Fonseca confirms Smalling return

The Giallorossi take on the Bulgarian side in the second game of Group A, after opening things up with a win over Young Boys last Thursday.

The game at the Stadio Olimpico gets underway at 21:00 CET.

Could Borja Mayoral start tomorrow?

“Yes, he’ll play.”

You’re conceding a lot of goals at the moment. Is that down to the absence of Chris Smalling? Are you looking into ways of correcting that?

“As you know, Smalling is an important player for us, but that doesn’t have a direct bearing on the team performance. When we concede, it’s not right just to talk about defenders. The players that have played so far [Gianluca Mancini, Roger Ibanez and Marash Kumbulla] have always performed well.”

How is Borja Mayoral settling in? Do you think he’s the kind of striker that suits your style? Could he play in other positions?

“No, Borja is a forward. He’ll always play as a forward. He’s a young player and needs to adapt. He’s come from a different environment. That said, I have to say that he worked very hard in the game against Young Boys. It was a synthetic pitch and the first part of the game was difficult. I have faith in him. He just needs time.”

Given the pandemic, is it not time for football to consider reducing the number of games played?

“It’s a complicated situation. All teams are being very thorough right now. I have faith in the authorities and I want to believe that nothing will change. To have a fairer league, we need to continue doing what we’re doing.”

Will Smalling start the game or will Federico Fazio and Juan Jesus play?

“Smalling will play from the start.”

Roma and AC Milan both have 31 points in Serie A since the return after lockdown. AC Milan and Stefano Pioli are getting lots of plaudits – don’t you think people are being too hard on your team?

“The answer is in the question… but I’m focused on my work.”

Roma concede a lot of goals from set plays. Is the issue with the focus of individual players or with movement?

“AC Milan are a very strong side from set plays. It’s true that we gave away a couple of chances at San Siro. It’s not about the structure of the team – we’ve shown that we’re solid in those situations. I’m not worried.”

Roma fought back again in the match against AC Milan, showing good personality. What do you need to do to start games better?

“For me, the most important thing is seeing that the team is playing well, looks confident and produced a very good performance against AC Milan. The main thing we need to improve on is not conceding. We conceded right at the start of the game and again at the start of the second half – that can’t happen because you’re not always going to be able to turn matches around. In this case, we did.”

The team was guilty of ball-watching in the build-up to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first goal in the AC Milan game. Is that something you’re working on?

“Defensively, that’s one of the aspects we do the most work on – keeping an eye on the space. We needed to do better. We’re constantly working on that and we’ll continue to do so. AC Milan weren’t able to play their normal game at San Siro – we prevented them from playing centrally by staying compact. That said, it’s also true that there were a few moments when we didn’t control the game well.”

The results haven’t been coming for CSKA Sofia recently. What are the biggest challenges associated with a game like this?

“For me, it’s important for us to have the right attitude. Let’s not forget that they beat Basel in the qualifying rounds. They use the space well and are strong in the one on ones. I don’t know what’s going to happen now – they changed their coach in the week. We need to stop them from playing and avoid letting them gain confidence.”