Some fixtures in a season really feel like checkpoints; succeed, and it’s good, however fail, and it’s not completely deadly. Different fixtures really feel like verdicts. Roma’s journey to the Maradona tomorrow is the second sort. It is a straight-up, six-point affair towards a direct rival, in a stadium that doesn’t imagine in mercy, with the Champions League race operating proper by means of it. Napoli sit third on 49 factors; Roma are fifth on 46, stage with Juventus within the final CL spot and with no margin for “good losses.”
Roma’s case for belonging has been constructed on management and denial by means of their protection. They’ve conceded 15 targets all season, the stingiest report within the league and among the many stingiest in Europe. Nonetheless, management solely counts in case you can money it in towards the groups that additionally anticipate to be within the Champions League alongside you. That’s the knife-edge. Roma have all the time had a defensive identification this season, and Daniele Ghilardi’s rise has solely deepened it. But with accidents nonetheless biting, there’s sufficient attacking uncertainty that “some extent away at Napoli” stops sounding like pragmatism and begins sounding like drift.
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Match Particulars
Date: February fifteenth
Kickoff: 20:45 CET/2:45 EST
Venue: Stadio Maradona, Napoli
Referee: Andrea Colombo
Beneath Antonio Conte, Napoli have lived on the opposite facet of the pitch—they’ve all the time discovered success on the assault, however their protection has given up 9 extra targets than the Giallorossi’s. They’re nonetheless shut sufficient to really feel like they’re within the title race—six factors off Inter, one behind Milan—and so they’ve been residing on late drama currently, together with a last-gasp penalty win at Genoa that saved them in contact on the high. Additionally they beat Roma 1–0 on the Olimpico earlier this season, so in my thoughts, meaning Roma can’t simply put in a “good effort” tomorrow. As Don Draper as soon as mentioned, in case you don’t like what’s being mentioned, change the dialog; what higher technique to change the dialog than with a win?
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What to Watch ForCan We Get One other Contact of Malen Insanity?
Donyell Malen has walked into Roma’s assault as if he forgot that Roma strikers are alleged to take a month to “settle in.” He arrives from Aston Villa, will get thrown on in Turin, and inside half an hour he’s already doing what Roma have begged for all yr: a ahead who turns one half-decent second right into a objective with out asking the goalie’s permission first. That debut strike within the 2–0 win over Torino was the clearest signal but that Roma may lastly have a finisher who treats probabilities as one thing greater than a suggestion.
Since then, Malen has in some way gone even additional than probably the most hopeful model of the story Romanisti had believed in when he was signed. His brace towards Cagliari is the clearest instance: two targets, three factors, and a match that by no means needed to turn out to be some sweaty ninetieth-minute freak-out as a result of Roma lastly had a ahead who might finish sequences as a substitute of extending them. With that brace, he’s at three targets in his first 4 matches, which has utterly overturned Roma’s “why can’t they shoot” narrative in lower than a month. The Dutchman is direct, fast to shoot, and forces defenses to show and run. It’s a breath of recent air, fairly frankly.
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If Roma win tomorrow, it’s onerous to not image a Malen objective on the heart of it. He simply has to get one run off the shoulder, one clear end, and out of the blue the entire night time will learn in a different way. Napoli will be wonderful, however they’re not sealed shut defensively: of their final Serie A match, they conceded twice to Genoa and wanted a stoppage-time penalty to flee, with the equalizer coming off a defensive mistake. That’s the opening, if Roma can manufacture it. The ask is straightforward: the midfield simply has to feed Malen constantly. Napoli will leak in case you preserve forcing the difficulty; Malen is at the moment Roma’s sharpest technique to do it.
Midfield Questions: Pisilli or El Aynaoui?
Roma’s midfield pecking order has been quietly reshuffled over the past couple of months, and two names are probably the most accountable. Niccolò Pisilli’s inventory has risen the old school approach: he’s compelled Gian Piero Gasperini to maintain writing his title in pen after a fall the place appearances had been onerous to come back by. Two targets towards Stuttgart within the Europa League introduced that this child isn’t only a substitute; he’s an actual possibility for now and for the longer term.
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In the meantime, Neil El Aynaoui’s rise has come on a unique stage, however it counts the identical. AFCON turned him from “a helpful rotational midfielder for Roma” into “Morocco’s midfield star,” and the receipts are there: he took the TotalEnergies Man of the Match towards Mali, then stepped up and transformed within the shootout win over Nigeria on the best way to the ultimate. That form of month modifications how a participant carries himself again at membership stage: much less audition, extra possession. It additionally modifications who’s attempting to pry him out of Roma’s arms, however that’s a narrative for an additional article.
Right here’s why all of this issues tomorrow: Manu Koné’s ongoing (irritating) harm state of affairs has left Roma needing one other actual midfielder to start out in a vital match. Reviews across the membership have handled Koné’s harm as a significant layoff, so Roma wants considered one of Pisilli or El Aynaoui to start out on the Maradona and provides the staff legs, duels, and ahead momentum. Even with Scott McTominay out, Napoli have the form of offensive firepower that may make you defend in waves. They may punish empty possessions. In an ideal world? This stops being an both/or query by late spring. I hope that Gian Piero Gasperini will discover a technique to make this “selection” flip right into a “each, after all,” and let that be the brand new regular. For now, although, whoever will get the beginning must be famous, as it can present simply who GPG sees as the longer term.