Six Points and No Mercy: Roma’s Season on Trial in Naples
Some fixtures in a season feel like checkpoints; succeed, and it’s good, but fail, and it’s not absolutely fatal. Other fixtures feel like verdicts. Roma’s trip to the Maradona tomorrow is the second kind. This is a straight-up, six-point affair against a direct rival, in a stadium that doesn’t believe in mercy, with the Champions League race running right through it. Napoli sit third on 49 points; Roma are fifth on 46, level with Juventus in the last CL spot and with no margin for “good losses.”
Roma’s case for belonging has been built on control and denial through their defense. They’ve conceded 15 goals all season, the stingiest record in the league and among the stingiest in Europe. Still, control only counts if you can cash it in against the teams that also expect to be in the Champions League alongside you. That’s the knife-edge. Roma have always had a defensive identity this season, and Daniele Ghilardi’s rise has only deepened it. Yet with injuries still biting, there’s enough attacking uncertainty that “a point away at Napoli” stops sounding like pragmatism and starts sounding like drift.
Match Details
Date: February 15th
Kickoff: 20:45 CET/2:45 EST
Venue: Stadio Maradona, Napoli
Referee: Andrea Colombo
Under Antonio Conte, Napoli have lived on the other side of the pitch—they’ve always found success on the attack, but their defense has given up nine more goals than the Giallorossi’s. They’re still close enough to feel like they’re in the title race—six points off Inter, one behind Milan—and they’ve been living on late drama lately, including a last-gasp penalty win at Genoa that kept them in touch at the top. They also beat Roma 1–0 at the Olimpico earlier this season, so in my mind, that means Roma can’t just put in a “good effort” tomorrow. As Don Draper once said, if you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation; what better way to change the conversation than with a win?
What to Watch For
Can We Get Another Touch of Malen Madness?
Donyell Malen has walked into Roma’s attack as if he forgot that Roma strikers are supposed to take a month to “settle in.” He arrives from Aston Villa, gets thrown on in Turin, and within half an hour he’s already doing what Roma have begged for all year: a forward who turns one half-decent moment into a goal without asking the goalie’s permission first. That debut strike in the 2–0 win over Torino was the clearest sign yet that Roma might finally have a finisher who treats chances as something more than a suggestion.
Since then, Malen has somehow gone even further than the most hopeful version of the story Romanisti had believed in when he was signed. His brace against Cagliari is the clearest example: two goals, three points, and a match that never had to become some sweaty ninetieth-minute freak-out because Roma finally had a forward who could end sequences instead of extending them. With that brace, he’s at three goals in his first four matches, which has completely overturned Roma’s “why can’t they shoot” narrative in less than a month. The Dutchman is direct, quick to shoot, and forces defenses to turn and run. It’s a breath of fresh air, quite frankly.
If Roma win tomorrow, it’s hard not to picture a Malen goal at the center of it. He just has to get one run off the shoulder, one clean finish, and suddenly the whole night will read differently. Napoli can be excellent, but they’re not sealed shut defensively: in their last Serie A match, they conceded twice to Genoa and needed a stoppage-time penalty to escape, with the equalizer coming off a defensive mistake. That’s the opening, if Roma can manufacture it. The ask is simple: the midfield just has to feed Malen consistently. Napoli will leak if you keep forcing the issue; Malen is currently Roma’s sharpest way to do it.
Midfield Questions: Pisilli or El Aynaoui?
Roma’s midfield pecking order has been quietly reshuffled over the last couple of months, and two names are the most responsible. Niccolò Pisilli’s stock has risen the old-fashioned way: he’s forced Gian Piero Gasperini to keep writing his name in pen after a fall where appearances were hard to come by. Two goals against Stuttgart in the Europa League announced that this kid isn’t just a substitute; he’s a real option for now and for the future.
Meanwhile, Neil El Aynaoui’s rise has come on a different stage, but it counts the same. AFCON turned him from “a useful rotational midfielder for Roma” into “Morocco’s midfield star,” and the receipts are there: he took the TotalEnergies Man of the Match against Mali, then stepped up and converted in the shootout win over Nigeria on the way to the final. That kind of month changes how a player carries himself back at club level: less audition, more ownership. It also changes who is trying to pry him out of Roma’s hands, but that’s a story for another article.
Here’s why all of this matters tomorrow: Manu Koné’s ongoing (frustrating) injury situation has left Roma needing another real midfielder to start in a crucial match. Reports around the club have treated Koné’s injury as a meaningful layoff, so Roma needs one of Pisilli or El Aynaoui to start at the Maradona and give the team legs, duels, and forward momentum. Even with Scott McTominay out, Napoli have the kind of offensive firepower that will make you defend in waves. They will punish empty possessions. In a perfect world? This stops being an either/or question by late spring. I hope that Gian Piero Gasperini will find a way to make this “choice” turn into a “both, of course,” and let that be the new normal. For now, though, whoever gets the start should be noted, as it will show just who GPG sees as the future.
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