Como send Nico Paz into Rotterdam as captain and false nine in one
Director of sport Carlalberto Ludi explains why Como's fluid front three, and a maturing Nico Paz, are built to unsettle Feyenoord in the Champions League.
Como travel to De Kuip for the club's first ever UEFA away fixture with Nico Paz starting as captain for the first time, and with a forward line designed to give Feyenoord no fixed target to mark.
Director of sport Carlalberto Ludi told Sky Sport Italia that more than 1,050 Como supporters had made the trip to Rotterdam, calling it a special experience for the club and its fans. Como arrive on the back of a 4-1 win over RB Leipzig at the Stadio Sinigaglia in their opening group fixture last month.
A false nine without fixed reference points
With Moise Kean sidelined through injury, Paz is set to operate as a false nine, dropping into midfield spaces rather than holding a conventional centre-forward's line. Ludi noted that Martin Baturina and Assane Diao are also capable of filling that role, meaning the point of attack can shift between three different players over the course of the match.
That rotation matters tactically because it denies Feyenoord's centre-backs a settled marking assignment. A traditional centre-forward gives defenders a body to track through the width and depth of the pitch; a front three that interchanges the nine's duties forces defenders to decide, phase by phase, who steps and who holds. Ludi framed this explicitly as a philosophy rather than an accident, saying positional numbers have become "relative now in tactics" as Como prioritise possession, tempo control and concealing their own weaknesses from opponents.
He also located that approach within a broader football lineage, pointing to the influence of Johan Cruyff on Spanish football and, through that line, on head coach Cesc Fabregas. Ludi was careful to frame this as respect for Feyenoord's own Dutch tradition rather than an attempt to copy it, saying Como are in Rotterdam to show their own identity.
From child arrival to armband
Paz has worn the captain's armband before, but only in matches where more senior players had already left the field. Starting the game as captain is a different marker of trust, and Ludi treated it as significant evidence of the player's development since joining the club three years ago as what he called essentially a child.
Ludi pointed to a specific reference point for that growth: a 2-0 defeat to Frosinone that Como lost, in which he said Paz's attitude and visible commitment to the shirt stood out even in a losing performance. For a sporting director assessing leadership, how a young player responds inside a defeat is often a sharper signal than how he behaves in matches already won, and Ludi's choice of that example suggests Paz's captaincy has been earned through conduct in setbacks rather than only through output in victories.
That framing also connects to the false-nine plan. A deep-dropping forward is asked to link play, read pressing triggers and organise teammates around him almost as a quasi-midfielder, responsibilities that sit closer to a captain's remit than a conventional striker's. Handing Paz both roles in the same match, in Como's first ever Champions League away tie, indicates the club see game understanding, not just goals, as central to his value.
Patience over urgency with Diao
Diao's own involvement in that rotation feeds into a separate story: his contract situation. Asked about progress on an extension, Ludi said talks were ongoing internally but that there was no urgency on either side. He described Diao as happy at the club and the club happy to have him, while stressing that negotiations were not in their final stages.
That lack of urgency reads as a position of relative strength for Como rather than drift. A player central to a front three that the sporting director is actively building a tactical identity around is not someone the club appears anxious to lock down under pressure; the absence of a stated deadline suggests confidence that the relationship holds regardless of contract status for now.
Como opened their Champions League campaign by beating RB Leipzig 4-1 at home. A result at De Kuip would extend that early momentum into the club's first continental trip away from the Stadio Sinigaglia, with Paz carrying both the armband and the central creative burden in Rotterdam.