Gasperini's comments ahead of Genoa v Roma

Read what the boss had to say below.

You're missing lots of players for this one. Is there something else we don't know about? As for the forwards, will you need an extra midfielder or can Bryan Zaragoza start the game?

“If we keep considering the absence of [Artem] Dovbyk and [Evan] Ferguson we're really in a very difficult situation. Dovbyk has been out for many months and he's had an operation. If everything goes well, he might be able to return for the end of April or early May. So we can't really keep on classifying him as a 'missing' player. The same goes for Ferguson. It's clear now that he'll finish the season here and he'll have an ankle operation. He won't have time to recover before the end of the season. So those two can be removed from the list of missing players.

“As for the others, the situation is more manageable. [Donyell] Malen is available, [Robinio] Vaz is available, [Lorenzo] Venturino. We've got [Stephan] El Shaarawy back. We have [Lorenzo] Pellegrini and Zaragoza. We have enough players to keep playing as we have done until now. [Matias] Soule has been out for a few weeks, but the others haven't been around much.”

Considering Paulo Dybala's injury and the others this season, is there perhaps a communication problem within the medical staff, something that's not quite working as it should?

“No, but I think it would be presumptuous for us to start talking about medical matters. That's a topic where we can't compete with the doctors, who are established professionals. It's true that this season they've had to deal with some very extreme cases. Starting with Ferguson: he came here a year after an operation and had some big initial difficulties after not playing many games last season. He had an excellent spell around December time, I think, then he had this relapse, but it was already a very difficult situation.

“Then we had Angelino, all these situations now, there was [Leon] Bailey, there was Dovbyk, now Dybala. For sure, these aren't situations you come across often in football, because they weren't even muscle related. They're all a bit strange and all different to one another. Obviously having to make do without these players for so long is hard on the team. And yet despite that, we've got where we are and we're moving forward with the best intentions.”

With regard to the dinner you had with Francesco Totti this week, did you talk about a potential technical role, as a technical director or a management figure, who can help you in a more functional way?

“I'm not in a position to talk about these situations. I've been at Roma for eight months. I'd never met Totti before and it's not a topic I brought up. It came up a month ago, not from me, and not even with regard to his role, the centenary and what role. For the last month you've been asking me about Totti in these press conferences. There was this idea of a dinner together and I said, 'Let's do it.' And I think, without wanting to cause problems for anyone, I think it was a perfectly normal dinner where we chatted about football. That's all. Because that's what we have to talk about. I have to say I like the way he talks about football: he's very direct and, like all top-class players, he has very, very direct ways and views, and very high expectations when it comes to players, the team, etc. It was certainly very pleasant for me as I've always been fascinated by people with special talent.”

Malen is going into a period with three games in the space of a week. Do you have a plan for how to manage him? How is Vaz developing?

“No, you can't predict how games will go. We're heading into a stage of the season where every match is important and decisive. The games are coming thick and fast. Serie A is important and the Europa League is make or break. In a week we have the chance to progress in the Europa League, which is a very important competition, and the next two rounds are crucial. We're playing them in between our league matches, which are also becoming decisive. So it makes no sense to make any plans in advance because when you play the game, you can find that during the game... Plus of course we have players close to picking up a suspension, and we can only hope we don't get any more injuries or other small injuries that mean you miss a few games. You really have to look at everything you have from one match to the next, and see how people recover after one or two games, if they can play and how many minutes. You have to use the whole squad. At the moment Vaz is the alternative to Malen. We've spoken before about the boy and obviously with so many back-to-back matches, we're going to need him, [Antonio] Arena, everyone. But how, when, where, we'll see that by playing.”

How do you see Roma in the race for the Champions League spots at this stage of the season, given that your rivals are getting players back? And when do you think Angelino might be available again?

“That I don't know. That's another situation that's hard to predict. He's definitely better. He's definitely training and improving but I don't know in performance terms. He's certainly improved recently but for a while he was completely out, completely inactive, so we'll have to see.

“As for the other question, we're in the mix with everyone else. Everyone's had to deal with some big injuries, lots of teams. It's unpredictable. The kind of injuries we've had were a bit strange and I have 14, 15, maybe 16 hardcore players who have had very few, very brief problems, and unlike other years not even muscle problems, which are the most frequent in football. Unfortunately there have been others, like Bailey out for five months, which add up – by that I mean several players out for many months. But I'm looking forward. I'm looking at the Genoa match. We'll have Genoa, we'll have Bologna, we'll have Como, we'll have Bologna and then we'll have Lecce before the break. Two great weeks – not decisive, because as I keep saying, for now the aim is to stay in the mix, then for April it will be to stay in the mix until May. Things will be decided in May and hopefully we'll be playing for Europe and to be in it. The aim for now is to stay in it.”

