we are with numbers. Aside from that, we\u2019ve had four players join us. We\u2019ve got [Nahuel] Molina, who is an important player. He played in the World Cup final and he\u2019s been world champion. He\u2019s already a mature and solid player. He\u2019s come in to replace [Zeki] Celik. Since May, [Artem] Dovbyk and [Evan] Ferguson have left, and [Santiago] Castro has come in. He\u2019s definitely a quality player. Then we\u2019ve got [Konstantinos] Koulierakis, the sort of player we were lacking in defence. We were missing a player with his characteristics behind [Mario] Hermoso. Lastly, we\u2019ve now got [Rodrigo] Mora. Compared to May, [Stephan] El Shaarawy, [Lorenzo] Venturino and [Bryan] Zaragoza have left so we\u2019ll try to replace them. One has arrived and I\u2019m hoping another will too. Angelino and [Kostas] Tsimikas have also left and hopefully we\u2019ll be able to replace them too. We\u2019re certainly reducing the squad but also trying to make it more competitive. Regarding the lads that have arrived, I\u2019m very happy. They\u2019re all players that really wanted to join Roma. Castro took the train to get here quicker and all the others were similar, including Rodrigo Mora. Contracts have obviously been cut, as I said earlier, due to the need to reduce the wage bill. In this respect, I think we\u2019ve done a good job. There are still ten days to go and we\u2019re hoping everything will be finalised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, Gasperini noted that he does anticipate a left-wing signing, but only if it adds value to the squad. He doesn\u2019t expect any sales because those players would be hard to replace so late in the window. That would bode well for Mat\u00edas Soul\u00e9, who is rumored to be out of favor with GPG. Gasperini also spoke highly of his pre-season in the presser.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a great first half of the season and then he had this groin issue. When he came back for pre-seasons, he\u2019d been out for quite a while and had been trying to treat the problem. He arrived quite overweight and wasn\u2019t fully recovered. However, during this pre-season, he\u2019s been amazing. He\u2019s been exceptional. He\u2019s bounced back and I have to say that he\u2019s now in excellent shape. He put in some great performances in pre-season friendlies and has recovered brilliantly, both physically as far as the groin issue is concerned, and in terms of his athleticism and fitness. So, in that respect too, I believe he\u2019s fully recovered and back to the level he was at in the first half of last season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Updates were also given on the fitness of players who entered pre-season a bit late because of World Cup participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWesley had to miss the World Cup but he trained in pre-season, and fitness-wise he\u2019s in good shape. Ndicka and Malen came back a bit later.<\/p>\n
\u201cNdicka\u2019s physique allows him to recover quite quickly. He struggled a little at the start but he looked good in our last friendly against Dortmund.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup had a bit of an impact on Malen, more psychologically than physically, but playing for Roma and feeling important for this team \u2013 not just with his goals but also with his leadership \u2013 will help him to get back to his best.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there\u2019s Kone, who came back last. He\u2019s another one who returns to fitness quite quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Neil] El Aynaoui is somewhere in between. But it\u2019s perfectly normal when you have players coming back at different times and at different stages. It doesn\u2019t take long \u2013 just a week or two more.<\/p>\n
\u201cMolina played in the final with Argentina too and only got here this week. But he too manages to get back into shape pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the players mentioned who entered preseason late, all but El Aynaoui are expected to get the go-ahead from the opening whistle on Monday. Another player who has looked particularly sharp in preseason and is expected to be the focal point on Monday is Paulo Dybala\u2014ink freshly dried on his one-year contract renewal. Gasperini spoke about what he\u2019s noticed from Dybala.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely. He\u2019s not just determined – I saw that from him last season too, he\u2019s always very determined – but now I can see that he\u2019s stronger. He\u2019s managed to complete a pre-season without injuries, which he hasn\u2019t been able to do for a long time. Obviously, we\u2019re always crossing our fingers because in my opinion he was extremely unlucky last season. I remember two of his injuries: one taking a penalty in Milan and another taking a free-kick against Torino. They really were rare cases. One of them resulted in a meniscus injury and kept him out for three and a half months.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, from a physical perspective, he seems to me a much more toned player. Of course, he might not have the speed and the shooting power he had when he was younger, but he\u2019s improved in all respects and in other areas too. He\u2019s the type of player that, if you take him off occasionally, can be substituted but otherwise he always finishes matches feeling a lot fresher that a lot of the others. I think he\u2019s in good form. He\u2019s a relatively young player \u2013 he\u2019s 32 now \u2013 and he\u2019s still very strong and at the peak of his technical and physical maturity. I think he\u2019ll have a great season. Of course, let\u2019s hope there aren\u2019t any anomalies like there were last year, because those were two extremely rare incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molina appears to be the one new addition who is a lock to start on the right, with Wesley continuing to play on the left of the midfield four. However, there could be a surprise inclusion of another newcomer\u2014Rodrigo Mora\u2014who is said to be in a battle with Soul\u00e9 for a starting spot. Gasperini also spoke about the Portuguese teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve been pretty clear on this. Rodrigo Mora is a player who played for Porto and whose development followed a different path to that of the other lads. The comparisons you\u2019re making are a little unbalanced. Those other lads will probably go on to have excellent careers but Rodrigo Mora is a bit further ahead. I don\u2019t think you can make comparisons. That said, Rodrigo Mora is still a very young player \u2013 he\u2019s 19. I don\u2019t know what kind of expectations you have; mine are that he\u2019s a player who can definitely help us. He\u2019s a talented player. But I don\u2019t think you can place the responsibility of being a leader at a Champions League team on him at the age of 19. Perhaps he will become one, I certainly hope so. But as someone who\u2019s worked in football for years, you know very well that there are certain steps that need to be taken even by these very talented youngsters.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll tip Soul\u00e8 since Mora hasn\u2019t been here long, but don\u2019t be surprised if Gasperini gives him a look from the jump.<\/p>\n
ROMA (3-4-2-1):<\/strong> Svilar, Mancini, Ndicka, Hermoso; Molina, Kon\u00e9, Cristante, Wesley; Dybala, Soul\u00e9; Malen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With no major sales to speak of and Zeki \u00c7elik the only player departing so far who played…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1020514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[100872,408304,408305,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1020513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-match-previews","tag-matchday-coverage","tag-serie-a-2026-2027","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117149219312138558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}