Former Lazio coach Edy Reja claims playing against Roma is 'always a derby', even now that he's coaching Atalanta.
The tactician will be visiting the Olimpico this Sunday, a stadium which will be familiar grounds to him as he already trained the other Roman team from February 2010 to January 2014.
“Playing against Roma is always a derby,” he told the Press. “Playing at the Olimpico is exciting. I coached Lazio for five seasons, there's more than just city pride for me.
Former Lazio coach Edy Reja claims playing against Roma is 'always a derby', even now that he's coaching Atalanta.
The tactician will be visiting the Olimpico this Sunday, a stadium which will be familiar grounds to him as he already trained the other Roman team from February 2010 to January 2014.
“Playing against Roma is always a derby,” he told the Press. “Playing at the Olimpico is exciting. I coached Lazio for five seasons, there's more than just city pride for me.
“I'm with Atalanta now but it'll be exciting nonetheless. Seeing the Giallorossi colours will bring me back to the past years.
“It went pretty well too, I won the last few derbies against Roma and then I drew one against [Roma Coach Rudi] Garcia. I did the same last year with Atalanta.
“Let's hope to keep this up. In one particularly difficult year I lost both derbies and I was defeated in the Coppa Italia, but then we managed to relax a little."
Reja then went on to discuss his own team and the formation he is looking to field.
“[Gianpaolo] Bellini had some good performances, but I have a man and that's [Davide] Brivio. On the right I have [Andrea] Masiello, [Andrea] Conti and [Cristian] Raimondi. I'll have to see who's playing on that flank so I can figure out who can be their proper foil.
“Unfortunately [Marten] De Roon trained very little this week, we'll see if he recovered completely. [Luca] Cigarini or [Giulio] Migliaccio could perhaps start.
“With [Alberto] Grassi and [Jasmin] Kurtic in the midfield we return to our natural characteristics, while [Carlos] Carmona isn't feeling too will.
“We always said that we have a wide squad, with twentytwo starters. [Rafael] Toloi has nothing wrong with him, he sprained his groin after a sliding tackle and he's a little bit in pain.
“He has to stay put, we'll see at the beginning of the next week. I didn't call up Toloi, but we'll see about Carmona.”