Como and Roma meet in the sixth round with more than three points at stake: the occasion has the feel of an early examination for the side hoping to emerge as Inter’s principal challenger. For Cesc Fabregas, it is also a demanding home assignment against Gian Piero Gasperini’s aggressive Roma, a team whose individual quality has altered the balance of their season.
The decision
Fabio Capello sees Como carrying the greater immediate pressure. Fabregas’s side are further back in the standings and have home advantage, but that leaves them with less room for error. Capello believes Como have not yet matched last season’s intensity, even if their command of possession remains clear.
“They move the ball well, as always, but they look short of sharpness,” Capello said. “Last year they ran more.”
Roma arrive without Mile Svilar, an absence Capello considers potentially decisive. He rates the goalkeeper as the league’s best and regards him as a central figure in Roma’s defensive security. Several clubs showed interest during the summer, but Gasperini and the club stood firm.
Svilar, in Capello’s view, excels both off his line and in reading loose balls in the penalty area. His replacement, Pierluigi Gollini, brings experience and may respond well to the responsibility, but he will have to work beneath the shadow cast by Roma’s established number one.
Como’s Jean Butez offers a different profile. Capello does not place him in the same category as Svilar as a pure shot-stopper, but considers him fundamental to Fabregas’s construction play, effectively an extra outfield player when Como begin their moves.
The other concern for Roma is the midfield without Bryan Cristante. Capello believes the visitors must find a way to limit the technical quality of Como’s central players, particularly Nico Paz and Martin Baturina. Manu Koné may hold the key: his work between distribution and defensive protection could aid the back line, while also forcing Paz and Baturina to spend energy responding to him.
Capello expects Paz to take confidence from his recent goal on the day Lionel Messi bid farewell to international football. He wants to see the energetic, all-pitch influence associated with the Argentine-born midfielder, an influence Como have lacked at times this term. Baturina, meanwhile, can drift wide, move inside and attack the box from changing positions.
Sunday’s picture
The match contains several individual contests, although Capello’s reading is based on changing zones rather than simple one-against-one duels. On Como’s right and Roma’s left, Assane Diao and Wesley could shape a decisive corridor.
Diao has returned strongly from injury. Capello highlighted his willingness to attack defenders, drive towards goal and create danger with pace and technique. Wesley may be nominally a defender, but his capacity to advance means he cannot be treated as a conventional full-back. If Roma continue with their man-oriented approach, his task will be to contain Diao, but his own forward running could turn the same flank into an exchange of threats. Even if either player switches sides, Capello believes their importance would remain unchanged.
Paulo Dybala presents another problem. Capello feels the Roma forward has regained a level reminiscent of his finest Juventus period, combining dribbling, vision and imagination. Álex Valle is expected to face him, and while Capello rates the Spaniard as a consistently reliable performer, he feels Como’s defence has not reached the standard it set last season.
Valle will need support. If Dybala is allowed space to create, he can supply Donyell Malen in the area, and Capello considers that the most dangerous element of the game for Como.
Malen has become Roma’s reference in attack under Gasperini. Capello praised the coach for remodelling the Dutchman into a centre-forward and warned that either Jacobo Ramón or Trevoh Chalobah must stay alert throughout. Malen combines finishing instinct, close control at speed, physical power and constant movement, while his readiness to shoot from any position makes him particularly difficult to contain.
Capello compared Malen’s penalty-area sense to Paolo Rossi’s, though with greater physical strength, and said some of his movements can recall Ronaldo Nazário, while stressing that the Brazilian was the more powerful player. The broader warning is clear: when Roma have possession, their attacking players keep moving, and Como’s defenders cannot afford a lapse.
Como will seek their own openings through direct vertical passes and fluid interchange among their forwards. Roma, by contrast, are likely to pursue duels across the pitch. The result may therefore rest not only on the established talents of Dybala, Paz or Baturina, but on speed of reaction: Gollini’s response in Svilar’s absence, Koné’s ability to protect Roma’s centre, and Como’s capacity to keep Malen away from the moments he needs.
