Roma shortcomings all too apparent against Atalanta

Published on: 17 February 2020

To say that Roma’s push for a top four finish isn’t going smoothly in recent weeks would be putting it lightly.

The Giallorossi are winless in their last four Serie A matches, losers of three in a row and as a result, they now sit six points back of Atalanta – the side they fell 2-1 to on Saturday.

A win would have seen the two sides sit level in the standings, but instead Paulo Fonseca’s men saw their half-time lead evaporate after the restart as La Dea simply outclassed, outworked and outperformed the capital club.

Edin Dzeko netted to open the scoring and make it 11 goals in 24 Serie A matches this season, but there isn’t much coming in the way of support from his teammates. Aleksandar Kolarov and his five goals are next on the list but he was kept on the bench for the match, while Nicolo Zaniolo won’t add to his tally of four due to a knee injury that will likely keep him out for the remainder of the season.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has four as well despite several injury problems, but that alone highlights just how low the bar is when it comes to scoring for the Lupi. If Dzeko isn’t leading the way, Roma don’t have a second option that can consistently come in and help the Bosnian.

That issue is only compounded by their suddenly leaky defence, which has become a major issue. Roma’s last clean sheet dates back to December 6, when they managed to snatch a 0-0 draw from their match with Inter at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

Since then they’ve conceded 17 goals in nine matches – nearly an average of two goals against over that stretch.

In short, Roma are on a road to nowhere and fast. The transfer window is closed so no attacking options are coming threw the door until the summer at the earliest. How costly does that failed move for Inter’s Matteo Politano look now?

As for defence, who knows what Fonseca will try this Sunday against Lecce.

Will he look to his trusted pairing of Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini? Or will he turn to Juan Jesus? Will he bring Kolarov back in? Or Davide Santon?

Either way, a change has to happen if Roma want to get their groove back because if they don’t, expect Atalanta to easy away just like they did on Saturday.

Source: forzaitalianfootball.com

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