Five Things We Learned: Atalanta tactical setup frustrates Giallorossi

Spalletti's 400th game doesn't end in victory

Despite a much-improved second half Roma performance, it unfortunately wasn't enough for the Giallorossi to take home all three points in Luciano Spalletti's 400th Serie A game. On another day Roma could've easily run out winners, but it wasn't to be for the home side, with the post denying both Daniele De Rossi and Radja Nainggolan during a second half onslaught.

"We moved the ball too slowly in the first half and had too few touches, shuffling it around the pitch without any quick or probing moves," Spalletti said.

"However, we improved in this respect in the second half and the team deserved more. We play right until the end of games, but these are two points dropped; you should be beating these teams at home."

De Rossi strong in the middle again

De Rossi yet again demonstrated his immense importance to Roma with another polished performance – all the more impressive considering he was an injury doubt for the game.

Giving great balance and structure to his team, De Rossi's tremendous positional sense meant he took up ideal positions both with and without possession to assist Spalletti's side. Particularly encouraging on the defensive end was the way he sacrificed himself to cover his full-backs and centre halves when needed to keep the team's structure intact.

Meanwhile, on the attacking end, his supporting movements allowed Roma to enhance the connectivity of their offensive passages, while his passing was as crisp as ever.

Atalanta defend left well

With Roma channelling many of their attacks down their left (41% to be precise), as is often their custom, Atalanta came prepared to counter this. Atalanta's right central midfielder, Franck Kessie, their right centre-back, Rafael Toloi, and right wing-back, Hans Hateboer, did a super job of creating 3-on-2 scenarios against Diego Perotti and Mario Rui on this side, limiting their effectiveness.

Key to this was Toloi's heavy pressing of Perotti whenever he looked to drop deep or find space in the half space, as the Brazilian would charge out aggressively from his post to mark him. While this, at times, appeared irresponsible for a central defender to do, the fact La Dea played with a central back three ensured adequate cover was present behind him.

Atalanta's two attacking midfielders prove influential

With Gian Piero Gasperini organising his side into a 3-4-2-1, a key element of this was the two attacking midfielders in Jasmin Kurtic and Bryan Cristante. Knowing their opposing full-backs would often be forced to step out and mark Atalanta's wingbacks, Gasperini instructed the two aforementioned number 10s to exploit the space in behind them by making runs into the left and right channels.

By Kurtic and Cristante embarking on these runs, this forced Kostas Manolas or Federico Fazio to leave their central defensive station and track their runs, which created big gaps within Roma's defensive structure for Atalanta to utilise.

Fazio dominates in heavyweight tussle

Atalanta centre forward, Andrea Petagna, posed a tricky test for the Roma backline, but the performance of Federico Fazio in particular went a long way towards limiting the 21-year-old's influence. On top of tracking the Italian's runs tightly, Fazio often edged Petagna in battles of strength and aerial duels. His astute positioning as enabled him to overcome his man with relative comfort.

The fact Petagna lost the ball seven times and Fazio won seven aerial duels, plus made 13 successfully defensive actions, five of which came against Petagna, aptly illustrated the Argentine's display.