Claudio Ranieri and Roma will have to do without star player Paulo Dybala for the remainder of the season after he after deciding to have surgery on a tendon injury, which will keep him out of action for at least two months and therefore the rest of the 2024-25 campaign. 

Here is how the Giallorossi could replace La Joya for their nine remaining Serie A matches. 

How Roma can replace Dybala for Serie A run-in 

With Roma now out of the Coppa Italia and Europa League, finishing as high as possible in the Serie A table remains the sole priority this campaign. Fortunately for the Giallorossi, they have been the division’s form team this calendar year, but keeping up the pace without Dybala to call on will be a tough task. 

Corriere dello Sport suggests that summer signing Matias Soule will be the direct replacement for Dybala in the starting line-up over the coming weeks. 

The two attackers are fairly similar in profile, both are left-footed and prefer to operate in the right half spaces. Thursday’s reports indicate that Soule will be the ‘guaranteed’ starter in the Roma attack in Dybala’s absence. 

Assuming that Artem Dovbyk and Eldor Shomurodov remain as the go-to options at centre-forward, that leaves an attacking role to the left of Soule in Ranieri’s currently preferred 3-4-2-1 system. 

Ranieri has several options to rotate between for that role. The most recent starter in the ‘left 10’ position was Tommaso Baldanzi, who is also on the fringes of the Italy national team squad. 

Baldanzi is expected to be the go-to option alongside Soule, although captain Lorenzo Pellegrini is also expected to be given opportunities in that role before the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Stephan El Shaarawy also provides Ranieri with another option in that position. 

There has also been a suggestion that Alexis Saelemaekers could feature in one of those attacking roles, however, he is currently more useful to Ranieri in his regular position at right wing-back.