Ranieri: ‘Roma needed fresh legs, nobody asking to leave’ in 2025

epa11870988 Roma’s head coach Claudio Ranieri (L) interacts Napoli’s head coach Antonio Conte (R) during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AS Roma and SSC Napoli, in Rome, Italy, 02 February 2025. EPA-EFE/RICCARDO ANTIMIANI

Claudio Ranieri explains the need for Roma squad rotation in the 1-1 draw with Serie A leaders Napoli and insists no further senior players ‘are asking to leave’ the club.

The Giallorossi were forced to rotate their squad after the strain of Thursday’s 2-0 Europa League victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, leaving Artem Dovbyk, Paulo Dybala, Leandro Paredes and Mats Hummels on the bench.

Despite that, they were only undone by a piece of quality with the Leonardo Spinazzola lob and managed to snatch a last-gasp equaliser in added time through an Angelino volley.

“We had played on Thursday evening and you can’t use the same players, or they are running on empty. I have full faith in all my players, naturally the mechanics of the team aren’t going to be the same with many changes and we don’t get much time to work on it in training, but it seemed only right to make six changes for fresh legs,” Ranieri told DAZN.

“You have to take everything into consideration, I had also rested some against Udinese, so you need to balance it out.”

Does this decision mean that Roma are targeting progress in the Europa League and Coppa Italia perhaps more than Serie A?

“We need to keep taking it one game at a time, we can’t take our fans for a ride saying we are targeting this or that tournament. All we can promise to them is that we’ll give our best in every game.”

Ranieri jokes about Roma transfer gossip

Roma sent Nicola Zalewski to Inter on loan with an option to buy last night and today he made his debut, providing an assist for the last-minute Stefan de Vrij equaliser in the Derby della Madonnina.

There have been reports of other players asking to leave, so did they knock on Ranieri’s door?

“No, because otherwise I would’ve given them a lift to the airport,” joked the coach. “They need to sell newspapers and make up stories, that’s their job. I swear everyone is happy at Roma and not asking to leave.”

According to reports, both Stephan El Shaarawy and Manu Kone went off with muscular issues, so they might be at risk for Wednesday’s Coppa Italia quarter-final against Milan.

“We are up against a team full of talent and we know what they are capable of. We’ll go there and play our game, then may the best team on the night win,” concluded Ranieri.