I’ve been wanting to watch a Roma match for a while now and then I saw that I’d have time to watch their match against Torino, but really wanted to watch a match prior to it so that I’d have something to go on. I chose to watch Roma v Napoli, because at the time they were 1st and 2nd in Serie A, respectively. With that said, below you’ll see the analyses of both Roma v Napoli and Torino v Roma.
Roma v Napoli
Match date: 18 October 2013
Italy’s top two teams on current form (at the time of the match). Both sides made managerial changes over the summer with Roma bringing in Rudi Garcia and Napoli bringing in Rafa Benitez. Napoli certainly spent more than Roma, bringing in the likes to Gonzalo Higuain, Dries Mertens, Pepe Reina (on loan), Raul Albiol, and Jose Callejon.
Roma splashed some cash as well, bringing in Gervinho from Arsenal to reunite with Garcia, Kevin Strootman, Adem Ljajic, and Mehdi Benatia.
Roma played in a 4-3-3, while Napoli played in a 4-2-3-1, which caused the game to be tactically matched up in midfield, with Roma’s Pjanic and Strootman up against Inler and Behrami and De Rossi up against Hamsik.
Daniele De Rossi
The Roma man, who admitted that over the summer he entertained the thought of leaving the Italian side, has been playing very well for his club. During the Napoli match, he played as the holding midfielder in Roma’s 4-3-3, but his role was very defensive and deep, almost acting as a third centre back. Below you can see him picking the ball up from the Roma goalkeeper, Morgan De Sanctis, between the Roma centre backs and just seconds later, the Roma full backs higher up the pitch than himself, with the Roma centre backs just behind him.
He had the ability to distribute very freely as you can see in both images, Napoli were allowing Roma to have plenty of room in their defensive third of the field waiting to apply pressure to Roma only when they entered the middle third. De Rossi’s distribution was decent from the back as well, providing some expansive passing to Dodo and Macion, as well as Pjanic further up the field. With the lack of Napoli’s pressure in Roma’s defensive third of the field, De Rossi was able to act as a pressure relief for the Roma midfielders and full backs. You’ll notice below that majority of the passes that De Rossi receives are passed back to him from advanced players.
Many of his forward passes were to Pjanic, who acts as a hybrid central midfielder and attacking central midfielder, a very important role that has really formed out of the 4-3-3 since Pep Guardiola started really made it a continental standard. De Rossi’s passes to Pjanic put the Bosnian in good positions, who in turn was able to create a number of chances for his teammates.
Defensively, he did a very good job as well in both his role as a defensive midfielder as well as something of third centre back. Coming into the match, Marek Hamsik had 5 goals in 7 Serie A matches, so part of De Rossi’s role on the day was to keep Hamsik from having influence in the match as Napoli’s attacking midfielder in Rafa Benitez’s 4-2-3-1. Hamsik didn’t receive the ball in dangerous positions, mainly in wide positions as De Rossi controlled the centre of the field between Roma’s back line and midfield. Hamsik created just one chance for his teammates and only had two shots, both of which were off target.
His other role was playing as Roma’s third centre back and he certainly saved his side on at least two occasions. The first was when Pandev broke Roma’s line and just about slid the ball past De Sanctis, only for De Rossi to be coming back and clear off the line. The second, again Pandev received the ball with no one between him and the Roma goal, but De Rossi again made a timely tackle.
Roma’s Attack
Totti started as Roma’s centre forward, although he played more of a false 9 role during his short time on the pitch and you could see the intention that Roma’s attack had; Totti would drop deep and receive the ball which would trigger Pjanic or Strootman to run beyond him, with Totti laying the ball off to them and then they would look to combine with someone else. Roma’s first good chance of the game came from this as Roma good pressing won them the ball at about the halfway line, Totti dropped, flicked the ball with the outside of his foot to Pjanic who then found Gervinho with a good ball only for the Ivorian to hit the ball wide. Below you can see Pjanic on the ball just after Totti’s flick and you can see Gervinho’s good run in behind.
A lot of Roma’s best attacks came down the left side through Gervinho and Dodo, with the full back more than willing to get involved in any attack. Gervinho enjoyed running at Maggio, who was pinned back for most of the first half due to this and Dodo’s forward runs. The Brasilian’s runs forward, though, made Roma a bit weak at the back, but Callejon was unable to take his chances with Dodo getting caught out.
With Totti’s injury midway through the first half, Marco Borriello came on to replace him. Although Borriello is a different type of centre forward than Totti, and played in this match differently than Totti had, Roma were very capable in adjusting to their new forward’s strengths. Borriello played much higher up the pitch than Totti would have and so he stretched the Napoli depth a bit which opened up the midfield a bit more and allowed Pjanic and Strootman to move a bit more. The match, however, wasn’t necessarily decided by Roma themselves, but rather the introduction of Paolo Cannavaro for the injured Britos. Cannavaro’s first foul came after one of Gervinho’s several runs forward, in which the substitute conceded the foul on the edge of the area in stoppage time of the first half only for Pjanic to score on the free kick. The second Roma goal came after Cannavaro fouled Borriello inside the penalty area, earning him his second yellow, and allowing Pjanic to score from the spot.
