Does Como Have Enough Depth for Three Competitions?

There is a version of this conversation that would have sounded ridiculous a few years ago. Are Como sufficiently equipped to rotate between Serie A, the Champions League and the Coppa Italia? Would we prefer to rest somebody against Roma or Manchester United?

It is a lovely problem to have. It is also a problem that becomes considerably less lovely when you put the fixtures into a calendar.

My answer, looking at the opening five league games, is a qualified yes. Como have enough players to compete on three fronts. They have already won with a substantially changed starting XI. What remains unproven is whether the alternatives can take on enough responsibility to keep a handful of essential players from carrying the season.

And there is a complication that a simple squad list misses: some of those alternatives cannot currently play in Europe.

Nine matches in 29 days

Como return against Roma on 11 October. By the time they leave San Siro after facing Inter on 8 November, they are scheduled to have played nine times.

The sequence, combining the club’s fixture schedule with UEFA’s European calendar, is:

• 11 October: Roma at home — Serie A.

• 14 October: Feyenoord away — Champions League.

• 18 October: Fiorentina away — Serie A.

• 21 October: Manchester United at home — Champions League.

• 24 October: Sassuolo at home — Serie A.

• 27 October: Torino away — Serie A.

• 1 November: Venezia at home — Serie A.

• 4 November: Lens away — Champions League.

• 8 November: Inter away — Serie A.

That is six league games and three European games in 29 calendar days, including trips to Rotterdam and Lens. There is no full week between fixtures anywhere in that run.

The Manchester United–Sassuolo turnaround is particularly tight: Wednesday at 18:45 to Saturday at 15:00, less than 69 hours between kick-offs. The players do not spend all of that time recovering, either. There is analysis, preparation and another opponent to understand.

Strictly speaking, this first squeeze involves two competitions. Como’s Coppa Italia round-of-16 tie against Cremonese is listed by the club for 2 December. With Juventus immediately before that part of the schedule and a trip to Real Betis on 9 December, the third competition arrives when the season already has a substantial workload behind it.

October is the rehearsal for managing that. It is not a month in which Fàbregas can postpone the question.

Twenty-one players used, but a much smaller core

The supplied Tattico figures show 21 members of the current squad with Serie A minutes. That is encouraging, but appearances alone make rotation look broader than it feels on the pitch.

Jacobo Ramón has played all 450 available league minutes. Nico Paz has played 420, Yan Couto 417. Those three have barely left the team.

Behind them, Trevoh Chalobah has 360 minutes, Álex Valle 343, Assane Diao 338, Anastasios Douvikas 318 and Lucas Da Cunha 315. Fàbregas has established a recognisable group of outfield players he returns to.

The contrast lower down is sharp. Maxence Caqueret has 92 minutes across four appearances. Samuele Ricci has 64 across three. Ivan Smolčić has 33 and Mattia Liberali 25. A place in the substitution pattern is useful; it is not yet the same as sharing the starting workload.

There is one statistical wrinkle worth clearing up. Kean’s 160-minute season total includes 28 minutes for Fiorentina before his move. His Como league match log adds up to 132 minutes across Genoa, Parma and Frosinone. For this discussion, those are the relevant Como minutes.

None of this means that 450 minutes in five league games is inherently excessive. It means the distribution matters if it persists into a month containing nine fixtures.

Parma showed that rotation can work

We do not have to imagine what a rotated Como might look like. We have already seen one win.

Four days after the 4–1 victory over Leipzig, Fàbregas made five changes to the starting side against Parma. Robert Sánchez, Marc-Oliver Kempf, Kaiki, Máximo Perrone and Kean came in for Jean Butez, Chalobah, Valle, Luis Milla and Douvikas.

Como won 2–1. Kaiki scored the second goal. Those selections were not simply names filling spaces on a teamsheet: one of the replacements supplied the eventual winning goal. The official match report provides the clearest early evidence that the squad can absorb changes and still take three points.

