Four Things We Learned: Smalling stars at both ends

Roma ousted Brescia in a fine collective display on Sunday afternoon. Our columnist looks at four key points from the contest...

Chris Smalling, Gianluca Mancini and Edin Dzeko grabbed the goals in a comfortable win at the Stadio Olimpico.

Roma take care of business against Brescia

Producing an accomplished showing on a rain soaked night at the Olimpico to return to winning ways, Roma's 3-0 victory over Brescia was both straightforward and encouraging.

Gaining an all important clean sheet, which was a fine reward for their robust collective defensive effort, while piecing together some wonderful offensive sequences, the Giallorossi were certainly good value for the win on their way to achieving an Expected Goals reading of 3 themselves and 0.57 against.

Dominating the contest against an underrated Brescia side - who, despite their struggles, have put in many good displays - Paulo Fonseca cut a content figure following the match, even if he stated the need for improvement.

“We lacked aggression and intensity in the first half, but we spoke about that during the break and then the team played better," Fonseca said.

"The space was there in the first half, but we made the wrong final decisions. In the second half, the goal allowed us to regain balance and confidence and we played better.”

Smalling stars again

Bagging a goal and two assists, Chris Smalling undoubtedly enjoyed a night to remember against the Biancazzurri. Such a massive threat in aerial confrontations, the Englishman's heading prowess was crucial towards his goalscoring contributions.

By being positioned on the blindside of his marker for all three of Roma's goals, this in combination with the good service into box, served as key catalysts for him. Giving him an important dynamic advantage over his ball oriented opponents, who were more stationary and not ideally located, Smalling made the most of being able to see the ball cleanly, time his leap and pick up the ball's flight.

This was certainly the case for his goal and pair of assists, where he got the jump on his man to find the back of the net and set up defensive partner, Gianluca Mancini, and then Edin Dzeko.

Meanwhile, when it came to his defensive work, Smalling was just as impressive. Remaining concentrated and aware of his surroundings, this meant he was awake to opponents runs in behind, when his man dropped deep, if he needed to provide cover or take on the marking reigns from a colleague.

Doing a fine job of getting touchtight to his adversaries when they checked towards the ball, they found life difficult to control passes, turn him and execute their actions smoothly.

Forcing many turnovers and errors while undertaking his duties with authority, Smalling's stopping efforts were of the highest order.

By the numbers, his seven won aerial duels, five interceptions, 10 free ball pick ups, 12 ball recoveries and two tackles punctuated his value.

Terrific again on both ends, Smalling once more illustrated what an outstanding signing he's been since joining, as he's definitely been one of the best acquisitions this season in Serie A.

Exploiting space in wide areas

With Brescia organising themselves into what was essentially a compact 4-4-2 diamond/4-3-1-2 defensive animation, their plan was to prevent Roma from playing through central areas. Although this narrow structure did a decent job of achieving their objective, it did, however, leave oceans of space out wide for Roma to exploit.

Fonseca's implementation of some good mechanics only compounded issues for Fabio Grosso's men. To start with, the home side would use the overload to isolate principle nicely, which saw them overload numbers and direct play down one side before rapidly switching to the opposition flank.

By initially drawing the opposition block to one side before quickly moving the ball, this allowed Roma to exploit the underloaded wing, where either fullback could receive with vacant space to surge into.

In addition to placing their flying fullbacks in 1v1 scenarios and giving them time and space to dribble or cross, the role of the nearby winger was key in dragging their man infield or supporting the fullback to generate ideal 2v1s.

Another interesting dynamic that gave Roma some variety came from the rotation between central midfielder, Jordan Veretout and left winger, Justin Kluivert. Due to their frequent positional interchanges, this gave Brescia some headaches on who should mark who, with the indecision often freeing up one of them or unbalancing the away side's setup.

This tactic also allowed Kluivert to push into the box using his crafty movement and Veretout to use his smart passing, crossing, ball carrying and press resistance to animate Roma's work in the final third.

Diawara's showing proves encouraging

Making his return to the starting lineup following his injury layoff, it was great to see Amadou Diawara put in a positive display. Looking like he'd never been away, he settled back into the action swiftly, appearing right at home despite his spell on the sidelines.

Exuding confidence and composure in possession, the way he used his passing to construct, keep things ticking over with tempo and break the lines of the opposition was very pleasing indeed.

Striking some wonderful switches of play, incisive vertical balls into the feet of the attackers and sharp with his short passing, Brescia struggled to stop him giving Roma plenty of offensive impetus.

The 22-year-old's movement was another highlight, with this ensuring he could help form advantageous 3v2 numerical superiorities in build up, support wide attacks and be generally in promising positions to progress the attack or make room for a teammate.

Defending with a nice blend of intensity and nous, the former Napoli man broke up attacks effectively with his pressing and sharply timed interceptions and tackles.

In a game where he also protected the backline proficiently with his positioning, both when Brescia were attacking in transition or more methodical fashion, there was definitely much to admire about his exertions.

Giving Roma another option in midfield after their torrid injury run, Diawara's presence demonstrated that he not only adds depth but vital quality in this key area of the pitch.