An analysis of Roma's excellent start to the season

AS Roma squad, 2013-14

No team in Europe has made as stunning a start to the season as AS Roma have. With Atletico’s defeat to Espanyol, the Romans are the sole team left in Europe’s top 5 leagues to have won all their opening games till date – eight and counting. And their position does not flatter them: it is a testament to their sheer domination of the league. They possess the strongest attack in Italy, with an incredible 22 goals scored. They’re also the strongest defensively, with just 1 goal conceded thus far.

What makes it even more amazing is that all this has been accomplished literally overnight. As recently as five months ago this was a promising but struggling young team that had underachieved the previous season. The Giallorossi squandered a good start to finish a disappointing sixth in Serie A and, to add insult to injury, lost the Coppa Italia final to bitter local rivals Lazio. Having finished outside the European places, Roma looked set to be dismantled by richer clubs.

As expected, they sold their top goalscorers (Pablo Osvaldo and Erik Lamela), their best defender (Marquinhos), a well-regarded goalkeeper (Maarten Stekelenburg) and allowed older players to retire. No player of comparable pedigree was brought in as a replacement, and Rudi Garcia was hardly a popular choice for manager (he was booed by the ultras at the team presentation on Aug 21). Yet, they have emerged from the episode a stronger, tougher fighting unit.

Let’s take a look at how Garcia has improved his team in terms of playing personnel and tactics.

Rudi Garcia

Despite having some of the most talented young individual players in Europe, Roma till recently didn’t have a balanced team. Last year, playing under attack-minded manager Zdenak Zeman, they were permanently in all-out assault mode: high pressing, vertical movement and overloading the opposition defence. While this approach has shock value if employed occasionally, it isn’t a sustainable model to follow over an entire season; neither attack nor defence were functional. Zeman was duly booted as the campaign faltered.

After a brief caretaker spell, Garcia was appointed in June. He’d won the French title with Lille in 2010-11, but was relatively new to Italian football. Garcia derives his footballing philosophy from the great Dutch sides of the 70s, but with a caveat: he likes the counter-attack. His sides are known for their slick movement, precise passing and clever use of pace, rather than being centered around a specific philosophy like Ajax or Barcelona. Roma now do a lot of their scoring by breaking with devastating ruthlessness. Unusually for a counter-attacking team, they also have the second-highest possession in the league.

Under managers like Luis Enrique, Roma had learnt to play the beautiful game, but without any real effectiveness in front of goal. Not only were they overly dependent on Francesco Totti – who in his advancing years retains his flair and cunning, but not his pace – but their disorganized backline was vulnerable to attacks down the flanks. They were outmuscled too easily in midfield, and all too often would dominate possession and still lose by two or three-goal margins.

It was one of the first problems Garcia set himself to remedy when he took over. “My objectives and football philosophy,” says Garcia, “are without doubt offensive, but I am well aware that in order to win a game you also need an excellent defensive base.”

Kevin Strootman

Dutch midfielder Kevin Strootman, who had previously been linked with Man United, was signed to steel up the midfield. A box-to-box midfielder, Strootman possesses physicality and passing ability and does plenty of running in tandem with Miralem Pjanic. An old-school playmaker, Pjanic forms the attacking apex of the Roma midfield triangle, whose third member is Daniele de Rossi.

Garcia’s midfield does everything – attack, defend, build up moves and keep the ball during quiet periods – so plenty of energy is expended by these players. There is an emphasis on quick transitions, essential for a successful counter. American midfielder Michael Bradley, another willing runner, will be an excellent backup for this zone when he returns from injury.

Retaining de Rossi was important for Garcia’s plans. He was very nearly tempted away to the EPL but desisted. (“I couldn’t bear to think that my last game in a Roma jersey would be that Coppa Italia Final lost to Lazio,” he later explained.) De Rossi is arguably the best defensive midfielder in Europe at present, and plays as the deepest member of the Roma midfield, almost as a third centre-back, screening the back pair of Leandro Castan and Mehdi Benatia who in turn have formed an excellent partnership at the back since Benatia’s arrival this summer. While the departed Marquinhos will probably mature into a better defender, former Udinese man Benatia is already at the level Roma need him to be.

Daniele de Rossi: Rock Solid

Other summer signings include Gervinho and Douglas Maicon – talented and accomplished players who lost some of their sheen in England, but are deadly nonetheless. Maicon brings considerable experience to the field and has carried out successful campaigns in Italy previously, featuring in Inter Milan’s Treble-winning 2009-10 season. But it is in getting the best out of Gervinho, a striker he earlier managed at Le Mans and later Lille (where they won the league title) that Garcia has earned his spurs as a motivator.

The Ivorian was a key figure during Lille’s title-winning campaign and no one has doubted his quality – Eden Hazard has called him the best player he’s played with – but struggled to make an impact at Arsenal, where he spent two frustrating seasons, eventually being supplanted by Lukas Podolski in the first XI. Even a seasoned manager like Arsene Wenger was unable to get him back to his best, and as time went by, the Ivorian – known to have a sensitive temperament – began slipping further and further into an abyss.

So when Garcia was recruited by Roma and given carte blanche to sign the players he wanted, it must have come as a surprise (not a pleasant one!) to the board that his first request was Gervinho; “for whatever price,” he reportedly told them. But today, with newspapers in Rome swooning over ‘the African Messi’, no one can deny that he made the right call: Gervinho has been pivotal to Roma’s flying start, with his pace, dribbling ability and excellent understanding with Alessandro Florenzi resulting in a combined 7 goals already.

The absolute star of the forward line remains captain Francesco Totti, who at 37 continues to boss Serie A defences with panache and ruthlessness. Under Garcia he has been deployed as a false nine; the deep-lying central attacker in a squashed 4-3-3. His cunning positioning and movement constantly drags defenders out of their zones, as he did brilliantly against Inter Milan – at one stage managing to drag all three centre-backs into a vertical line to the right of goal. He is equally astute at finding the final pass, and leads Serie A’s assists chart at 6.

Totti’s pressing, in a sense, makes him Roma’s first line of defence: he moves all over the pitch to retrieve the ball, cleverly interpreting his role in his own way. The way Totti is playing, it won’t be surprising if Cesare Prandelli requests him to come out of international retirement and take the flight to Brazil next summer.

Captain Fantastic

Already this team has faced three other contenders for Europe this season (Napoli, Lazio and Inter) and dispatched each whilst scoring at least two goals. Before the derby delle capitale against Lazio, Garcia attempted to cool the tension by allowing an open training session two days before the match. Owner James Pallotta handed Totti a new contract in recognition of his continued importance to the side. And the captain responded with a brilliant display as Roma avenged their Coppa final loss with a 2-0 win.

It may be early days yet to judge Garcia, who in his later years at Lille didn’t seem to have a Plan B if things went wrong. And Roma have suffered false dawns in the past. But this year, with no European football occupying their midweek slot, Roma have the squad depth and quality to mount a credible challenge for the Champions League places next season – at the least. Under Garcia’s stewardship, they may even go all the way.