Roma arrive in Udine with a tense table, as always at this time of the season. Everyone is on the hunt and no one is comfortable. The task of Monday night’s match against Udinese at the Brunergie Stadium is easy to say but difficult to execute. He shows up, gives order and leaves with the points that keep Roma in the desired position. There is no desire for romance here after a draining 1-1 away draw against Panathinaikos in the UEFA Europa League, played with almost all 10 players. This is about the kind of football you can afford, the kind that you can rack up without needing to be the best version of yourself every week.

The problem is that Rome’s “best version” is currently scattered around the treatment room. Manager Gian Piero Gasperini will once again be required to build a coherent attacking plan without Paulo Dybala, Artyom Dovvik, Evan Ferguson, Stephan El Shaarawy and Manu Kone. Gasperini adopted a 3-4-2-1 formation, almost certainly aimed at control, with Brian Cristante anchoring the center, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Matthias Soule providing ideas, and Donyell Malen looking to convert half-chances into goals, as he did against Turin.

Even considering that Roma are a decidedly better team than Udinese, it’s not just the club from Friuli handing the win to the Giallorossi. Udinese sit mid-table and are comfortable in the middle of the clutter during games. That’s exactly why this fixture is important. Roma will need to keep their nerve as the game is about to turn out to be smaller and uglier than their ambitions. They don’t need fireworks. They need a clean tempo, a serious first hour and the maturity to treat one goal as a perfectly acceptable way to leave Udine with three points.

El Ainaoui returns to Serie A

Nir El Ainaoui is back in the league and Roma need him now more than ever. After returning home from the African Cup of Nations (where the Moroccan national team definitely has a rising star) and comfortably returning to training, he has now joined AS Roma’s Serie A matchday squad for the first time in several months. Thankfully, this is exactly the kind of game where midfield players can raise their skill level.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s likely 3-4-2-1 will see El Ainaoui used as a second midfielder alongside Brian Cristante, able to turn a reset touch into forward momentum and prevent Roma from playing the game to the end in front of a defined block. When the front line is thin, which it certainly is, the midfield must play through pressure rather than around it, creating advantages by arriving late into spaces vacated by the front line.

The third tier is psychological, and it’s where Roma could secretly benefit. El Ainaoui didn’t just return from AFCON. He returned with a newfound status as a national team hero and a target for some of the world’s biggest clubs. AFCON watchers branded him as one of the true revelations of the tournament, and buzz across Europe inevitably followed, with the Spanish market linking his name to Real Madrid and Barcelona on the back of his AFCON performances.

Players who return from high-profile international competitions often return to league play with sharper decision-making and a calmer sense of authority. Players who have proven themselves at international level often make fewer panic touches, are more persistent in receiving under pressure, and are more motivated to develop the game. If Roma are going to pull off an ugly victory at Udine, El Ainaoui’s composure could become the team’s most valuable new weapon.

Will Vaz make a difference?

All eyes are on Roma’s new attacking line-up, starting with Donyell Malen. Then it gets interesting. Robinio Vaz is being asked to live in one of the most thankless roles in football (at least behind the back-up goalkeeper), as Roma lack bodies and play too much time. He is a bench forward who has to come in cold, read the temperature instantly, and change the atmosphere of the game with less than 10 touches in the final minute of the game. That’s the reality when you arrive midway through the season at the age of 18, still needing to get your feet into the rhythm of a new league, and working with a manager who demands tactical know-how from every position, especially the strikers.

What Vaz can change with his cameo is the texture of Roma’s final third. When Frederick Massara decided to attack Vaz, it was Energy who scouted him. Vaz is a forward who turns stagnant possession into something resembling momentum, pressing with pressure that seems to annoy opponents and running routes that drag centre-backs into uncomfortable decisions. That profile is important for a starter like Mullen because it has a different impact on Roma in the final stages of games. It gives them more verticality, more confusion, and the stress of “defending towards their goal” on tired legs.

Honestly, it’s an honest wrinkle that all young forwards eventually run into. He has been able to put in strong performances in any game as a sub this season, but that strength hasn’t always translated into goals (or at least meaningful goals). At the moment, Vaz is still chasing his first goal in a Roma shirt, but his early story is almost comically familiar in the ongoing Evan Ferguson experiment. He offered promising movement, good intent and had a moment of his debut against Torino, only for the goalkeeper to stop his move at close range. Still, Nias is a good thing for such a young striker. That shows he’s already putting himself in the right position to score and win. Considering what Roma emphasized when announcing the deal – his age, rapid development and contribution to Olympique de Marseille – the club are betting on Vaz as a player who can develop and together lift the Giallorossi.

If Vaz plays again against Udinese, don’t count his goal and treat the ‘zero’ as a referendum. Instead, see if Vaz can do it. compress A match in Rome’s favor. Will his first sprint be forward rather than sideways? Will he make Udinese’s centre-back turn around and run? Did he give Roma an extra sequence where the tired defender closes his eyes and starts clearing? Best late sub member addition direction Thanks to everyone else’s efforts. For a team that can sometimes be a little too polite in the box, Vaz’s value is that he isn’t particularly interested in being polite.

If that first goal comes for Vaz tomorrow, it will almost certainly come through persistence. It’s something that only becomes apparent when it happens, whether it’s an ugly rebound, a deflection, or a near post touch. Roma doesn’t need Vaz to be a finished product yet. They need him to be a problem in the right areas. He arrives inside the width of the post, on the last line, as if he believes the ball is going to fall to him. If he does that in Udine, he will make a difference, even if it takes a little while for the scoreboard to catch up.