A man of the match performance from Alisson, as Football Italia rates Roma’s showing against Atletico Madrid.

Words:Tom Scholes

Alisson: 8

A man of the match performance from Alisson, as Football Italia rates Roma’s showing against Atletico Madrid.

Words:Tom Scholes

Alisson: 8

If it weren’t for Alisson between the sticks, Atletico would have won this game handsomely. If there was one positive to take from this game for Roma, it’s that they have a really good goalkeeper. Save after save kept the Romans in the game, giving them a fighting chance, and there wasn’t much more the Brazilian could have done for Roma tonight.

Bruno Peres: 6

Peres was restricted with his attacking runs due to the Atletico players running towards him quite often, but in the first half he was quite good trying to start moves and cross towards Edin Dzeko in the middle. He remained resilient and, despite having Filipe Luis attacking him constantly throughout the second half, he didn’t allow too much damage.

Kostas Manolas: 7

Alongside Alisson, Manolas was one of the players that prevented Madrid from a certain win, mainly due to his clearance off the line from Koke in the first half. The Greek defender held the defensive line together well and, despite being cut open by a quick Atletico attack, Manolas was able to frustrate Antoine Griezmann to the point where the striker couldn’t get any chances at all.

Juan Jesus: 5

Like his partner Manolas, Jesus did well to keep the Atletico attack quiet, but he was identified as the weak link in the back line and was attacked by the likes of Luciano Vietto, Griezmann and eventually Angel Correa when he came on. It was important for Jesus to keep his chin up in such a defensive performance, and he did well to keep a clean sheet.

Aleksandar Kolarov: 6

Kolarov was more of an attacking threat at times for Roma than Peres, but he didn’t do enough to create any meaningful chances in the second half. In the first 45 minutes, Kolarov delivered some good crosses, but ultimately he should count himself lucky to not get a 5 rating for that silly fall in an attempt to win a penalty. 

Kevin Strootman: 6

Roma had more of the possession in the game tonight and didn’t create nearly enough, but that doesn’t mean the midfield had a poor game. Atletico identified that the Roma midfield would be tough to breach, so they attacked the flanks, and the physical presence of Strootman was a factor in this. The Dutchman calmed play when he needed to and tried to start attacks, but with a new system, most of his passes were wasted.  

Radja Nainggolan: 7

Much like Strootman, Atletico bypassed Nainggolan’s dynamic midfield style and his quick closing down made it incredibly difficult for the Atleti attackers to create anything. The Belgian tried to burst forward at times, often finding himself ahead of Edin Dzeko, but with no service his runs from the edge of the box were wasted. Maybe on another day with some good pull-backs from the wingers and full-backs, he may have gotten on the scoresheet.

Daniele De Rossi: 6

A solid, steady performance from the captain, but quite unspectacular. Like Strootman, he calmed play down when needed, but he didn’t create many chances and often sat back, allowing Nainggolan to advance. However, this was to be expected from De Rossi, as against quicker opposition it was always going to be tough for him.

Gregoire Defrel: 5

Defrel may be playing under a Coach that trusts him, but doesn’t seem to be taking to the new system at Roma so far. He’s nothing like Mohamed Salah, but he’s filling in his position and is expected to be doing more than this. More will come from Defrel, I’m sure, but for now it is quite disappointing.

Edin Dzeko: 4

As mentioned before, this system will take time for Roma attackers to get used to, but it has made Dzeko completely redundant up front. Before, he would remain central and wait for service from the wide men, but now he is having to drop deep to collect the ball and feed the wingers. Because of how deep he had to drop, he can’t support the wingers. It’s Catch-22 for the Bosnian, and this game showed how he can disappear from a game without it even being his fault.

Diego Perotti: 6

Perotti was a bright spark for Roma and even had shouts for a couple of penalties, but he was unable to do it all by himself. Last season, he’d have at least created one goal, but with no central striker to aim for, he was left isolated when beating Juanfran on the right wing. Perotti can come out of this game holding his head up high, being creative in a restrictive situation.

Subs:

Federico Fazio: 5

Brought on to shore up the defence, Fazio did just that in the latter stages of the game.

Lorenzo Pellegrini: 5

Replacing Nainggolan late on, Pellegrini did well to fill in for the Belgian and give Roma a steady passer in the middle when time was coming up.

Stephan El Shaarawy: N/A

Very late substitute.

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