Four Things We Learned: Tactical triggers work but lack of goals still an issue

Another frustrating result despite showing plenty

Despite going 1-0 down on the stroke of half-time, courtesy of a controversial VAR-awarded penalty, Roma eventually fought back to draw 1-1 on Wednesday night - as Edin Dzeko nodded home debutant Mirko Antunucci's well weighted cross late on.

In what was another solid showing from Eusebio Di Francesco's men, again overshadowed by an inability to convert chances, the result now means Roma have only one one in their last seven matches.

Di Francesco's assessment of the match was pretty accurate, explaining: “Roma may have come up short again in the scoring department, as we often have, but I think our build-up play and movement were excellent. We're doing certain things right again - things we'd been doing a bit less well lately.”

Pellegrini moves into the spotlight

Lorenzo Pellegrini showed his enormous talent yet again by putting in another promising shift from central midfield. Brimming with energy, enthusiasm and intensity, the 21-year-old's brilliant running power and movement ensured he was a major weapon throughout.

The passage illustrated below highlights his spatial awareness aptly. Here, as Roma have progressed down their left, Pellegrini's direct opponent, Karol Linetty, has been drawn out of slot to pressure Radja Nainggolan. Pellegrini duly recognises this and takes his opportunity to exploit the vacant space ahead of him unimpeded.

Then, once he receives from Dzeko, he's now in a highly advantageous position (a 4v4 situation) to run at the retreating Sampdoria backline; eventually going on to launch a high quality shot at goal.

Dzeko and Defrel dovetail

Facing a Sampdoria side that's typically difficult to break down through the middle, Roma's tactic of building up down the right worked rather well to combat this.

Initially, the Giallorossi would build up from the back and look to shift their opposition, before eventually finding Alessandro Florenzi free at right-back. Florenzi would immediately then look up and hit teasing aerial diagonal balls into the feet of Dzeko.

Importantly, Gregoire Defrel would drift in from the right and offer a great outlet for Dzeko to lay the ball off to while the Frenchman was moving, so he could inherit possession in full flight, thus giving him a dynamic advantage over a more stationary Blucerchiati backline.

Note also how Pellegrini's run briefly occupies the attention of Samp left-back, Ivan Strinic, who's supposed to be tracking Defrel, which sees him completely lose his man.

Nainggolan press trigger

Another intriguing aspect of this entertaining contest came from Nainggolan's ability to astutely and rapidly respond to pressing triggers.

Whether via a player receiving with their back to goal, in an open body position, one who takes a sloppy first touch or a through a preconceived tactic, the Belgian's aggressive pressing was a real feature.

The example in the graphics below fall into an idea that had clearly been formulated prior to kick-off, where Nainggolan would use Gianmarco Ferrari passing to his central defensive partner, Matias Silvestre, as a trigger to pounce.

Once the pass is played, Nainggolan sprints up to his target, completely catching Silvestre cold, who made the mistake of looking up to examine his options that Roma had covered shrewdly, to dispossess him with ease to start a dangerous attack.

Unfortunately, this passage didn't quite result in a goal, for Dzeko's shot following Nainggolan's tidy cutback was blocked on route to goal, but it nonetheless showcased how menacing Nainggolan is in this regard.