Bergamo calling
Is there life after Totti?
The long wait has finally finished. Eightyfour days after the most emotional day in their last 15 years, AS Roma started a new life. A life without Totti, without the tranquillity, the serenity, the comfort, without that paternal presence that has made everything so normal and safe in the past 25 seasons.
Roma new life started in Bergamo, a mere 53 km away from Brescia, the place where 24 years ago the a then 16 years-old Totti wrote the first page of his novel with the Giallorossi. New life, new season, new coach, with Eusebio Di Francesco in charge after Luciano Spalletti concluded his second Roma spell only one year and half after his return in January 2016.
Atalanta-Roma is not the easiest of the away matches for Roma. An overall negative record (17 wins 17 draws 19 defeats), clashes between the supporters, a sanguineous defeat last year and the strength of Gasperini’s team, who finished past season with their all-time points (72) and position (4th) record, contributed to make Atalanta a much feared rival among the Giallorossi fans. Not to mention that, following a dreadful 4–1 defeat against Celta Vigo in the last preseason friendly, pressure was already high on the team and the coach.
Yet AS Roma won. A pragmatic, suffered, and ugly victory is still a victory. Undoubtely facing the most difficult match among the Scudetto candidates, Di Francesco’s boys gained three very important points on a field wher Atalanta was undefeated since December 2016 (Atalanta — Udinese 1–3).
Statistically Atalanta outperformed Roma in almost all aspects: they shot more (16–6), had more possession (56.7–43.3), a better passing accuracy (81.8–74.5), won more corners (4–1), produced more expected goals (1.1–0.34) and had a higher team average position (54 m. — 47 m.). Yet Roma won the only stat that count and the astute free kick of Aleksander Kolarov gained them three precious points.
In a team which presented only two new faces with respect to last season, Defrel and Kolarov, the former Manchester City, and Lazio, player made a man-of-the match debut. Goal apart, Kolarov acted as displaced regista, being the Roma player with more touches (95), completed passes (62), ball recoveries (11) and duels won (9). Kolarov centrality to Roma’s game is also evident from the passmap, (via @11tegen11) which shows how much of the Giallorossi’s play developed on the left chain composed by the Serbian, Juan Jesus and Perotti. Kolarov all-round performance is completed by 4 tackles, 5 clearances, 2 shots blocked, 2 successful take-ons and 2 interceptions.

If the Giallorossi managed to get the full prize much credit must also be given to Bruno Peres, the player attracting most of the Romanisti concerns ahead the match given his abysmal first season and the prospect of facing one the strongest winger of the entire league, that Papu Gomez who with 16 goals and 10 assist led Gasperini’s band to their historic 4th position.
While Gomez completed 7 take-ons and 7 key passes, Atalanta biggest chance to equalise only happened minutes after Bruno Peres left the pitch injured, as Ilicic failed to fire home 2 m from the goal line a cross of el Papu prolonged by Freuler.
Contrary to past season usual displays, Peres was tactically disciplined, rarely out of position, and thanks to 5 successful tackles, 6 ball recoveries, 1 clearance and 1 interception he managed, widely helped by Defrel, to minimise Roma risks on their right side of defence. Not only that, in a day the Giallorossi shot only 6 times, he completed two key passes, creating Roma biggest scoring chance (goal apart) with a precise pass for Defrel on min 23.
Another unlikely hero proved instrumental to Roma’s victory. A favorite scapegoat at Inter, Juan Jesus, didn’t do much better in his first season in red and yellow. A rotation player for most of the year he never really impressed and raised his reputation with the Romanisti more for his social media pranks of Lazio than for his performance on the pitch. In fact, Di Francesco’s choice to start him ahead of Fazio and the new arrival Hector Moreno raised more than eyebrows among press and fans.
The Brazilian instead repaid his coach trust with a flawless and solid performance. Eliminating his notorious black-outs he gave no chance to Atalanta attackers, forcing Gasperini to substitute Petagna before the hour mark, and conceding little to nothing also to his replacement Cornelius. It is well known that is hard to quantify defenders performance with statistics, and even in this case the 4 tackles, 3 interceptions and 2 clearances don’t do enough justice to Juan Jesus, perhaps only the 9 balls recovered are a good proxy of his focus and concentration. There is no number indeed for the help and guidance Juan Jesus received by the experience and class of a player like Kolarov, and whether the Brazilian is on the right path of improvement or this will remained an isolated gem it remains to be seen.
While Roma defense is promoted in full, their attacking phase has been unconvincing to say the least. The Giallorossi shot only 6 times, Kolarov’s goal being the unique shot on target, and already beat their record low from 2016/17 season set respectively at 7 shots in the December derby and 3 shots on target in the away match at Crotone. Not that Roma went for quality instead of quantity as 2 shots were blocked, only 3 came inside the penalty area and the total expected goals account is a mere 0.34

A low passing accuracy — 73.9% in total and only 66% in the opposition half — united to a conservative approach and an unusually low dynamism Radja Nainggolan, who ran 1 km less than Strootman and De Rossi, seem to be the main reasons for Roma sterility in attack.

As shown in the passmap most of the Giallorossi attacking play has developed on the left flank, with Kolarov exchanging the ball with 24 times with Juan Jesus and 18 times with Diego Perotti. Unfortunately for Di Francesco the Argentinian winger was not in his best day. He dribbled his opponent only 3 times and his 3 crosses led to no chance, probably also due to Dzeko isolation in attack.
In fact, the third component of Roma 4–3–3, that Gregoire Defrel who already played under Di Francesco in the past two seasons at Sassuolo, was more involved in helping Bruno Peres to face Gomez than in attacking the space. Furthermore the French man, who Di Francesco brilliantly developed in a centre striker at Sassuolo, seemed a bit out of position in his old role of right winger. It’s true that, Kolarov’s goal apart, he had Roma biggest chance to score, but other than that he completed more defensive actions than attacking ones (7 vs 2) and touched more balls in Roma’s half than Atalanta’s.

It would be harsh to penalise Defrel for his performance but, was it not already clear enough, that was yet another case for urging Monchi to bring in a Salah-esque player. With 9 days left to the end of the transfer market the Spanish director has still plenty of time to surprise Roma fans and complete the roster with the right player.
It is hard to derive strong conclusion from this match. Remaining to the facts, Roma got away with three points from one of the most difficult stadium of the entire league. The team looked solid in defense and quite poor in attack. Perhaps the Giallorossi have been a bit lucky on Ilicic post but other than that they conceded little to nothing to a strong opponent. Walking on the shaky line of football press analysis one should call this a “strong mentality” win, one that Di Francesco experienced several times when he was a Roma player with Capello as a coach.
More important than that, be happy Roma fans, there is life after Totti (with Totti of course!).
