Probable Formations: Atalanta vs Roma

Roma has had to deal with plenty of player absences lately thanks to a rash of injuries and a pile-up of yellow cards resulting in suspensions. Luckily for Roma, all of its suspended starters will be back for Saturday’s big match in Bergamo against Atalanta. However, Felix Afena-Gyan will miss out on this one due to a double booking against Spezia on Monday.

On the injury front, the Italian trio of Lorenzo Pellegrini, Stephan El Shaarawy, and Leonardo Spinazzola remains out. There was a worry that Chris Smalling and Roger Ibañez could miss out after having some issues during Monday’s match against Spezia. That would’ve been a scary proposition against La Dea’s dangerous attack. But, in a bit of good news, both were able to travel with the team to Lombardy.

“As for Ibanez… the same way that I have told you that Smalling is okay, all I can say that it is touch-and-go for Ibanez.”—said Mourinho during his presser.

Carles Pérez also rejoined first-team training and is fit enough to make the trip.

Considering the players that Mourinho has available it looks like a 3-5-2 will be in the cards again for Roma. There won’t be many questions about who the starting XI will be and the only changes from last week’s lineup will be the regular starters returning from suspension: Nicolò Zaniolo and Gianluca Mancini—they’ll replace Borja Mayoral and Max Kumbulla, respectively.

Given that, this is how we expect Roma to line up as Mourinho tries to mastermind a big upset in Bergamo.

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