It’s the same issue time after time again for Roma. AS Roma have dropped more points again as they could only muster a 1-1 draw against Sassuolo, further proving that Jose Mourinho’s defensive stubbornness is becoming a real problem.
This Roma team may not be good enough to challenge for the Serie A title, but they are more than capable of performing better than what they are currently producing. Sitting in 5th place and now dropping another two points to 12th place Sassuolo after a disappointing 1-0 loss to archrivals Lazio last weekend, Roma is quickly drifting out of the Top-4 race as Atalanta, Inter, Juventus, and Lazio have all racked up crucial wins.
Now, I know Roma are without their talisman, Paulo Dybala, and scoring goals was always going to be their biggest weakness coming into the season, but their lack of finishing is really getting pathetic at this point. Roma came into this game having scored only 16 goals in Serie A, which was the second lowest tally in the top half of the league.
Only Torino (9th place), who have been on an impressive win streak of late, has scored less (15) total goals than the Giallorossi. Moreover, Roma’s second leading goal scorer in all competitions (Dybala is their 1st with 9 goals) is centerback Chris Smalling, who has 3 goals to his name.
Yup, a centerback is their second leading goal scorer.
Tammy Abraham only has scored 2, Nicolo Zaniolo, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Bryan Cristante have 1, while Andrea Bellotti and Rick Karsdorp don’t have any. That’s just not good enough, and these players need to play better.
Though, after watching the Sassuolo game today, I think a big part as to why Roma have almightily struggled to score has been Jose Mourinho’s defensive tactics. Or I should say ‘park the bus’ tactics as that’s all Roma does. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.
Whether they are playing against league leaders Napoli, midtable Sassuolo, or bottom feeders Verona, Jose Mourinho has Roma set up in the extremely defensive 3-5-2 formation, which obviously limits the offensive output of skilled players like Abraham, Zaniolo, and Pellegrini.
If Roma would only open up a little more and hold a higher line against lesser opponents, such as Sassuolo and Verona, they would actually be able to score far more goals as Abraham, Zaniolo, Dybala, and Pellegrini have already shown they have the ability to do so. They wouldn’t have won the inaugural UEFA Conference League if they weren’t up for the task.
But, seeing as this is Mourinho and he has stubbornly refused to modernize his late 2000’s/early 2010’s defensive tactics, I’m just wasting my breath (or fingers since I’m typing this). Mourinho is not going to change, and neither will Roma. They will live and die by Jose’s ‘park the bus’ formations, though it seems more likely they will die by them as the Top-4 dream is slipping before their very eyes.
If Juve beats Verona (which I don’t see how they don’t), then Roma will find themselves sitting in 6th place for the rest of the week. Just like how they finished last season.
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