Fonseca: A formation change is a possibility

Read what coach Paulo Fonseca had to say before Thursday's Europa League match against Borussia Monchengladbach...

Have you considered switching formation given all the players you have missing?

“Considering the problems we have, that is a possibility that I've looked at. It's not something I would do in principle but we'll see tomorrow.”

Davide Santon hasn't trained with the rest of the squad – how is he? Is Javier Pastore ready to play back-to-back games?

“Pastore's situation needs to be managed carefully. He is ready but we'll see tomorrow whether or not he plays. As for Santon, we'll have to see how well recovers from this temperature he's got.”

Do you think there's an element of chance in Roma's current injury situation?

“This is a new situation for me, something I've never experienced before. We only had four injuries at Shakhtar last season. I'd like to think that it's just bad luck, but it's a problem we need to deal with. It's important that the players understand that they need to run more and put the team first. We're short on numbers and we don't have many options. In any case, there certainly is an element of bad luck.”

How are Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Cengiz Under?

“Cengiz has started training again and Miki is working on the pitch. I think both will be available again soon.”

Do you think Roma are improving their team play despite all the injuries?

“There are objective statistics on this. It's impossible to improve as we'd like as a team with so many players out. We didn't do what we needed to do to win in our last game against Samp but against Cagliari we did, as we created 12 goalscoring chances. Up until that point we were one of the teams that had the most shots on goal. With so many players missing it's impossible to reach the level I hoped for – it's not even possible to achieve the right mental stability. All of our important players have been ruled out and I don't think any team with this many injuries could reach the level they want and move up to the next level. That's not an excuse – it's the reality we have here. It's not hard to understand.”

Will you promote some of the club's youth players to the first team or are you considering free agents?

“Tomorrow we'll bring in a few Primavera players, just because we don't have any alternatives. It's not easy to sign free agents who can improve the level of the team. We like to sign players to improve us, not just to make up the numbers.”

Are you worried about Borussia's aggressive style? Are you expecting a similar match to the one against Atalanta?

“They're two different teams. Let's not forget that we'll be playing the Bundesliga leaders tomorrow: they're a fantastic side and in great form. In any case, it will be a different game to the one against Atalanta.”

Recently Pep Guardiola has been playing midfielders in defence because he's short at the back. Have you thought about doing the opposite?

“It's true that the only position where we don't have players missing is at centre-back. We'll see. At the moment we only have one central midfielder and that's [Jordan] Veretout."