But Ramón and Couto remained in the defence. Paz remained in the attack. Rotation had happened around the same heavily used players.

That is the next question: can Como occasionally change the centre of the team, rather than only the players around it?

The defeat at Frosinone does not answer that on its own. Como started the same XI that had beaten Leipzig, then introduced Ricci, Kean and Jesús Rodríguez at half-time. It would be convenient to describe the loss as proof of fatigue, but the match record does not establish that. One defeat is not a fitness diagnosis, any more than one rotated victory settles the depth debate.

The European list changes the calculation

Como’s current UEFA squad does not include Caqueret, Willy Kambwala or Jayden Addai. Mauro Vigorito, Edoardo Goldaniga and Adrian Lahdo are also outside that selection.

This matters particularly when we talk about defensive and midfield cover. Kambwala cannot simply be pencilled in for Rotterdam to give Ramón a night off. Caqueret cannot currently be the fresh midfielder summoned for Lens.

Their domestic usefulness remains. In fact, that makes their possible Serie A contribution more significant. Starting an eligible alternative on the weekend can reduce the demands on somebody needed in midweek.

That is my preferred way to think about the exclusions: a reason to plan domestic rotation deliberately. Waiting until a European regular is unavailable would leave Fàbregas with fewer choices at precisely the wrong moment.

Midfield has options; the creative burden is less evenly shared

Central midfield offers the strongest evidence of an emerging rotation. Da Cunha’s 315 league minutes are followed by Milla’s 273 and Perrone’s 268. Those are meaningful contributions from three players, with Ricci and Caqueret available to take on more domestically.

There is room to change that unit without asking an unfamiliar player to invent a new role overnight. Ricci’s limited involvement so far should be read in the context of a recent arrival, not treated as proof that Fàbregas does not trust him.

The creative picture is more concentrated. Diao leads the supplied key-pass rankings with 13, followed by Paz on ten and Da Cunha and Couto on nine each. Those four account for 41 of the 89 key passes listed—about 46%.

A key pass is a pass that leads directly to a shot, not necessarily a clear chance. Even with that distinction, the figures show why resting a player can change more than the energy level of the team.

Take out Couto and you are changing a source of chances as well as a right-back. Take out Diao and you lose the player who has created the most shots for teammates. Remove Paz as well and the replacement XI needs a credible plan for getting the ball into dangerous areas.

Baturina’s 271 minutes give him a substantial role already. Rodríguez has 150 minutes; Liberali just 25. Both can become more important, but it would be asking a lot to expect them to replace the established creative output immediately.

My preference would be to stagger those changes. Give Rodríguez a start with established creators around him. Give Paz a shorter afternoon without also removing every other player who helps Como progress the ball. Build partnerships that can survive somebody’s absence.

Full-back cover may matter as much as the strikers

The 417-to-33 contrast between Couto and Smolčić is one of the most revealing numbers in the squad. It does not make them identical players, but it shows how little league responsibility has shifted away from the first-choice right-back.

Smolčić did replace Couto in the 74th minute against Leipzig. That is evidence of a usable option, though a substitute appearance while protecting a lead asks something different from starting away at Feyenoord.

On the left, Valle’s 343 minutes and Kaiki’s 116 provide a more developed example of shared involvement. Kaiki has also supplied three key passes and accumulated 0.67 xG. The sample is tiny, but his Parma contribution gives the rotation argument something tangible.

At centre-back, Kempf has 115 league minutes. Alberto Dossena is in the European squad, while Kambwala offers another domestic option. There are bodies available. The issue is how confidently Como can change partnerships without losing their organisation.

Add the Leipzig match to the supplied league totals and Ramón was already on 540 regulation-time club minutes before international duty, with Paz on 510 and Couto on 491. Those are calculated totals using the European substitution record and excluding added time. The league table of minutes is only part of the workload.

