6 days ago
2
Roma roll into the Via del Mare today under a cloud of frustration and attrition. After a sloppy 1-0 loss to Atalanta where the Giallorossi controlled the ball but lacked punch in the final third, Gasperini’s men now face a Lecce side trying to scratch their way out of the relegation battle. While Roma’s recent run of results hasn’t been catastrophic, the momentum the squad had been building through much of the fall has stalled, and it feels at times like they’re playing with one hand tied behind their back. With Lorenzo Pellegrini still sidelined and Roma’s entire world-class defense unavailable, this is an improvised Roma—and Roma’s ability to hold on to a place in the top depends on the next men up.
The result is a starting XI that feels more functional than fluent: Svilar is thankfully still in goal, but he’s supported a back three of Çelik, Ziolkowski, and Ghilardi stitched together more out of availability than chemistry. Wesley and El Shaarawy have been asked to provide the width and energy from the wing-back positions, while in midfield, Koné and Pisilli will be tasked with doing a lot of quiet, unglamorous work to keep things balanced. If I had to guess from looking at this lineup, Dybala will be a free-floating attacking midfielder, while Cristante is put in the slightly awkward double pivot with the Argentine. Ferguson leads the line up top, indicating that Artem Dovbyk’s time in Rome is most likely practically over. This is not the dominant lineup that got Roma into the Champions League conversation, but it is a lineup that should be able to do the job against Eusebio Di Francesco’s men.
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