I bet I'm not only the one concerned about this fixture. We all know what happened after the last international break. Some key players missed that SPAL game and the same could happen here, either through simply not being available or through not being risked ahead of a big CL game. Hopefully lessons have been learned and we get a good result to restart the campaign.
Daniele De Rossi, Diego Perotti & Kostas Manolas will miss #ASRoma’s trip to #Udinese tomorrow https://t.co/VmWDfAxi3R #UdineseRoma #SerieA pic.twitter.com/TOy2SDRvCH— Football Italia (@footballitalia) November 23, 2018
EDF says Shick will start. So, I assume we are resting Dzeko for Madrid. It would be great to see Shick go a full 90 and get a goal or two to keep his confidence growing. I'm not happy to be without De Rossi and Manolas for this. de Paul and Lagana can definitely cause us problems. But for all his haters, Juan Jesus performed well last time out, and Cristante seems to have finally settled in. If I'm not mistaken this is Nicola's first or second game in charge of Udinese, so I definitely fear the new coach bump. I'm hoping for another 4-1 like before the break, but I see this being a struggle throughout.
Not discounting how important those players are but their replacements have been good this year. JJ has played really well every time he's been called on. Santon might be the most pleasant surprise this season. Cristante has rounded into form nicely the last few matches. Considering we are playing a team battling relegation we should be ok.
RM lost to Eibar today... we should at least draw with them and a win certainly isn't out of the question considering how poorly they are playing
Very bright start. Really like how we're passing the ball around. As good as we've looked in long time in build up.
Pellegrini is at a different speed of thought and action than anyone else on the team. He's quick with decisions and one touch passes. When the ball goes anywhere else we are almost at a walking pace and make it too easy for Udinese to set up and defend.
Making it too easy fore them to setup and defend? They're not moving out of defensive shape and are only breaking with about 3 players max so far. Nzonzi moves the ball brilliantly. For me so far the standout player on the pitch. Total boss.
We need to give Pellegrini a raise and boost that buyout clause. He and Cristante could be the backbone of this team for a long, long time