Roma midfield duo Kevin Strootman and Leandro Paredes are better than new Juventus signing Miralem Pjanic, according to Luciano Spalletti.
Bosnia-Herzegovina international Pjanic joined the Serie A champions from Roma in July for a €32million fee, after impressing during a five-year spell at the Stadio Olimpico.
"I don't feel that we are missing something in midfield," he said ahead of Roma's Serie A opener against Udinese. "We have Strootman instead of him and I think the Dutchman is stronger. Even Paredes is better than Pjanic.
"Gerson also has great quality and will be important when he adjusts to our style of football. With the arrival of Bruno Peres too, we can also utilise [Alessandro] Florenzi in midfield too, so we aren't worried about our options there at all."
"No, I chose Alisson because Szczesny hadn't trained much," he said. "Szczesny is one of those who deserved to play in a game like the Porto one because of what he did last season.
"'There has to be one goalkeeper, who has the starting shirt' - why is that accepted? We're in a new world, things have changed. I make my decisions, even if they're wrong, and I base them on the players."
"They're good," he said of Udinese. "They sign these little phenomena who can play in a lot of roles.
"All we are thinking about is winning every game we play. We know we will be involved in a challenge with Juventus, Napoli, AC Milan, Inter and Fiorentina.
"We know that we are a strong team and we have to start on the right foot and hit the ground running. That's important."
