Roma's Unbeaten Streak Tested Against Udinese

Roma’s unbeaten run will be tested by more than just Udinese on Saturday. It will be tested by the treatment table.

Gian Piero Gasperini has named a 22-man squad for the trip to Udine, and it is as notable for who is missing as for who is on the bus. Paulo Dybala is out. Manu Kone is out. The first-choice goalkeeper is out. Lorenzo Pellegrini, the captain and emotional hinge of this Roma side, stays in the capital as well.

So Gasperini turns to youth.

Gasparini leans on kids as injuries bite

Roma arrive nine games into the Serie A season without a single defeat and fresh from a 4-2 win over Cagliari, a wild, open contest that underlined both their attacking ambition and their willingness to trade punches. They sit among just three unbeaten teams in the league. The momentum is real.

But the squad list for Udine tells a different story: this is a group stretched thin and reshaped by necessity.

Pierluigi Gollini is set to continue in goal in the absence of Svilar, the experienced keeper now the de facto pillar at the back. Behind him, Gasperini has called up Devis Vasquez and 19-year-old Giorgio De Marzi as understudies. If anything happens to Gollini, Roma’s season could suddenly rest on teenage shoulders.

And that theme runs right through the list.

Emanuele Lulli, only 19, is no longer just a promising wing-back on the fringes. He has scored in each of his last two Serie A outings and now travels as a genuine weapon, not a token academy presence. His recent celebration at the Stadio Olimpico, after finding the net against Cagliari, felt like a statement: he belongs at this level.

He will not be the only teenager in yellow and red this weekend. Rodrigo Mora, another 19-year-old brought in over the summer, is included again. So are academy products Alessandro Di Nunzio, also 19, and Mandjou Camara, just 17, who steps into a senior squad still buzzing from that midweek win.

This is not a gentle introduction to top-flight football. This is a high-wire act inside an unbeaten campaign.

Unbeaten Roma face a wounded Udinese

On paper, the opponent looks ideal for a patched-up Roma. Udinese, under Kosta Runjaic, have lost six straight league games and are clinging to safety with just five points. Confidence has drained from a side used to making life uncomfortable for visitors in Friuli.

But a team on a losing streak can be just as dangerous as one in form. Desperation sharpens edges. Udinese know that another defeat, at home and against a rotated Roma, will turn concern into outright alarm around the relegation zone.

Roma, though, arrive with authority. Gasperini’s defensive options remain deep: Devyne Rensch, Konstantinos Koulierakis, Evan Ndicka, Nahuel Molina, Mario Hermoso, Gianluca Mancini, Leonardo Balerdi, Wesley Franca, Lulli and Daniele Ghilardi give him the numbers and profiles to mix a back three or back four as he sees fit.

In midfield, Bryan Cristante and Marten De Roon provide steel and structure, the kind of axis that protects young teammates and allows them to play. Around them, Niccolo Pisilli, Di Nunzio and Mora bring legs and enthusiasm, the raw energy that can tilt a match when more established stars are missing.

The balance of the squad is clear: experience down the spine, teenagers at the edges, all wrapped inside a run of form that has yet to crack.

A test of depth and nerve

Udine will offer a different kind of exam. Less glamour, more grit. A hostile atmosphere, a desperate home side, and an opponent that has nothing to lose and everything to claw back.

For Gasperini, it becomes a measure of Roma’s depth and mentality. Can an unbeaten team still impose itself without Dybala’s creativity, Pellegrini’s leadership and a full-strength core? Can the kids who lit up the Olimpico in flashes now handle a grind of a game away from home?

Roma travel as favourites. They travel unbeaten. They also travel young.

By Saturday night, Italy will know whether this squad’s teenage streak is a luxury of form or the foundation of something more enduring.