D'Amico keeps Roma's focus narrow as Udinese test looms before Old Trafford
Roma's sporting director waved away questions on Endrick and Allegri's referee complaints, pointing instead to the tactical problem Udinese's low block poses before Tuesday's Champions League trip to Manchester United.
Roma sporting director Tony D'Amico declined to engage with speculation over a January move for Real Madrid forward Endrick or Napoli coach Massimiliano Allegri's complaints about refereeing, telling DAZN Italia the club's attention is fixed entirely on Udinese, according to Football Italia.
The timing explains the discipline. Roma travel to the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine before a Champions League trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday, a sequence that forces Gian Piero Gasperini to balance two competing demands: staying with the Serie A pace-setters and protecting bodies for a heavier European test three days later.
Why rotation is minimal this weekend
Only Gianluca Mancini was rested after Roma's 4-2 win over Cagliari in midweek, a modest adjustment given the fixture pile-up. Paulo Dybala, Mile Svilar, Manu Koné and Lorenzo Pellegrini remain unavailable through injury, which thins Gasperini's options in both midfield and attack rather than simply removing squad depth.
Koné's absence is the more structurally significant of the four. Losing a holding midfielder narrows the choices Gasperini has for a double pivot capable of screening the back line against a team set up to play on the break, and it increases the physical burden on whoever partners him there against a side D'Amico expects to sit deep.
D'Amico framed Dybala's situation as a loss of a 'precious resource' rather than a simple delay, language that reflects how the Argentine's ability to unlock a packed defence is harder to replace than a like-for-like squad rotation would suggest.
He also pointed to Mario Hermoso's role beyond matchday minutes, describing him as important to developing younger players during the week, which signals the club's intention to extend his contract rather than treat him purely as a squad number.
Reading Udinese's low block
Udinese arrive having lost six consecutive league games before salvaging a goalless draw against Parma, a run that D'Amico acknowledged puts them 'in crisis.' That context matters tactically: a team under pressure with poor recent results is more likely to prioritise defensive solidity than open, expansive football.
D'Amico described the hosts as physical and likely to defend deep, which points to a compact low block designed to deny space between the lines and force Roma into crosses or long-range efforts rather than central combinations. Breaking such a structure typically requires quick transitions, overloads in the half-spaces, or set-piece quality when organised play stalls, and D'Amico's comment that Roma 'need quality to get out of that situation' suggests he sees individual moments of skill, not system changes, as the likely route through.
Facing a well-drilled low block also changes the value of physical duels in wide areas, since a team sitting deep invites opponents to probe from the flanks rather than through the centre, and Udinese's reputation for physicality raises the cost of those duels for Roma's attackers.
Why D'Amico waved off the noise
Asked directly about Allegri's post-match remarks following Napoli's 3-3 draw with Roma, in which the Napoli coach suggested Roma had benefited from favourable refereeing decisions last season at Milan's expense in the race for Champions League places, D'Amico gave a short, pointed answer: 'We are concentrated on ourselves. We're accustomed to working hard and then the final result is what you deserve on the field.'
That response matches his handling of the Endrick question. Asked about Roma's reported interest in a January loan for the Brazilian forward, D'Amico said it was 'difficult to think about names right now' with 'a long way to go,' adding that Endrick is 'a very strong Real Madrid player' before stressing that the market can wait given Roma play every three days.
Both answers serve the same tactical purpose off the pitch that the squad management serves on it: minimising distraction during a period when fixture congestion already strains selection, fitness and focus. For Gasperini, keeping the group narrowly fixed on the next ninety minutes is as much a management tool as any formation tweak, particularly with United waiting four days later.
Roma's immediate task is converting pressure against a deep block into points before European football returns to the schedule, with the broader market and noise around Napoli left for a moment D'Amico insists has not yet arrived.