Did you see any psychological repercussions on the players after the Juventus match? And have you found any explanations for this tendency in recent games to be on the wrong end of comebacks, for these defensive lapses?

“I don't think there have been all that many really, have there? It depends how you want to look at things. Earlier in the season we lost to both Napoli and Juve. This time round we got two points. We probably could have had more. We were still very disappointed on Tuesday because when you concede a goal one or two minutes from the end it has a bigger impact than, for example, eight or ten minutes from the end against Napoli. Especially after the way the game went. Then you can carry on talking about it or you can start talking about how you took a 3-1 lead, how you played in Naples, talk about the performance, what led you to produce those performances, how certain players played. As always, it depends on how you want to look at things.” 

How are you approaching this game given the hectic fixture list? Will you bear in mind the coming games?

“Look, I find it really difficult to do that. Tomorrow we're playing in Genoa, a stadium I know very well. Genoa are very strong at home, driven on by their fans. We can't be thinking about anything else. We have to get ourselves organised and focus on the team and our performance. They have 27 points and we have 51. That probably means we've done well but if you go into it with all these headaches, all these psychological issues, you run the risk of creating even more for yourself. We must go out there and produce a strong performance. It's a difficult match, as they all are in Serie A. Look at their team, look at ours, see what we can do well and how. We've had lots of away games. This year it's a match worth three points.”

Looking at the second half of the season, Roma have earned more points in head-to-head encounters and scored more goals per game. Is that a consequence of signing Malen? And how is Mario Hermoso?

“Ah, that's nice. Let's talk about these things because it means we're on a positive trend. Well, Malen's certainly made a difference, a big difference, but it wasn't that we were doing terribly without him. With him we have more firepower – that's undeniable. So this is the other half of the glass. We can start to see. Hermoso won't be available tomorrow. We'll see about next week.”

Roma have had some magnificent performances, most recently against Juventus. What's the final step you need to take?

“I've watched the match back and we didn't really struggle; even in the final minutes after they made it 3-2, there wasn't all that much. We had openings ourselves. Then there was a corner and that free kick hit into the box two minutes from the end which led to that situation, similar to many others I've seen this season. If people want to judge the whole game on that, fine. But I don't think like that. I find it very difficult. You have the opponents, we performed well, but I find it very difficult to look only at that. I don't want to change my assessment of a match based on that incident: if this had happened or that had happened. Ok, it's part of the game, but I'm not going to get caught up in it.”

How do you make up for the absence of what Wesley brings to the team? And what's your view of Daniele De Rossi and the work he's doing?

“Daniele is doing well. He's putting his mark on a team that play football, a team that the fans are enjoying, so that's a good thing. When supporters go to the stadium and believe in their team, when they're happy with how their team play, that's already a great sign. Their objectives are different to ours but they're building, they're working towards their objective. In their case it's all to play for too. It's all open, it's difficult for everyone, wherever you are in the table, but he's doing a very good job. 

“Wesley is suspended and that can happen when the yellow cards stack up. We have a couple of options. We'll see.”

Were you happy with Devyne Rensch's display against Juventus, considering that he could start tomorrow and considering that Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who would be on the same flank, is unlikely to play?

“He did really well because he hadn't been playing a lot, partly due to injury. He had a knee problem with some nasty bruising which kept him out for several weeks and prevented him from training properly. He had a bit of cramp towards the end but that's normal when you haven't played for a while. He'd played well before too. As an alternative to Wesley on the left, we have [Kostas] Tsimikas, we have him, we have [Zeki] Celik, we have [Daniele] Ghilardi. That's what we have. Celik can play at the back, on the flank. Those are your options.”

Bryan Cristante looked a little jaded against Juventus. Could he be rested tomorrow? And can I ask who paid for dinner on Monday, you or Totti?
“Neither of us!

“Cristante is playing lots and lots of games and you don't always know how well you'll recover. Now we're going to be playing back to back and this is when it becomes a bit more difficult for everyone: understanding when you need an extra day to recover or when you're able to recover between Thursday and Sunday. But Cristante is indispensable. It's always difficult for me to leave him out because he's so important in the air and we don't have others in attacking positions or midfield who have that ability, besides his versatility and everything else. But even he can't always play. There are times when he needs a bit more time to recover. Plus in that area of the pitch we have several very good alternatives.”