Roma boss Paulo Fonseca faced the media on Friday afternoon as his side prepares to face-off tomorrow evening against Juventus in Torino.
The Bianconeri will play host to Fonseca’s men as both sides currently inside the top four in Serie A.
“Juventus are a very good team, with a great coach. They play a bit differently compared to the start of the season. Now they’ve had a bit more time to work with the coach and there is more intensity, more dynamism, they have confidence and a lot of individual brilliance,” he began.
“Roma are in good form right now, we’ve won two important games and so we are also confident.”
The technician then addressed the status of several key members of his team, including Edin Dzeko, who was reintroduced into the squad after a row, Borja Mayoral, Pedro, and others.
“Dzeko has trained well, but Cristante will be the captain tomorrow. As for Borja, we don’t need tomorrow’s game to know what he is capable of producing. He is young, he’s playing really well – he needs to stay focused in order to do well again tomorrow.”
“Dzeko and Mayoral are very different types of players. Dzeko is better at linking up with his teammates and holding the ball up, Borja is better at creating and using space. They both have characteristics that can help the way we play,” elaborated Fonseca.
“Mirante will be in the squad, but we will continue with Pau in goal. El Shaarawy will not be with the team tomorrow, he is working on a personal training programme. He needs to continue with that in order to get back to full fitness.”
“As for Pedro, he’s injured and still recovering. I think he will be back with the squad next week. He has had some great performances already for Roma, and he will be a key player for us again. He has a lot of characteristics that I really like.”
“As you know, Smalling will be out so Ibañez will play in the middle of defence tomorrow.”
