Four Things We Learned: Roma rue small touches in Inter draw

Late equaliser sours Roma's night

Despite having the lead for 55 minutes over Inter Milan, a somewhat tired Roma side ultimately couldn't hang on as they succumbed to a late Matias Vecino leveller to draw 1-1. On a night where Roma's inability to grab a second goal proved important once again - the match being the 11th consecutive game in which they've failed to score more than once - there were still positives to be extracted from the result.

A disappointed Eusebio Di Francesco lamented how injuries, particularly in midfield, limited his options and played a key factor in his team's second half drop off.

"We played very well for 65 to 70 minutes, but then the team began to drop off physically and I didn’t have many options in midfield," Di Francesco explained.

"Injuries influenced my tactical decisions. We got ourselves too deep and weren’t pushing forward like we were before. It’s a shame because we played very well at the start of the game."

Alisson heroics

Alisson continued to show why he's one of the premier goalkeepers in European football by putting in another outstanding shift. Pulling off a string of spectacular saves, the Brazilian international showed sharp reflexes, great athleticism, ideal positioning and crisp handling with an authoritative command of his area on his way to making an exemplary six saves.

He even assisted Stephan El Shaarawy's opener with a probing long ball in behind to cap off an eye-catchin individual 90 minutes.

As ever a hard taskmaster, Alisson’s assessment of his outing was heavily impacted by his team conceding late, insisting to Mediaset Premium: "When a goalkeeper puts in a good performance and makes several saves, but still concedes a goal, it’s the same as putting in a bad performance."

Strootman shows promise in holding midfield role

In the absence of Daniele De Rossi and Maxime Gonalons, Kevin Strootman was thrust into the holding midfield role. And he made a fine fist of things playing in this unfamiliar role. To start with, his intelligent movement saw him effectively drop deep and support his team's possession phases, as he timed his movements neatly to create numerical superiorities to progress upfield.

Add in some of his typical driving forward runs and the way he provided tremendous aggression on the defensive end, and it was certainly a positive display from the Dutchman, who completed a notable nine defensive actions.

Well co-ordinated pressing

Roma's first half pressing of Inter whenever they attempted to pass out from the back was another promising takeaway from their body of work, even if they fell away in this regard in the second half.

Full of intensity, physicality and synchronisation, the Giallorossi made life extremely difficult for Luciano Spalletti's side to get their passing game going. Roma were rapid in their harrying and shrewd in how they used their cover shadows to block off passing lanes, thus forcing their opposition into many turnovers or to hoof the ball upfield.

As seen in the image below, Roma do a terrific job of suffocating the home side by giving them no viable options, with their 6v6 man oriented coverage ensuring Miranda has only high risk forward passing options.