Claudio Ranieri’s Derby Masterclass Hints Roma’s Nightmare Season Can Still Have Fairytale Ending

“We are a team now,” was Claudio Ranieri’s succinct verdict after Roma won the Derby della Capitale on Sunday and perhaps finally reignited their moribund season.

It was a typically understated line from a typically understated man.

But turning Roma’s expensively assembled squad into a team was something that had proved beyond Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric over the past six months.

Ranieri seemed to be on a hiding to nothing when he returned to the club he supported as a boy for the third time in November.

The Giallorossi were 12th in Serie A and in the midst of their worst start to a season since 1979.

By the time Ranieri lost his first two games in charge, Roma were just two points clear of the relegation zone, a nightmare scenario for a club that invested €100m (£82m) in the summer.

A month on, and the Giallorossi can begin to look ahead with mild optimism rather than glance nervously over their shoulder.

The 2-0 win over Lazio on Sunday night left Roma in 10th place, nine points adrift of the final European spot and still 12 behind their city rivals.

If the table is still underwhelming, victory in the Derby della Capitale could be the springboard Roma need.

Perhaps more than in any other city in the world, success in the Eternal City is measured by getting one over your local rivals as much as by trophies themselves.

A Roman and a Romanista, Ranieri understands the delicate dynamics of the club and the importance of the derby better than most.

It is why he has worked to placate a mutinous fan base, who had openly rebelled against the Friedkin ownership earlier this season. And it is why he brought captain Lorenzo Pellegrini, a Roman like himself, back in the fold and handed him his first start in over a month on Sunday night.

Along with Bryan Cristante and Gianluca Mancini, the 26-year-old was targeted by Roma ultras earlier this season and told in no uncertain terms he was persona non grata.

But Ranieri revealed he had a conversation with Pellegrini on Saturday, which convinced him he should start.

“I realised he had a burning desire to be the captain in the derby,” he said. 

“He didn’t ask for it, but I knew he wanted it. I told him he hadn’t played well in Milan, but that he’d be starting today. 

“And I had a feeling he would deliver a great performance.”

The feeling proved prescient as Pellegrini opened the scoring in spectacular fashion, with a superb curling effort from the edge of the box after Roma had sliced Lazio apart on the counter.

Seven minutes later, the Giallorossi were again devastating in transition with Paulo Dybala and Alexis Saelemaekers combining before the latter converted his own rebound.

It marked the first time in 26 years that Roma had scored twice in the first 20 minutes of a game against Lazio – Marco Delvecchio and Vincenzo Montella the last pair to put them 2-0 up in November 1999.

For Ranieri, meanwhile, this was a fifth consecutive win in the Derby della Capitale, a record for any manager on both sides of the divide.

Not that there are any secrets to beating Lazio. Not according to him anyway.  

“The derby creates its own energy,” he said.

“We don’t need to do anything extra. I just try to keep the lads calm, maybe that’s the secret.”

In an era when football seems to be all about “marginal gains”, “relationism” and “overloads”, it is refreshing to hear a manager speak about the game in such simple terms.

And Ranieri has indeed kept things simple at Roma since replacing Juric, who lamented the club was in a “s**t situation” and was fired within six weeks of taking over from De Rossi.

After being inexplicably ignored by the Croat, World Cup winners Mats Hummels and Leandro Paredes have been mainstays of Ranieri’s 3-4-2-1.

Meanwhile Dybala, who according to his manager is “worth the ticket price alone”, has been allowed to play his natural game, freed from tactical responsibilities.

To the surprise of nobody, the Argentine has flourished and was a constant thorn in Lazio’s side on Sunday night.

“The team has come together and we now understand how to support each other and maintain our shape on the pitch,” Ranieri explained.

“We can’t afford any more mistakes in the second half of the season. It’s time to show what we’re capable of.”

With five wins in seven, Roma have entered 2025 with a spring in their step, but for all the enthusiasm victory in the derby generated, some burning questions remain.

Artem Dobvyk, who cost €30.5m in the summer – almost as much as Lazio spent in the entire transfer window – has scored just once under Ranieri.

The impact of fellow summer arrivals Matias Soule and Enzo Le Fee, who cost €25.6m and €23m respectively, has been negligible and neither appears to have a future at the Olimpico.

Such underwhelming return after a summer of financial largesse has put Roma’s sporting director Florent Ghisolfi firmly in the spotlight, particularly with the club set to miss out on Champions League prize money for a seventh consecutive season 

Ranieri was offered the chance to move upstairs at the end of the season and to have some input in choosing his successor, who may have to operate within financial constraints in the summer.

But before he takes up an executive role, Ranieri can still win a trophy with the Giallorossi, something which proved frustratingly elusive in his first two spells in charge.

Roma face AC Milan in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals and are currently in the play-off spots in the Europa League table, just two points away from direct qualification to the Round of 16.

The Giallorossi won the Europa Conference League in 2022 and lost the Europa League final a year later, making the semi-finals of Europe’s second-tier competition in 2021 and 2024.

At 73 years of age, it would be some way for Ranieri to finally bow out.