The king of Rome will have final say in the clash against Napoli
Tonight will see Rudi Garcia send his men into battle against Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico and players like Francesco Totti will become modern day gladiators as they sweat blood and tears in order to keep their 100% start to the season.
Under the tutelage of Garcia, Roma have put last season’s poor performance behind them and taken maximum points from all 7 of their opening fixtures. This will be no surprise to those back in his homeland after he turned Lille into League and Cup winner within 3 seasons of taking charge.
The 49-year-old was applauded for the way he set his team up, with his philosophy being that the best way to get results from games was to attack the opponent. This prompted the French media to label Lille as the ‘Barca from the North’ as Garcia brought through players like Michel Bastos, Eden Hazard, Yohan Cabaye and Moussa Sow.
It is another of his former players that has been most impressive for Roma this season. After becoming a forgotten man in London, Gervinho made a switch to Serie A in the summer to rekindle his working relationship with the manager that brought him to prominence at Lille.
Gervinho Stats This Season
The Ivory Coast forward isn’t the only one finding former under Garcia, however. Miralem Pjanic has rediscovered the form that made him such a hit at Lyon in his early years and this week helped Bosnia & Herzegovina qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time as well as contributing to Roma’s rise to the top of the Performance Score table.
Who can forget Il Capitano, though? The hero of the fans who, despite turning 37 last month, Totti has proved he can still cut it with the best. His luscious lobs and tantalising tricks are still going strong and, more than anyone, he will be wanting to fire Roma to one last league title before he retires.
Totti shone for Roma last season despite finishing outside of the European places, scoring 12 goals and registering 12 assists as well as creating a further 90 chances for his team-mates. His form this season has shown last season wasn’t a fluke and with Garcia giving him the license to wander he has created more than 3 chances per game, notched 3 goals of his own and sits 3rd behind his team-mate Mehdi Benatia and Giorgio Chiellini in the Performance Score standings.
Totti Stats Last Season
Their opponents have taken on Rafa Benitez’s favoured formation since the Spaniard’s arrival – dropping the 3-5-2 formation they became renowned for under Mazzarri. Benitez has started every game with a 4-2-3-1 formation and in his column for the Independent he has mentioned how difficult it is to break down different oppositions every week, stating his team faced 5 different formations their first 5 games.
Against Roma, Napoli will be relying heavily on two of their best defensive performers so far this season in Gokhan Inler and Valon Behrami. Napoli’s Heat Map from the game against Genoa shows how they were working from deep in their own half, using Behrami’s industrious nature to chase down opponents before Inler starts building their own attacking plays.
This is a classic Benitez tactic and one that he used to great affect during his time at Liverpool. The pace of Mertens and Zuniga creates an even greater threat on the break, sucking in the opposition before finding gaps and hitting them on the break.
When the two teams go head to head this evening, it will be interesting to see whether Benitez decides to man-mark Totti, or allow him to wonder. If it is the latter then you would expect Roma to come out on top, as he will always find gaps in a loose opposition defence. Whatever Benitez decides to do, it looks like the game will be played in Napoli’s half as they look to soak up the pressure as the away team and hit Roma when they are least expecting it.