Two centre-forwards give Como a real choice

Douvikas leads Como’s supplied league xG figures with 2.15 from 318 minutes. That works out at roughly 0.61 xG per 90: an encouraging rate of getting on the end of chances, although five appearances are nowhere near enough for a firm forecast.

Kean gives Fàbregas an alternative who has already started a league match for Como. His club match log records 0.62 xG in 132 minutes, distinct from the 0.74 season total in the supplied rankings. We should not use the larger total as though every chance came in a Como shirt.

Two options at centre-forward do not guarantee goals. They do allow a manager to change the player leading the line without improvising an entire attack.

That is meaningful depth. The challenge is to use it proactively, rather than asking the substitute to rescue a game after the first choice has already spent a difficult hour chasing it.

The international break is not a shared holiday

Fifteen Como players were called up for this window. That is a source of pride and a complication for preparing the next month: Fàbregas cannot spend the entire pause rehearsing new combinations with the full squad.

As of the morning of 1 October, the experiences have already been very different.

Ramón and Valle completed Spain Under-21’s defeat in Finland, with Rodríguez playing 70 minutes. Spain still have San Marino on 1 October and Romania on 6 October. The Spanish federation’s match report confirms both the involvement and the remaining qualification task. For Ramón, the first of those games took his calculated competitive total to 630 regulation-time minutes across club and country.

Paz, meanwhile, started Argentina’s 4–0 win over Bolivia on 30 September, scoring and assisting according to the AFA report. It is excellent news for his confidence. It also means his break includes international football in Argentina, with Burkina Faso and Benin still on the schedule, rather than an uninterrupted recovery block in Como.

Diao has also started both of Senegal’s opening qualifiers, coming off during the second half against Ethiopia. His international workload belongs in the same conversation as his club minutes and creative importance.

At the other end of the spectrum, Kean was unused against Türkiye on 28 September. Ricci was among the players kept at Coverciano to train rather than make that trip. Fifteen call-ups plainly do not mean fifteen identical physical burdens.

Liberali has had a different opportunity again: two goals in Italy Under-21’s preparation match against Spezia Primavera. Useful involvement for a player short of club minutes, but, as the FIGC report makes clear, this was a training friendly against youth opposition, not evidence that he is ready to run a Champions League midfield.

With international fixtures continuing into 6 October and Roma arriving on the 11th, the full squad will have a short period to reconnect. Actual return times, minutes played and player condition should determine the decisions. We cannot infer exhaustion—or perfect freshness—from a call-up list.

What would convince me that the depth is sufficient?

I would look for three things during the first few weeks back.

First, meaningful starts for the alternatives. Ricci, Rodríguez, Kempf, Kaiki and Smolčić need opportunities appropriate to their roles if the same core is not going to dominate every teamsheet. Caqueret’s domestic minutes could be particularly valuable given his European exclusion.

Second, protection for the busiest players before protection becomes compulsory. Ramón, Paz and Couto do not all need to miss the same match. They do need a plan that occasionally allows the team to function without each of them.

Third, continuity within the rotation. Wholesale changes can leave technically capable players looking disconnected. Keeping familiar combinations while changing selected positions gives the replacements a fairer chance of succeeding.

There is no need to label Sassuolo or Venezia an easy game to make that argument. The point of building a deeper squad is being able to trust more players in competitive matches, not only when the result looks safe.

Enough depth, provided Como use it

The case for optimism is stronger than the case for panic. Como have won after five changes, have alternatives through central midfield and at centre-forward, and have already received a decisive contribution from a rotating left-back.

The reservations are specific. Ramón, Paz and Couto carry particularly heavy club minutes. Much of the chance creation comes from a small group. Several recognisable squad members are not available for Champions League selection, and the international break scatters players whose club understanding still needs work.

So yes: I think Como have enough depth to compete in three competitions. I am less convinced they can do it by treating most of that depth as a collection of late substitutes.

The next step is to make more of these players part of the normal team. Parma showed it can work. The calendar is about to ask Como to prove it repeatedly.