Four Things We Learned: Pellegrini and Cristante add craft and conviction

Roma too much for Genoa yet again

Roma extended their unbeaten streak to 14 matches over Genoa with a solid 1-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico.

While not at their swashbuckling best, Gianluca Mancini's towering header was enough to get the Giallorossi over the line. In a match where Paulo Fonseca was again forced to rotate his squad due to injuries, Roma put in a professional, disciplined performance to keep them in contention for Champions League qualification.

Making four changes from the team that beat Fiorentina, Pedro, Stephan El Shaarawy, Rick Karsdorp and Chris Smalling - who made his first start in over a month - came in and fulfilled their responsibilities admirably.

Considering what a busy schedule they have at the moment and the personnel issues Fonseca's faced with, he cut a content figure following the match, saying: "We were playing against a good side, who have picked up some really good results against the top sides.

"I expected Genoa to press us higher up, instead they opted to sit a bit deeper and so it was harder for us to find space, especially in the first half. We were a bit slow moving the ball around, without any deep balls into space either. But I think in the end we warranted the victory.

"We’ve managed the players and their gametime. A few players are a bit more tired than some of the others – because a few are playing pretty much every game, like Cristante, Mancini and [Lorenzo] Pellegrini.”

Set piece threat

Having clearly done their homework in set piece situations, Roma came prepared with a clever strategy to outfox Genoa's marking structure from corners especially.

From the outset, the Giallorossi's threat was evident, as they fired some early warning shots, with Genoa's mixed but predominantly zonal marking scheme getting exposed on many occasions before Mancini eventually scored. The below graphics offer some examples of Roma's approach, with their big three of Mancini, Smalling and Bryan Cristante given vast room to attack Lorenzo Pellegrini's deliveries.

Having recognised they were giving Roma's big men far too much time to run and jump, Genoa dropped back Kevin Strootman and Marko Pjaca to mark Smalling and Cristante respectively prior to Roma's goal.

They did, however, leave Mancini free to form a 3v2 between them, which gave the imposing stopper a clear path to use his dynamic advantage to rise highest to power his header home.

Other key features from the goal came from how Smalling and Cristante split using decoy runs to further open the path for Mancini, plus how Karsdorp drew out a marker from the target area and how Borja Mayoral pinned/blocked Ivan Radovanovic from challenging Mancini.

The outstanding service provided by Pellegrini also deserves mention, for he picked his spot masterfully to assist this exceptionally crafted goal.

In a game of such fine margins, Fonseca and his coaching staff would've been delighted that their work on the training ground and analysis of their opponents paid off to prove the difference maker during this tight match.

Pellegrini classy in midfield

Dropping deeper to operate in central midfield to fill the void left by Jordan Veretout's absence, Pellegrini excelled from this deep lying station.

Full of energy and intensity, the Italian international's movement constantly saw him support attacks and breathe life into his team's offensive passages.

Granted a great deal of freedom, he popped up all over the pitch, which ensured he was a nightmare to contain for Genoa. Timing and directing his movement brilliantly, this allowed him to form overloads during build up, in wider areas, in true central midfield areas and when pushing up into the 10 spaces.

The way he executed smart rotations with Roma's attacking midfielders in Pedro and El Shaarawy was another feature of his game. The trigger for these interchanges would be when one of Pedro or El Shaarawy checked towards the ball. Upon noticing this, Pellegrini would immediately maraud forward and either attack the spaces between the lines or embark on his wicked runs in behind from deep.

The latter were especially promising, for he exploited the blindside of markers and was so good at charging into gaps between defenders.

Forever probing and asking questions of Genoa's defensive organisation, his heat map showed how effectively he mixed things up.

Aside from his movement, his quality set pieces, nifty line breaking passes and powerful ball carrying provided further offensive impetus for Roma.

"He is another really clever player. Pellegrini covered Jordan Veretout’s role today. Jordan was playing really well there and whoever plays in that position needs to be able to find the spaces" Fonseca said.

"Looking at the second line, Lorenzo did well – he ran and he worked hard to help the team. We have other solutions there: [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan and [Gonzalo] Villar could play there too, but I have to say I really liked how Pellegrini did.”

Cristante excels in tweaked role

Cristante was another whose role was altered for this one by Fonseca, with him deployed on the left side of Roma's defensive trio alongside Smalling and Mancini.

From this post, Cristante was persistently able to receive possession with plenty of time and space due to Roma enjoying a 4v3 or 3v2 overload against Genoa's first line of pressure. The way Amadou Diawara would drop into the first line further stretched Genoa, with this serving as the trigger for Cristante to push wider, where he found freedom and could gain a good picture of potential options.

For a player who's so good on the ball, ensuring he received possession with plenty of time to assess his options worked wonders.

As a result, the 26-year-old played a key role in helping Roma progress through the thirds with his incisive passing that saw him break the lines, switch the angle of attacks, hit some measured through balls or recycle possession cleanly if an opening was immediately available.

Aside from his vision and reading of the play, which saw him astutely pick out teammates, the way he disguised his passes by initially unbalancing opponents with his eyes and body posture was a joy to watch.

So comfortable with the ball at his feet, his driving upfield dribbles were a positive too, for not only did he breeze by opponents on occasion, he also effectively provoked Miha Zajc to step out from midfield to press him.

In doing so, Zajc would inherently leave space behind him, which one of Roma's attacking midfielders would exploit, and consequently offer an option to break the press.

When Roma had Genoa pinned back defending deep, there were many cases when he'd step into midfield to add an extra number to the attacks, hoping to lure out a presser or to use his penetrative distribution to unlock his adversaries.

Giving Roma a sound foundation to generate attacks and control proceedings from, Fonseca was full of praise for the tactically adaptable and disciplined utility.

“Bryan is a really intelligent footballer. I made that choice to give us a bit more quality with build-up from the back. We saw that Bryan and Gianluca Mancini had a bit more space either side to play and, with the ability on the ball Cristante has, we were able to get the win," he noted.