Inside Roma: Ranieri’s Tactics, Transfer Window and Best Players

Numbers may not tell the whole story but in Roma’s case they paint a very accurate picture which, worryingly for those of a red and yellow persuasions, is one of chaos and dysfucntion.

The Giallorossi are 15th in Serie A with just 13 points in 14 matches, just two clear of the relegation zone. Claudio Ranieri is the club’s third permanent manager this season and, on current form, he may not be the last.

As it almost always is in these cases, the landscape was completely different back in August when Daniele De Rossi went as far as suggesting that Roma could challenge for the Scudetto.

What sounded like a bold prediction then reads like complete and utter delusion now.

There were, admittedly, reasons for De Rossi to be optimistic. The Roma legend took over in January from Jose Mourinho and won six of his first seven Serie A matches in charge – the only defeat came against eventual champions Inter Milan – after the Giallorossi had won just twice in his predecessor’s last seven games.

Roma faded down the stretch and missed out on Champions League qualification for the sixth consecutive season, though they did reach the semi-finals of the Europa League. It was a good enough result to convince the club owners, the Friedkin Group, to extend De Rossi’s deal until 2027.

But just three months after signing a new contract, the 2006 World Cup winner was gone after his team picked up just three points in the opening four Serie A matches of the season.

De Rossi, arguably Roma’s second most-loved player after Francesco Totti, was sacked after ending up on the wrong side of a tug-of-war with then-club CEO Lina Souloukou. 

Such was the backlash from Romanisti that Souloukou herself had to resign from the position amid threats that resulted in police protection.

In came Ivan Juric, who lasted barely two months before following De Rossi through the exit door.

Roma won just three Serie A matches under the 49-year-old and were 12th in the table, 12 points off the Champions League places by the time he left.

It was a sacking most saw coming. The Croatian is a respectable coach in the Italian game, but walking into a situation like the one at Roma was always going to be a poisoned chalice.

And so Roma turned again to Claudio Ranieri, who returned to the Stadio Olimpico for a third time and signed a deal until the end of the season.

A Roman and a Romanista, the 73-year-old understands the delicate dynamics of the club better than most, but he is yet to turn the tide on the pitch.

The Giallorossi have lost both of Ranieri’s first two games in charge and are effectively in a relegation battle as the season moves towards the festive period. Ranieri is loved by the Curva Sud, but he will also know that at Roma managers burn through their credit faster than at most clubs.

Transfers: After operating on a tight budget for years, the Giallorossi were finally allowed to loosen the purse strings and did so with abandon.

Roma spent almost €100m (£82m) to sign Artem Dovbyk from Girona, where he was LaLiga’s top scorer last season with 24 goals, Juventus starlet Matías Soulé and Rennes midfielder Enzo Le Fée.

Left-backs Angelino and Samuel Dahl arrived from RB Leipzig and Swedish side Djurgarden for a combined €10m, while Australia international Mathew Ryan joined on a free transfer and Alexis Saelemaekers arrived on loan from AC Milan.

The need to balance the books meant Rui Patrício and Leonardo Spinazzola were allowed to run down their contracts and leave on free transfers. Further reductions to the wage bill came as loans for Romelu Lukaku, Renato Sanches, Diego Llorente and Rasmus Kristensen all expired.

Best performers: In a season of lows, Artem Dovbyk has so far been Roma’s only bright light. The Ukrainian has so far repaid his €30.5m fee, scoring six goals in 18 appearances in all competitions, with four in 13 Serie A outings.

Dovbyk is by some distance Roma’s most prolific goalscorer this season, with Paulo Dybala and Stephan El Sharaawy the only other players to score more than once in Serie A this season.

Dovbyk’s fellow summer signing Angelino has made the left-back position his own, while Mile Svilar has kept four clean sheets in 14 matches in Serie A but has seldom been helped by a porous defence.

Tactics: Roma began the season with a 4-3-3 formation under Daniele De Rossi, a system Ivan Juric immediately discarded in favour of his preferred 3-4-2-1, but the shift did not bear any tangible change.

Since taking charge, Claudio Ranieri has veered between a 4-4-1-1 he used in his third debut as Roma manager, before switching back to Juric’s 3-4-2-1 and then a 3-5-2 in the defeat to Atalanta earlier this week.