Aside from being able to sleep later and finding convenient excuses to eat sugar for two weeks, one of the ancillary benefits of the extended holiday season was that it afforded me more time to write the Sinners
& Saints pieces. Rather than cranking them out immediately after the match, I had the luxury of waiting a day for the advanced match reports to be released, giving me more data on which to base my decisions.
However, since I’ll be pressed for time on Sunday, I’ll once again have to compile this list shortly after the final whistle. The good news, though (if you can call it that), is that Roma was so objectively bad we don’t need statistics to paint the picture. From Mile in goal to Ferguson up front, there weren’t any noteworthy performances from the Giallorossi on Sunday.
Alright, let the mayhem commence!
The Sinners
Paulo Dybala
While he was healthy enough for another 90-minute run, the 32-year-old playmaker barely made a dent against Atalanta: no shots on target, only one key pass (in the 6th minute), one duel won, and a 0-for-3 mark on dribble attempts. He was simply too far removed from the action and, unlike so many other instances, he couldn’t manufacture his own.
But he won’t be the last attacker on this list…
Matías Soulé
About the only advantage Soulé had over Dybala was that he managed one on-target attempt in the 52nd minute. On-target insofar as he attempted to shoot from, I don’t know, a 175-degree angle as he dribbled along the goalline rather than squaring it to Ferguson for a likely tap-in goal. It was an error in judgment, one that may have cost Roma points.
Evan Ferguson
Just when it felt like the 21-year-old striker was rounding into form, putting injuries and adjustments to life under Gasperini behind him, he took a step backward. From his 7th-minute double miss, in which he and Paulo Dybala failed to capitalize on an Ederson turnover in the area, to wasting a chance on a clear path to goal thanks to a heavy touch, not much went right for the Irishman on Sunday.
However, he did manage a nifty turn and volley in the middle of the area following Dybala’s 50th-minute corner, which would have been an easy Goal of the Year candidate.
Bryan Cristante
Roma’s captain was hardly convincing against Atalanta, as, in addition to his usual slow reaction time in midfield, Cristante was uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, completing only 77% of his passes and losing possession 22 times. If Cristante can’t contribute in the passing game, then his grasp on the job should become more tenuous.
Mile Svilar
At first glance, it looked like Svilar was interfered with (if not outright fouled) by Giorgio Scalvini on Atalanta’s 12th-minute goal. We even said as much in the match preview, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one raving at my television. However, allow me to present the following series of images:
(Click on the first image to scroll through them in sequential order)
From left to right (or top to bottom on mobile), we see Svilar rising to catch the ball, the ball meeting his hands, and then slipping through them before Scalvini even made contact. In the days before VAR, maybe this goal would have been disallowed because in real time it looked like a clear and obvious foul. But with the benefit of video review, to say nothing of still images, we can see that Svilar simply wiffed on this high claim.
It was a costly error in the end, one a keeper can ill afford to make.
Gian Piero Gasperini & Ricky Massara
Before branching into a more holistic discussion, let’s start with Gasperini’s performance yesterday against his eventual successor at Atalanta, Raffaele Palladino.
In a word, he was simply outclassed. By using a high press early in the match and employing Ederson and Marten de Roon as a screen to close off access to the half-spaces where Dybala and Soulé typically operate, Palladino forced Gasperini into a reactive stance. And when you factor in Atalanta’s superior wing-back play, Roma was essentially quarantined for 90 minutes, neither receiving nor creating any adequate attacking space.
Palladino simply got the better of him. But there are deeper, more systemic limitations preventing Gasperini from implementing his preferred style of play, and they are inevitably affecting results—points the Paramount+ crew addressed before and after the match.
They opened their coverage by highlighting the different roles and responsibilities Gasperini held at Atalanta and Roma before turning to the club’s struggles against bigger sides.
While we can’t quantify Gasperini’s relative influence at either club, it’s safe to assume he’s not satisfied with the squad at his disposal. As excited as we are about Jan Ziolkowski’s potential, the Paramount+ crew is right: relying on a 20-year-old to cover for Evan Ndicka during AFCON was always shortsighted. And while you can’t fault Roma for targeting Jadon Sancho last summer, that single-minded pursuit left them with few alternatives once the Englishman turned them down, leading to the hasty decision to bring in Leon Bailey on loan.
You get the picture: Director of Sport Frederic Massara failed to assemble a squad with enough depth, stamina, and talent to execute Gasperini’s vision. Players like Ziolkowski and Daniele Ghilardi will have their day, but they aren’t quite ready for prime time, and the lack of depth and quality in midfield speaks for itself.
These half measures and missteps have led to the watered-down version of Gasperini-ball we’ve seen through the first half of the season. When you hire a manager with a unique vision that requires unique players to implement, you have to commit—you have to whole-ass it, as Ron Swanson would say.
And that’s it—a performance this flat doesn’t even leave space for Stuck In Betweeners.
