Four Things We Learned: Pedro sparkles but defence add the steel

First win on the board in Udine

Desperate to secure their first victory of the new season, Roma did precisely that with a spirited 1-0 victory away from home against Udinese.

Made to work hard for the win at the Stadio Friuli, Pedro's magical strike was the difference maker, as he opened his Roma account in style.

Looking stable defensively with Antonio Mirante starring in goal and the back three of Gianluca Mancini, Roger Ibanez and Marash Kumbulla looking good, Udinese ultimately couldn't breach the visitors' rearguard.

In attack, it was encouraging to see Pedro, Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan continue to forge partnerships in central areas, while the wingbacks yet again were integral to stretching the play out wide.

Exhibiting character, grit and discipline, Paulo Fonseca was relieved his team got over the line.

"It was really important to win today," he said.

"The team played well against Verona and against Juventus, but we didn’t win those games. We knew it would be a tough game against a side that likes to close the spaces between the lines and are very dangerous on the counter-attack."

He added: “In the first half we did basically everything right up until the final ball. At times we were a bit less aggressive when we lost the ball, but overall we played a controlled game.

"After scoring we knew that the main thing was to win: it was key that we worked together to see the game out.”

Pedro's class shines through

While his masterful long range screamer drew the headlines, there was so much more to admire from the Spanish World Cup winner's outing.

Co-ordinating nicely with his teammates and using his spatial awareness, Pedro constantly found room from which to operate.

Whether finding room in between the lines, in the half spaces, inside the box or when dropping deep to link midfield and attack, the Spaniard proved an elusive adversary for Udinese.

His clever rotations with Mkhitaryan and Lorenzo Pellegrini were also key components, for these never let his opponents settle into how best to stop him.

Often switching attacking midfield positions with Mkhitaryan to mix things up, this constantly asked questions on who should mark him and if the central defenders should push out to track him.

Meanwhile, his interchanges with Pellegrini were arguably more useful, for as soon as Pedro would drop which usually drew a marker out, Pellegrini would surge forward into Pedro's position and get in behind or into the 10 spaces.

The way he drew trackers out of shape to create disconnects in the Udinese rearguard for teammates to explore warranted mention too, for the likes of Dzeko, Mkhitaryan and Pellegrini benefited from this.

Once in possession, the 33-year-old's technical prowess shone brightly, with his incisive passing and nifty dribbling further compounding issues for the Zebrette.

Hitting some crisp passes into the final third, keeping the ball expertly and outfoxing foes with his mazy dribbling, he was a real menace.

By the numbers, his five successful dribbles, three touches inside the box, three shots, three progressive passes, three deep completions, 41 accurate passes at 84% and the fact he completed six of his seven attempted passes into the final third evidenced his impact.

Defensive positives aplenty

Roma's backline produced an encouraging showing to largely blunt the Udinese front pairing of Stefano Okaka and Kevin Lasagna.

Handling the size and strength of Okaka and the speed and nous of Lasagna, Mancini, Ibanez and Kumbulla rarely put a foot wrong.

Not afraid to aggressively press out when their marker dropped deep so their man struggled to link play cleanly, they hardly gave Udinese's attackers any room to work in. Breaking up so many attacks with their intense approach, this gave Roma a quality platform from which to regain possession and quickly launch counters of their own.

The fact they frequently enjoyed a 3v2 numerical superiority helped their cause too, with the spare men being crucial in providing cover and extra security.

Ibanez's speed particularly came in handy, as the Brazilian raced across the turf to snuff out many attacks in behind.

Manfully dealing with crosses into the box through a combination of good positioning, concentration and reading of the play, this saw Roma clear the danger from the majority of the 24 crosses delivered by the Bianconeri.

Upon looking at the statistics, and how Roma forced 21 turnovers from Lasagna and Okaka, won six of their nine duels against them and won eight of 12 aerial duels vs. the strike duo demonstrated their dominance.

High pressing strategy upsets Udinese rhythm

Whenever Udinese looked to pass out from the back, Roma's high pressing setup ensured it was never straightforward for them. To start with, Mkhitaryan, Dzeko and Pedro would go man for man on Udinese's three central defenders in Rodrigo Becao, Sebastien De Maio and Samir.

Following this up was Pellegrini tracking holding midfielder Tolgay Arslan and Jordan Veretout marking the dangerous Rodrigo de Paul.

With the home side having an extra man in central midfield, Roma dealt with the free man, who was usually Roberto Pereyra, by getting a central defender or the far sided wingback, who'd tuck in centrally, to monitor him if he was about to be used.

The ball near wingback would then step out to Udinese's wingback while the centre backs would look after Okaka and Lasagna.

Executing Fonseca's plans expertly, they were able to force long balls and turnovers regularly to regain possession. Due to the aerial qualities of Roma's defenders and the midfielders pushing back after long balls, Roma did a fine job of getting numbers around the ball to win second balls too.

Getting their timing and angling of their pressing spot on and intensity on point in the first half especially, this was a vital aspect towards Roma restricting Udinese.