Four Things We Learned: VAR controversy dominates

VAR controversy reigns

On a night where Roma eventually fought back to earn a point in Florence through Alessandro Florenzi's 85th minute strike, there could be no escaping the controversy surrounding the dubious first half penalty that subsequently saw Fiorentina take the lead.

With the referee frustratingly not seeming to refer the incident to VAR, despite there being arguably no contact between Robin Olsen and Giovanni Simeone, on another night things may well have been different for the Giallorossi.

Dominating for large stretches on their way to unleashing 19 shots and enjoying 63% possession, the away side still produced some excellent moments and there were many strong individual performances.

Zaniolo's classy starting debut

Starting his first Serie A game, Nicolo Zaniolo put in a wonderful shift from his attacking midfield role. Showcasing a variety of endearing attributes, the 19-year-old never looked out of his depth, playing with incision, confidence and conviction.

Although he was man-marked by Fiorentina's holding midfielder, Jordan Veretout, for large chunks of his time afield, it was great to see him use this to his advantage. Knowing the Frenchman would follow him, Zaniolo ingenuitively drew his tracker away from the middle or wide to open up vital passing lanes and spaces for teammates to use.

The way he cleverly interchanged with Lorenzo Pellegrini and evaded his marker to unsettle the home side's defensive setup also proved a successful method for unhinging the home team.

Meanwhile, if he did receive under pressure, his technical qualities, tremendous strength, body shape to protect the ball and agility saw him constantly evade or gain separation from his man. In addition, his decision making on the ball was of an extremely high level, for he passed the ball with accuracy and clarity.

Completing four dribbles, 18 of his 19 passes, two progressive runs and one shot assist, Zaniolo yet again proved why he's such an exciting talent.

Roma effectively draw out Viola midfielders

With Stefano Pioli instructing his team to go man for man on Roma's midfielders when they built out from the back, plus generally press them at every available opportunity, the away side shrewdly overcame this to progress upfield.

Time and time again, Roma provoked their adversaries to press them high, which enabled them to exploit the inherent space that the Fiorentina mids left behind.

Another aspect that Roma made the most of was when a Fiorentina midfielder would press one of Roma's central defenders if they believed they could use their cover shadow to block the pass lane to their opponent behind them.

As seen in the graphic below, this didn't always work for them, as the intelligent movement from Roma's players gave the ball holder an option to beat the press, while also creating positional and numerical superiority in the middle of the park.

An especially noteworthy example of Roma drawing out their adversaries arose for their goal, where Lorenzo Pellegrini exploited the sizeable space in between the lines as a result of a failed press, which served as the catalyst for the move that culminated in Florenzi's equaliser.

Nzonzi neutralises Fiorentina goal kicks

Roma's pressing structure persistently deterred La Viola from playing out from the back, as they instead preferred to go long to their tall right-back, Nikola Milenkovic.

Looking to get the Serb to win knock downs and flicks-ons, the towering, athletic, 196cm Steven Nzonzi was instructed to push across and deal with this threat. And the 29-year-old did an excellent job of neutralising the effectiveness of this tactic, with his timing, powerful leap and better body orientation seeing him win a notable five aerial duels.

All statistics provided by InStat.