Team Focus: Home Providing No Comfort for Stuttering Roma

Full of himself, Sky Italia’s garrulous orator in chief Fabio Caressa made a gag at Roma’s expense before Monday night’s game with Sampdoria at the Olimpico. Doing a shift on the network’s sports news channel, he claimed to have exclusive pictures of the team’s final training session. “Very intense,” he said as a cue to roll the VT. It was a promo of zombie drama The Walking Dead. As a joke it didn’t go down particularly well with the club and the fans, a precious few of whom, perhaps taking themselves a little too seriously, threatened to tear up their subscriptions.

Clearly Caressa touched a nerve. Without doubt he had hit the spot. Undead is possibly a little strong but there’s a lifelessness to be discerned in Roma. They stir every now and again. Signs of revival have materialised: the first half against Feyenoord at the Olimpico, the second in Rotterdam, the final 30 minutes against Juventus when, paradoxically, they played better after being reduced to 10 men - like against Sassuolo - and Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi were substituted. But a definitive resurrection, a coming to, the return to their former selves has yet to occur.

To use the word Roma’s director of sport Walter Sabatini adopted to describe Mehdi Benatia after he had decided to leave the club in the summer, they are simulacra - a likeness or similarity, a representation or imitation of what they were all of last season and for the opening four months of this one. Shadows of themselves.

Roma went into Monday night’s game on a run of eight draws in their last nine. No team in Europe’s top five leagues has recorded so many since the turn of the year. Not Empoli (7). Not West Ham, Genoa, nor Bordeaux (5). Upon going two goals behind to Samp and down to 10 men after Seydou Keita was sent off for sarcastically applauding the referee - initially refusing to leave the field of play in disbelief and despair at the decision - the fight seemed to go out of Roma. Luis Muriel, the impact sub who had put the game beyond any doubt, was allowed to carry the ball forward at a walking pace.

There was a helpless resignation about Roma. Again, they got no breaks, particularly in the first half. Miralem Pjanic lacked conviction when he found himself on goal. Keita had a goal correctly disallowed for offside. Torosidis and Totti bumped into each when challenging for a header in the six-yard box. Emiliano Viviano, the Samp keeper, was up to the Roma captain’s other efforts. Gervinho couldn’t profit from a mistake by defenders Alessio Romagnoli and Vasco Regini, who also nearly put one of the Ivorian’s pull-backs into his own net.

It was Roma’s first defeat in Serie A since their visit to Napoli at the beginning of November and their only one in front of their own fans in the league this season. The last, in case you’re wondering, was to Juventus in May last year when Dani Osvaldo came back to haunt his old club. Not for the first time in recent times, Roma were whistled by the ultras in the Curva Sud. “We’re not doing anything to not deserve them,” goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis admitted. And their attitude is understandable. They haven’t seen their team win at the Olimpico since the 4-2 dismantling of Inter on November 30, which was also probably the last time Roma played well period.

To put that barren spell into perspective only Stuttgart (9 games) and Metz (8), the cellar dwellers of the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, are currently on a longer streak without a victory at home than Roma (7). Isn’t that just remarkable?

How do we explain it then? In terms of play, Roma’s approach to games has been called into question. They have conceded inside the opening three minutes on four occasions: against Man City at the Etihad, Napoli at the San Paolo, Atalanta in Bergamo and Palermo at the Favorita. Note all four occasions were away from the home. They have gone behind 16 times and trailed at half-time nine times. Is the team kicking off with the right mentality? Are they being set up right? Garcia has often had to change formation at the interval like against Lazio in the derby and in Palermo. Is he correcting his own mistakes or reacting to the evolving circumstances of the game? Whatever the answer, Roma have often given themselves too much to do.

Credit to them, they have rescued 10 points from losing positions, a tally amongst the most in Serie A. Contrary to Caressa’s zombie comparison that shows the team is alive and has character, as do the three instances - against Sassuolo, Empoli and Juventus - when Roma have been a man down and a goal behind and come back to get a draw. If only they could get themselves in front more often. After all, Garcia’s team have thrown away only five points from winning positions, the best record in the league.

