Four Things We Learned: Olsen impresses despite late equaliser

Positives to be drawn

After a promising first half, where Stephan El Shaarawy gave Roma the lead following a flowing move down the right, the Giallorossi ultimately had to settle for a point due to Dries Mertens' late equaliser.

Roma could still draw plenty of positives from the match, however, as they were excellent in the first half, defended resolutely and showed encouragement with their attacking concepts.

"I think we put in an excellent display this evening. We made a few bad technical decisions, but in terms of our desire, our compactness as a team and our fight, we did well. This feels like an achievement in itself," stated Eusebio Di Francesco.

"This team has shown real potential – sometimes they don’t show it to the full and that’s where I have to be at my best also, creating the conditions for the team to show their quality consistently.”

Manolas and Jesus excel

Keeping Napoli's dynamic frontline of Lorenzo Insigne and Arkadiusz Milik at bay is never an easy feat, but Roma's central defensive duo, Kostas Manolas and Juan Jesus, managed to do precisely that. Demonstrating immense concentration and determination, the pairing operated with authority, conviction and nous.

Whether responding sharply to pressing triggers, timing their interventions astutely or physically imposing themselves on their smaller foes, Manolas and Jesus made life very challenging for Napoli's attackers.

In addition, the way they cohesively kept their compactness between one another, to limit gaps for Milik and Insigne to exploit, was also of great importance.

Roma's defensive duet's combined statistics duly illustrate their impact, for they made 20 ball recoveries, 19 interceptions, four tackles and won four aerial duels on their way to completing 108 of their 120 overall actions.

Olsen shines

Robin Olsen continues to go from strength-to-strength in goal after a bright start to life in the capital, as he put in a man of the match performance against Napoli. Coming up with a string of exemplary saves to deny Carlo Ancelotti's men, the Swede exuded confidence and assuredness throughout.

Showcasing a firm command of his area, his sharp reflexes and shot stopping prowess, the man who saved four goal bound efforts looked destined to be rewarded for his efforts with a clean sheet. While it wasn't to be, there were many moments he'll reflect back on fondly, with his wicked double save to initially deny Milik then Insigne, plus his swift reaction stop to keep out Marek Hamsik's venomous volley, particular highlights.

Moreover, his distribution deserved mention too, with him playing a key role in orchestrating and facilitating many moves with his accurate feet and hand passes.

Improving with every passing match, the 28-year-old once again proved why he was selected as the man to replace Alisson.

Build-up mechanisms

Up against Napoli's 4-2-2-2/4-4-2 defensive animation, Roma came up with some interesting solutions to break through the home's side’s press when building out from the back.

To start with, dropping one of their holding midfielders between the splitting centre-backs generated a 3v2 superiority to give them a solid platform to progress upfield. This allowed Roma to manipulate the Napoli front two effectively, as this tactic persistently bore fruit.

Secondly, Di Francesco would instruct one of his wingers to drop deep to assist when playing out. Knowing their direct opponent wouldn't follow them, this consequently gave Roma another smooth route to create a 5v4/4v3 diamond shapes in the half spaces to utilise ideal passing angles to overcome their opposition.

A key by-product of this arose from how it would provoke a press from a Napoli midfielder, thus making vital room for Lorenzo Pellegrini or Edin Dzeko to utilise.

And lastly, upon advancing up the pitch, the movement of Pellegrini from his trequartista slot, where he's flourished in recent weeks, to get in behind Napoli's midfielders served as wonderful avenue to explore.

Seeing as Napoli's central midfield twosome of Allan and Hamsik would often push up and be occupied by Daniele De Rossi and Steven Nzonzi, Pellegrini shrewdly then made the most of the available spaces.

To amplify his room to operate in and impact in these situations, Roma's forwards were positioned high, which pinned their opponents, thus acting as a deterrent for the Napoli defenders to step out from their defensive line to track Pellegrini.

So there was still much to admire about some of the offensive ideas that Di Francesco implemented in this fixture, even despite the defensive pressure the side were under for parts of the second half.


All statistics provided by InStat.