Daniele De Rossi has arrived at his first Derby della Capitale as manager. And while De Rossi may have experienced this tense affair dozens of times as a player, this will be the first time that he’s in charge of orchestrating Lazio’s defeat.
Fortunately for him, he will have nearly his full contingent of players available for a derby that could have massive table implications given how tight the race for the top four remains. In fact, only two players will be unavailable for this one. De Rossi confirmed in his prematch presser that Sadar Aazmoun remains out.
“Everyone is fine, except [Sardar] Azmoun. I’m feeling confident.”
Additionally, Evan Ndicka is out through yellow card accumulation. With Ndicka out, De Rossi will have to choose between Diego Llorente, Dean Huijsen, and Chris Smalling to partner Gianluca Mancini. And reports around the peninsula are predicting a Mancini/Llorente pairing in front of Mile Svilar’s goal.
Two positions that have seen fairly consistent rotation during De Rossi’s time in charge of the line-up card have been the fullbacks. In this one, it looks like Zeki Çelik and Leonardo Spinazzola are being favored over Rick Karsdorp and Angeliño.
Other than the potential for a different partner for Mancini or a change at one of the fullback positions, the rest of the line-up seems like it will write itself. With Lorenzo Pellegrini back from suspension, Roma’s captain will complete De Rossi’s preferred midfield trio with Leandro Paredes and Bryan Cristante. And with Paulo Dybala back, there’s little doubt that La Joya will join Romelu Lukaku and Stephan El Shaarawy in attack.
ROMA (4-3-3): Svilar; Celik, Mancini, Llorente, Spinazzola; Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini; Dybala, Lukaku, El Shaarawy