AC MILAN v ROMA: OPPONENT REVIEW

AC Milan v Roma promises to be a thrilling clash between two teams near the top of the table in this first quarter of the season. It's also a showdown between two veterans, Massimiliano Allegri and Gian Piero Gasperini, the two coaches with the most Serie A matches in the dug-out: 515 for Allegri, 608 for Gasperini. Their first encounter dates back to October 29, 2008, in Genoa vs. Cagliari that ended 2-1. Sunday night's game will mark their 30th meeting. 

With 17 years of history behind them, this game will be exciting and full of suprises. After nine years at Atalanta, Gasperini has chosen to take on an important and thrilling challenge in the capital, while Allegri has returned to where he first built his trophy-winning career, at AC Milan. Both coaches are tactically astute, and both teams have put out encouraging performances over the first two months of the season. They are separated by just three points in the table, with Roma on 21 and AC Milan on 18. 

THE DEFENCE AND GASPERINI'S INFLUENCE
Although it's hard to call it a surprise given the quality of their squad, Roma have built on an excellent end to last season to start their 2025/26 campaign strongly. This transition was guided by Claudio Ranieri, who chose Gasperini as his successor to bring Roma back up to the top spots of the table. In their first nine games of this season, Roma have had seven wins and two defeats, both at the Olimpico against Torino and Inter. On the road, they have won every match. All seven victories, including three consecutive wins inbetween the Torino and Inter losses, came by a single-goal margin.

Their defence works well together, having only conceded four goals so far in Serie A. Their attack, for now, is the least prolific among the top nine in the table. Ten goals, but are still enough to share the top spot with Napoli. Gasperini’s real revolution has been how quickly he has taken hold of the team, proving doubters wrong that a coach like him would need a long adjustment period to instill his philosophy. The Roma seen so far doesn’t play the dazzling football of his best Atalanta sides, but that is probably not the goal: the Giallorossi are solid, compact, concede few, and are surprisingly adaptable.

NON-POSSESSION AND TACTICAL EXPERIMENTS
And this is innovative for someone like Gasperini, who has always made tactical structure one of his most recognisable weapons. The base formation is still 3-4-2-1, but tactical experiments vary, even during a match. An example is the recent game against Parma, when he replaced the injured Ferguson with Bailey instead of Dovbyk to exploit the unpredictability of the three ‘small’ players, with Dybala and Soulé. Or when, during the same match, he pushed Cristante up to the attacking midfield line to take advantage of his physicality and attacking runs. The ‘false nine’ option has already been used several times, both to unsettle markers by leveraging the creativity of the Argentinians, and because the two main strikers, Ferguson (absent at San Siro) and Dovbyk, are not especially prolific. 

Roma’s defence is particularly effective. The team works very well with the back three (Ndicka-Mancini-Hermoso), supported by the two full-backs, Wesley and Çelik, covering the entire flank. The squad adapts to the characteristics of each opponent and absorbs pressure efficiently. That doesn’t mean they don’t struggle at times, but they are always in the game and proved to be a very high-level opponent even in their defeat against Inter. While their off-the-ball work is effective, Roma can still be a bit static and lack fluidity in build-up play, especially when space is tight. These difficulties have been more evident in the Europa League, where they suffered two defeats in three matches.

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