Roma director Tiago Pinto confirms they want to ‘improve the squad’ in January for Jose Mourinho and must be patient with Nicolò Zaniolo.
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Zaniolo was dropped for the Serie A win away to Genoa, but is given the chance to shine this evening in Europe, so is the Italy international progressing at the pace Roma and Jose Mourinho expected?
“Everyone in football understands that Zaniolo was out injured for a year-and-a-half,” Tiago Pinto told Sky Sport Italia.
“He played 15 games, but that’s not enough. He has talent and quality, but needs to make a full physiological recovery. I am not worried, I am sure he’ll play an important part in future, this is all part of the recovery process.”
Roma dropped to second place in the Europa Conference League group after picking up one point from two games against Bodo/Glimt, including the 6-1 defeat in Norway.
“We made life complicated for ourselves. We can only apologise for the game in Norway and move on. We’re motivated to win and continue in the competition.”
Mourinho has repeatedly complained that the squad is too thin and he lacks quality replacements, to the degree that with Matias Vina and Riccardo Calafiori injured, he has moved to a three-man defence.
“This squad was built for a different system, but any coach will try alternatives. We already said that we want to do something in January to improve the squad, but the transfer window is a tricky time.”