Roma has great attacking players. They scored 37 goals in Seria A for now and they scored more than Juventus. They play with 3-4-2-1 line up.
Before starting to read this article, if you are interested, you can check my other article about tactical analysis of Roma’s defending.
In Roma’s set attacks, like their defence, the most important players are Mkhitaryan and Pedro, I mean wingers. Because they take position in half-spaces and they make connection between forward and midfield line. Roma hasn’t an offensive midfielder in their line up so their attacking roles’ are very important. When they try to make game, one of Pedro or Mkhitaryan takes position in half-space and when one of them takes the ball, he can make connection with wing back or centre forward.
Mkhitaryan has extra importance for the team because only he and Dzeko score many goals. Also only Mkhitaryan can produce many assists. So to goal and assist contribute, they need Mkhitaryan. Roma hasn’t many goal scorers or assist contributors. Veretout can score goals but usually with penalties.
Centre forward and his connection with wingers are very important in set attacks. They can change their positions amongst themselves. Centre forward’s role is to create space for wingers. He pulls the opponent’s stopper and wingers escape his behind or he serves to wingers and wingers create goal chances. Sometimes centre forward close to wings, pulls the opponent’s stopper and creates space for wingers in centre. And one of the wingers runs from centre the opponent’s behind.
Both centre midfielders support set attacks. They haven’t scoring goals abilities but they support attacks. In set attacks, one of them closes to the forward line and the other one stays in the centre midfield. But this time if the opponent can take the ball and tries to attack quickly, this time the opponent can attack from centre quickly and Roma’s players can’t cover centre because there is only 1 centre midfielder in midfield’s centre now. And it’s not enough to cover centre.
Wing backs don’t have the same role in set attacks. Spinazzola supports attacks from wing but Karsdorp usually doesn’t. He takes position more close to the defense line. He isn’t an extra stopper in set attacks but he is cautious about supporting attacks. Spinazzola always supports attacks and he likes to try to pass the opponent with dribbling in 1 vs 1 positions. He has the all left wing because Mkhitaryan usually uses half-space. So he is comfortable about supporting attacks and trying to pass the opponent.
If we compare both wing backs’ attacking styles, Spinazzola has 53 dribbles attempted in the league and it’s the highest number in the team. Karsdorp has just 7 dribbles attempts. You can see they play in different roles. But also there are some interesting points about Spinazzola’s playing style. He also has the 1st rank about dribbling per match stat with 1.6 in his team. It’s normally not a high number about this stat. So it means actually Spinazzola is not a great player about dribbling and maybe more importantly, it means Roma hasn’t a player who has great dribbling abilities. Also Spinazzola’s dribbles completed success is just 22 in 53 dribbles attempted. And it means his dribbles completed success is just %41.5 percentage. So he usually can’t pass the opponent with dribbling. He just likes to try to enforce the opponent.
Stoppers don’t support attacks with dribbling. Also they can’t pass to teammates greatly. So stoppers can’t support attacks greatly. They don’t try to make game from defense because they don’t have great passing abilities. If Cristante plays instead of Smalling, they can be more comfortable about attacking and make game from defense. Cristante’s passing ability is great and if he plays in centre stopper position, the other stoppers pass to him and Cristante tries to make passing connections with teammates. The goalkeeper is not great about passing to his teammates. So he can’t support the team about attacking. So they can’t make game from defense and usually they try to pass Dzeko with long balls and Dzeko tries to pass to Mkhitaryan or Pedro.
I want to show right and left stoppers in Voronoi diagram. Actually right and left stoppers can support attacks. As you see, they have enough space in centre midfield. If they can support attacks, they can be 3rd and 4th center midfielders in set attacks. But they can’t support and because of that, they can’t use their all space effectively.
In transition attacks, they try to use the connection between Dzeko, Pedro and Mkhitaryan. Usually they try to pass Dzeko and Dzeko serves to Mkhitaryan or Pedro. Also one of the centre midfielders supports transition attacks. Spinazzola supports too. But if they can’t complete the transition attack, this time the opponent can attack from centre or right wing comfortably. Because Spinazzola can’t come back to defense quickly and Roma’s left wing has a lot of space for the opponent. And also because one of centre midfielders support transition attack, Roma has just 1 centre midfielder in centre to defend the opponent’s transition attack.
In crosses, Dzeko, Mkhitaryan and Pedro take position into the penalty box. One of the centre midfielders runs to the penalty box and the other takes position in penalty box’s front. Wing backs usually don’t run to the penalty box. If cross comes from the right wing, Spinazzola takes position in penalty box’s front. If cross comes from the left wing, Karsdorp does the same thing. Only difference between them, Spinazzola takes position more close to the penalty box. He is ready to support the attack. Karsdorp takes position more defensively. But sometimes both run to the penalty box from the opponent’s full back’s behind. It doesn’t happen a lot of times but it doesn’t mean it never happens.