Gasperini’s Roma Start to Roar: A New Era Begins
Roma have not just started well under Gian Piero Gasperini. They’ve started with a statement.
Lorenzo Bettoni and Wayne Girard have taken a deep dive into how the new coach has wasted no time imposing his ideas on the Giallorossi, reshaping the team’s identity and, just as importantly, his own place inside the club’s power structure.
On the touchline in Verona on May 24, 2026, at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, Gasperini cut a familiar figure: constantly gesturing, barking instructions, dragging every ounce of intensity out of his players during the Serie A clash with Hellas Verona. That image has quickly become the symbol of Roma’s early-season edge.
A Coach With Unusual Power in Trigoria
Inside Trigoria, Gasperini already looks like more than just a head coach. Bettoni and Girard explore how his influence appears to stretch deeper than that of his predecessors – even José Mourinho.
Tactical calls, squad planning, the direction of the project: Gasperini seems to have a firm grip on all of it. That kind of authority can define a season. It can also define a club’s medium-term ambitions.
Roma have often lived between cycles, never fully committing to one identity. Gasperini’s arrival hints at a different approach: a team built in his image, with the club seemingly willing to hand him the tools and the trust to do it.
If that dynamic holds, Roma’s ceiling this year could look very different.
Unlocking Donyell Malen
The conversation then turns to Donyell Malen, the forward who might become the purest expression of Gasperini’s Roma.
Malen has the pace, the movement and the instinct to thrive in a high-intensity attacking system. The question Bettoni and Girard pose is simple and bold: can Gasperini be the coach who unlocks his absolute peak?
From there, the debate sharpens. Could Malen, under this kind of guidance, launch a serious assault on Gonzalo Higuaín’s extraordinary 36-goal Serie A record?
It’s a huge benchmark. Higuaín’s total still stands as one of the defining feats of the modern Italian game. Chasing it is not just about finishing chances; it’s about sustaining ruthless form across an entire campaign, in a league that punishes every dip.
Record Chases and Title Talk
The season is still young. That matters. Bettoni and Girard weigh up how realistic it is to talk about records and titles when the calendar has barely turned past the opening stretch.
Is Malen’s scoring pace sustainable? Can Gasperini keep Roma playing at this tempo from August to May? And if he can, are Roma looking at a genuine Scudetto push, powered by a striker flirting with history?
Those are the stakes now. Roma are no longer simply trying to return to the Champions League or steady themselves after another managerial change. Under Gasperini, with Malen up front and the coach’s authority spreading through every layer of the club, the conversation has shifted.
From damage control to ambition. From survival to records.
If this is only the beginning, what will Roma look like when Gasperini’s grip tightens even further?
