Saturday’s Roma-Inter meeting arrives with a long-running problem in Gian Piero Gasperini’s career sitting beneath the usual pressure of a major Serie A afternoon. Since 2018, his teams have faced coaches using Inter’s 3-5-2 structure and collected 12 defeats alongside four draws, without a victory. The champions will again test whether Roma can break that sequence.
Andrea Stramaccioni sees the issue less as a simple matter of formation than of the players occupying it. Inter’s system has been a constant for six years, but the decisive detail is the quality and positioning of the individuals within it.
He pointed to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul as an example. City moved John Stones into midfield beside Rodri and effectively used a back three against Simone Inzaghi’s Inter, seeking to control the established movements of Lautaro Martinez and his team-mates. In Stramaccioni’s view, the profiles on the pitch and their use of space can change the balance more than a formation diagram alone.
Inter prepare for Roma’s aggressive reference points
Gasperini’s teams have long been defined by their effort to deny opponents time, space and clean passing options. His players often take responsibility for direct opponents across the pitch, before defenders and midfielders step forward in carefully timed rotations to press the next receiver.
That forward movement remains one of the Roma coach’s strongest weapons, and it is the area Inter are expected to address most carefully in possession. Roma could alter the shape of their forward line without the ball, as they usually do against a midfield with a single playmaker: one player may be used to prevent Piotr Zielinski from dictating play, with Paulo Dybala matched against Alessandro Bastoni and Donyell Malen against Yann Bisseck. The wide players are expected to face each other in corresponding roles.
The key contest may instead develop around Inter’s central four: Nicolò Barella, the Nerazzurri strike partnership and the second midfielder. Their ability to drop off, exchange positions and move both with and without the ball could loosen Roma’s pressing grip. If an aggressive step arrives late, Inter may find the gaps left behind it.
There was a clear illustration at the Olimpico in last season’s first meeting. Barella was given room when Mario Hermoso’s forward movement came too late, and his pass found Ange-Yoan Bonny after Evan Ndicka misread the situation. The move produced Inter’s winning goal.
Individual quality and aerial duels
The match will not be settled by pressing patterns alone. Stramaccioni expects the mental approach and the decisive moments from the attacking departments to matter just as much. Roma have Dybala and Malen, while Inter’s “ThuLa” pairing leads their threat; behind them, Francesco Pio Esposito, Bonny, Santiago Castro and Matías Soulé are all capable of influencing the contest.
Set pieces will carry particular weight. Roma’s Gianluca Mancini, Bryan Cristante and Hermoso will be measured against Bastoni, Manuel Akanji and Bisseck in aerial situations. Both sides also arrive after striking notable goals from distance, making shots from outside the area another potential route to a turning point.
A taboos stretching back to Bergamo
Gasperini’s most recent win over Inter dates back to 2018, when his Atalanta defeated Luciano Spalletti’s side 4-1 in Bergamo. Alejandro “Papu” Gómez tracked Marcelo Brozovic through his off-ball work, while Duván Zapata and Josip Ilicic completed the attacking trio. The game was decided, fittingly for this weekend, by Gianluca Mancini.
That Atalanta side finished third, level on points with Inter. The circumstances are different now, with Gasperini leading Roma and Inter arriving as Italian champions, but the coach’s objective is unchanged: to take points from the Nerazzurri and finally end a difficult personal run against their 3-5-2.