Conclusion
An open game that should have seen more goals and perhaps would have if both sides had been fully fit throughout the match. Roma maintained their 100% record and gained another three points on the closest opponent in the table. Napoli should have done much better with their opportunities, even with the Pandev and Insigne chances aside.
Torino v Roma
Match date: 3 November 2013
Roma entered the match still unbeaten in Serie A, but still have key players missing in Gervinho and Totti. Two 1-0 victories over Udinese and Chievo left critics predicting an end to Roma’s winning streak to be coming, but Torino have been involved in a number of high scoring matches already including two 3-3 draws and two 2-2 draws.
With Totti and Gervinho still out, Borriello keeps his place as the centre forward, but rather than start Adem Ljajic as one of the attacking three, as Rudi Garcia had in the previous two matches, the Roma manager went with Pjanic in a forward role with Michael Bradley coming back into the side as part of the midfield three.
Roma’s Midfield
So far this season Roma’s midfield has been pretty well balanced with the defensive mind of De Rossi, the creative abilities of Pjanic, and the ability to control in Strootman. With those three in midfield, there is a good understanding of where one another is and positionally, they’ve been very good. With Bradley in for Pjanic, who again was playing on the left side of the attacking three, there seemed to be a little disconnect, with the American starting only his second match of the year.
Pjanic was always looking to come inside and help out in midfield, creating a numbers up situation for Roma, even without De Rossi stepping in from his deep position. Below you can see Pjanic, who on paper is Roma’s left sided attacker, one the ball. You can also see that this opens up plenty of space for Balzaretti to move into and throughout the match he received the ball high up the pitch.
Along with giving Balzaretti the space to move into, Pjanic movement inside allowed Roma a numerical advantage in midfield without De Rossi having to leave his deep midfield role and allowed either Bradley or Strootman to sit a bit further back. You can see in the picture above that Strootman is acting as a holding midfielder, with De Rossi some way behind him. However, as Pjanic would return to the left side of the attack, and Torino regained possession of the ball, both Bradley and Strootman would, at times, be caught far too high up the pitch and it would allow Torino players to get in between the lines of Roma’s midfield and defense, including De Rossi.
You can see both Strootman and Bradley are trying to recover, but two Torino players are behind them with at least 10 yards between themselves and the Roma defense, which is anchored at the moment by De Rossi, as you can see in the far right of the screen. But the roles of Bradley and Strootman seemed a little undefined, as they seemed to play a similar role, albeit on different sides of the pitch. Bradley looked to control the ball and tempo of Roma’s play of the right side of the pitch and Strootman looked to do the same on the left side, with neither offering too much creativity going forward.
This was especially true in the second half as Torino played a much more intense pressing game, with neither Bradley or Strootman really able to to move past Torino’s pressing and able to get much forward.
Roma’s goal came after a corner, with Roma playing a short corner and finding Balzaretti at the top of the penalty area. Pjanic then slipped in behind Cerci, received the ball from Balzaretti and then picked out Strootman who slotted in from six yards out.
Torino’s Second Half Changes
Coming out in the second half, Torino played much higher up the pitch and putting more pressure on the Roma defenders and De Rossi, even if they were unsuccessful in winning the ball back through tackling high up the pitch, the pressure made things a little more difficult for Roma to play the ball into their forwards and forced the Roma back line to drop a bit deeper, allowing the midfield to open up a bit more.
Torino also looked to exploit Roma in the channels a bit more, especially on the right side as Maicon would look to get forward, but failed to really recover quickly enough, allowing Torino to hit diagonal balls in between where Maicon should be and where Benatia was. Torino’s first really good opportunity came from one of these diagonal balls finding Meggiorini, who was able to strike a really good volley only for it to be saved by De Sanctis (as you can see below). But it was a developing pattern of Torino getting in behind Roma’s back line, which is how Torino were able to score their goal.
A simple ball over the top went wrong when Benatia was outmuscled by Meggiorini, who then played the ball across the six yard box for Cerci to side foot the ball past De Sanctis.
Again, Torino was able to play in behind and put pressure on the Roma back four.
Conclusion
Roma remain unbeaten, but this match certainly showed their flaws. With both Bradley and Strootman on the pitch in the centre of the field, there was a lack of creativity going forward, supplemented only by Pjanic coming infield from time to time to help support the play. It also showed that Totti and Gervinho are key players if Roma are to have a successful season. Against Napoli, Gervinho’s pace and direct dribbling put Napoli on the back foot, while Totti’s drifting put the back four at odds about whether to follow the Roma captain and allow a gap in behind them, or stay put and allow Totti to receive and turn. Against Torino, Roma didn’t possess a player that could really dribble at the defense and Borriello’s forward play wasn’t too effective.
Torino’s second half changes put Roma under a good amount of pressure and certainly exploited some of the weaknesses that Roma have in their full backs looking to get forward often, but sometimes struggling to get back, which we also saw against Napoli with Dodo getting caught too high up the pitch from time to time.