Alas Roma have taken the lead only twice this calendar year. More often than not, they’ve had to chase games instead and that has exacerbated their exhaustion because, think of it this way, unlike last season, Roma are competing on three fronts or at least they were until Fiorentina eliminated them from the Coppa Italia. They have played nine more games.

The depth they added in the summer and winter has revealed itself to be shallow. Urby Emanuelson is gone. Ashley Cole hasn’t made the hoped impact. Has anyone seen Salih Ucan? Juan Manuel Iturbe, the most expensive signing of the off-season in Serie A, has scored only once in the league and no sooner did he start delivering on his promise than he sprained his knee and ankle. Victor Ibarbo joined in January after six weeks on the sidelines at Cagliari and got hurt again while Seydou Doumbia returned from the Africa Cup of Nations with Gervinho only to aggravate a back injury. It’s fair to say this hasn’t been one of Sabatini’s vintage years in recruitment.

Misfortune has also struck key members of the existing squad too, like centre-back Leandro Castan who has missed all but 46 minutes of the campaign after undergoing brain surgery, full-back Federico Balzaretti who might not ever play again, Maicon has finished 90 minutes only once in 2015 and Kevin Strootman relapsed after a nine-month lay-off following a knee operation. The starting XI as de Sanctis enunciated on Monday night can’t be compared to last season’s because it is “six or seven elevenths different”.

All of this has limited Garcia’s options and put immense strain on the healthy and the aged. Seven squad members are over 30. A further five are over 27. It’s often been remarked that Roma’s best players haven’t performed at the level they showed last season and that’s certainly been true of de Sanctis who had a shaky autumn and Daniele De Rossi while Gervinho, who was away at the AFCON for six weeks, has scored only twice in Serie A this season. Pjanic has clocked up 1923 minutes and is suffering from tendonitis in his knee, restricting his ability to shine while Radja Nainggolan is running on vapor and had to clarify his recent claim that the team doesn’t always run as one.

Fatigued, Roma look slow and predictable, their movement off the ball hasn’t been intense or intelligent enough to pull opponents out of position and open up spaces. They lack lucidity and confidence. And that’s unsurprising really when you bear in mind the psychological scars inflicted by the Champions League, an experience that served to make Roma less sure of themselves, begin to doubt how good they are, sapping the enthusiasm out of them. The chances they’ve created haven’t been taken. Their attack - ranked fifth overall this season - rates 16th since Serie A resumed after the winter break which begs the question should Mattia Destro, the most prolific player of the Garcia era, have been handled better and retained instead of loaned to Milan, considering his goal average was one every 163 minutes?

A diminishing threat has coincided with diminishing returns. Down to a single point on January 5th, the gap with Juventus is now 14 points. If the season had started then, Roma would be ninth. Their objective has changed from contending for the Scudetto to defending second place and the final automatic qualification spot for the Champions League. Garcia has warned that, if things continue to slide, there’s a risk they might drop out of the European places altogether. They have none of the momentum that Lazio, Napoli and Fiorentina do, nor an in-form equivalent to Felipe Anderson, Gonzalo Higuain and Mohamed Salah.

Roma have to snap out of it. Garcia must demonstrate that he can turn it around. Hailed as a great psychologist after picking the club up and leading them to a record-breaking season following a sixth place finish and defeat in the Coppa Italia final to Lazio, the time has come to prove it again. He has to stop the drift, like Brendan Rodgers did so smartly at Liverpool in the winter, and work out how to get the team expressing its potential and best football again. Otherwise the ownership will have a decision to make. A week ago, Garcia said: “I want to coach Roma in the new stadium so you’ll have to put with me a little while longer yet.” But on Monday, he had already changed his tune. “I’ll never allow myself to be a burden on this club. We’ll review things at the end of the season.”

Is it a bump in the road or the end of the line? The next couple of months will tell us. Right now the Lupi look lost. 

Do you think Roma can turn their form around? Let us know in the comments below