Roma’s pause in the calendar has offered Gian Piero Gasperini something that the season rarely permits: time to train without immediately having to recover, prepare and play again. The benefit will be tested quickly, beginning with Sunday’s trip to Como and continuing through the away match at Udine on 31 October, when the Giallorossi will play seven times in 20 days.
Training time at Trigoria
For the players who remained at the Fulvio Bernardini training centre, the break has been less about inactivity than a chance to build a more complete workload. Roma’s staff have been able to alternate physical work and recovery without the usual pressure of a match every few days.
Mile Svilar, Pierluigi Gollini, Mario Hermoso, Wesley, Nahuel Molina, Devyne Rensch, Bryan Cristante before his injury, Marten de Roon, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Paulo Dybala and Donyell Malen were among those available. Seven of the group can be regarded as regular starters.
Rather than repeating the normal cycle of playing, light recovery, final preparations and another match, they have been able to follow programmes designed around individual needs. The squad was also given two three-day breaks, one after each week of the international window, while continuing targeted strength work where required.
Details before the crowded run
Gasperini’s long-standing fitness staff, Borelli and Boccolini, focused on consistent physical preparation and specific muscular work, dividing sessions between the pitch and the gym. In a season often shaped by three matches in a week, such personalised work is usually only possible for a player returning from injury. Roma have instead been able to use it with fit members of the squad.
On the technical side, Gasperini, assistant coach Gritti and collaborator Fumagalli used the available training days to examine different match situations, both with and without the ball.
- Pellegrini has had the opportunity to work on his understanding with Malen and Dybala. Last season, the three had only around ten days together before Dybala was injured; when the Argentine returned for the final stage of the campaign, Pellegrini was unavailable.
- Molina and Wesley have undertaken wing-specific exercises intended to make them more comfortable on either flank.
- That flexibility may become important because Roma do not have a natural left-back in the squad, leaving Gasperini to draw on the adaptability of the Brazilian and Argentine players.
From the break to Como
- Roma used the international break to give the available players full training sessions and structured recovery, rather than the compressed routine imposed by matchdays.
- The work has included individual fitness plans, strength sessions and tactical drills aimed at improving relationships within the side.
- The competitive rhythm returns with the visit to Como on Sunday.
- Between that fixture and the trip to Udine on 31 October, Roma face seven matches in 20 days, an average of one game every 2.8 days.
Gasperini does not hide his impatience when the competitive schedule stops, but he also knows that these quieter weeks can decide how a team withstands the demanding passages of a campaign. Roma now enter one of those passages with work stored up at Trigoria and little time before it must show on the pitch.
