Gian Piero Gasperini has never been afraid of a measuring stick. Inter now provide the biggest one in Italy, and the Roma coach knows it.
With a fierce clash against the champions looming, the Italian welcomed the chance to see exactly where his reshaped side stands. The scars of last season are still there, particularly that heavy defeat in the return fixture, but for Gasperini, that beating marked something more than humiliation – it marked a beginning.
“There was a big gap between the teams last season, especially when we got hammered in the return meeting,” he told DAZN Italia. “But that was where the real Roma was born, with an escalation after that in terms of results, attitude and mentality.”
That response has defined his work since. Roma hardened up, tightened their structure, and found a sharper edge in both penalty areas. Now comes the ultimate exam: Inter, the team everyone else in Serie A is chasing.
“Clearly, Inter are the reference point for this league, a strong team indicated by everyone as the best in Italy,” Gasperini said. Then he added a twist, a nod to the new money and ambition rising on the lake: “Even if I think Como are getting close.”
It was a revealing line. Inter remain the standard, but Roma’s coach sees a league evolving fast, with fresh contenders and new threats. For his own team, that only raises the stakes. This is not just another big game; it is a chance to prove Roma belong in that conversation.
“It is an opportunity for us to measure up against the best and show we can do better than in recent performances,” he insisted.
If Roma are to close that gap, one man sits at the centre of the plan: Malen.
The Dutch forward has turned a €25 million investment into a statement. Roma made his move permanent from Aston Villa in May 2026 after a devastating loan spell that produced 15 goals in 20 appearances. That run convinced the club he was worth building around. He has not let them down.
This season, his finishing has gone from promising to ruthless. With six goals already on the board, Malen has stepped into club history. He is only the third Roma player ever to score more than five times in the opening four Serie A matches, standing alongside Pedro Manfredini’s 1960-61 burst and Francesco Totti’s 2001-02 surge.
That is not routine company. Those are names that echo through the Curva Sud.
Malen’s movement and timing have become the spearhead of Gasperini’s attacking design. Roma’s patterns in the final third now bend towards him: quick combinations into feet, sharp runs across the near post, space cleared for his diagonal darts into the box. When Roma break, they look for him. When they build, they build around him.
The goals justify the fee. More importantly, they give Roma something they lacked when Inter tore them apart last season – a striker who can punish the smallest crack in an elite defence.
Gasperini has a few days left to tune the details, to refine pressing triggers and set-piece routines, to remind his players what that “real Roma” looked like when it first emerged from the rubble of that heavy defeat. Inter remain the benchmark, the team everyone still points to.
Now the question is simple: can this new, Malen-led Roma turn a measuring stick into a statement?
