News

Fonseca ahead of Brescia: “Pellegrini is ready”.

John Solano

Roma manager Paulo Fonseca held his pre-match press conference as his side face-off against Brescia tomorrow in the capital. Here’s what he had to say:

Brescia are coming off 4 defeats and a change of manager. What sort of game do you expect?
A difficult one, it is true that they have changed managers but I have seen other matches of theirs like the ones against Inter and Napoli. They’ve got good players that play well. We have a difficult game tomorrow.

Mancini was a midfielder in the last match. Where will he play now?
He is a central defender, he’ll return to playing this position. This is normal.

Dzeko has only scored one goal in the last 10 games.
I must say – for me, it is not important that you always score. It is true that he has not done well in recent games, but I am sure he will score in the next ones. I have no doubt.

Are you thinking of alternatives to replace Dzeko?
I’m not thinking of any alternative, Dzeko will play as normal.

Did Rizzoli’s explanation of VAR convince you? How is Ünder?
Ünder is fine, he is ready to play, he has no problem. I have been in two meetings in these two weeks, one at UEFA and the other here in Rome. I understand the situation of the referees better now. I must say that it is not easy with this new rule. I can agree or not, but I understand that the referees must apply these rules. But I can’t agree with all the rules, which is normal.

How is Pastore? Can Pellegrini and Mkhitaryan play from the start? Has Florenzi’s hour come?
We’ll see tomorrow about Florenzi. My decision is always the same, when I want to put a player in: it’s merely a choice of mine. If I think Florenzi should play then he’ll play. He’s our captain, let’s see tomorrow. Spinazzola is not ready, he started training two days ago but he is not ready for the match. Miki is recovering and has trained with us for three days but he is not ready yet. Both he and Spinazzola will be ready for the next game. Finally, Pastore has a hip bruise, we decided that he is not ready for the match and will not be called. Pellegrini is ready to play.

Do you see Zaniolo as a striker? Are you expecting a reinforcement in January?
It’s not time for the transfer market, I haven’t talked to Petrachi yet. Zaniolo is a great talent, he can play in all the positions in attack.

Match Center

MatchDay 24
9 Feb 12:30
Venezia
VEN
Roma