Paulo Dybala’s season has become one of Roma’s quieter changes in a campaign played at the top of the table. Once defined by absences as much as brilliance, the Argentine has instead become a constant under Gian Piero Gasperini: 406 Serie A minutes, an average of 82 per match, and only Bryan Cristante and Mario Hermoso ahead of him in the club’s playing-time standings.
The coach and the club
For Gasperini, the numbers confirm what he has seen every day at Trigoria. Dybala, approaching 33, has rediscovered a physical continuity that had often escaped him in recent seasons, including the final stretch of his first Roma era under José Mourinho.
The coach had known him since their Palermo years, when Dybala was in his early twenties. He now sees a more mature player, still carrying the same technical quality and tactical intelligence, but with a body better prepared for the rhythm demanded by a side competing for first place.
Speaking at the Festival dello Sport, Gasperini said Dybala’s appetite for football has remained clear.
“You can see that he feels well and still has the enthusiasm to play,” the Roma coach said. “There were years when injuries held him back. I always believed it was a matter of training. People told me he had delicate muscles, but he has excellent physical fibres. He has begun to train properly and this start to the season has been extraordinary. He does not miss a minute.”
Gasperini has not treated Dybala as a player requiring automatic protection. His principle has been simple: if the forward is fit, he plays. During the international break, Dybala remained available at Trigoria, where work has also focused on improving his finishing after a period in which his shooting had not always reflected his influence on matches.
The coach’s arrival was important in Dybala’s decision to stay in the capital. He accepted a salary reduced by half and turned down the possibility of returning to Juventus, choosing Roma after a previous year in which recurring fitness problems had limited his contribution.
A different routine at Trigoria
The change has been built around daily work rather than a sudden alteration in Dybala’s football. Alessandro Pilati, the fitness specialist brought in by Gasperini during the summer, has played a central role. The pair had worked together at Genoa, where Pilati spent 22 years and helped players including Thiago Motta and Diego Perotti return from difficult physical periods.
Dybala has placed his trust in Pilati’s programme, whose most visible addition has been regular Pilates work on a Reformer machine. The sessions can be performed with reduced loading or carefully controlled elastic resistance, and Dybala also continues the work at home with his wife, Oriana.
There has also been a significant change in how his programme is managed. In previous years, Dybala supplemented club training with external physiotherapists and private fitness staff. Pilati pushed for every element of his preparation to be coordinated within Roma’s training centre.
That centralised approach allows the club staff to follow GPS readings, fatigue levels and recovery without competing training methods creating excessive workloads. The emphasis is not only on increasing strength, but on muscle balance, posture and proprioception, with exercises designed to distribute strain more evenly across the body.
Roma believe that work has reduced the minor muscular problems that repeatedly interrupted Dybala’s past campaigns. Most importantly, it enabled him to complete the full pre-season preparation, giving Gasperini a player who can now be selected with far greater regularity.
Energy beyond the training ground
Dybala’s renewed condition has a personal dimension too. The birth of his daughter Gia on 2 March has given him an additional source of energy at a stage of his career when experience and availability matter as much as talent.
Roma’s lead in the championship has been shaped by more than one player, but Dybala’s presence has changed the mood around the side. He is no longer merely the player supporters hope will be available for the decisive afternoons; he has become one of the men setting the pace of the season.
