Four Things We Learned: Crotone cruise continues forward momentum

Dominant first half sets up win

A blistering first half display ensured Roma bagged all three points away at a brave, ambitious Crotone side.

Heading into the break 3-0 up courtesy of a brace from Borja Mayoral and one from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the Giallorossi tore into the plucky Pythagoreans, who produced some good football of their own.

Attacking with verve and defending with aggression, the Giallorossi extended their winning streak to three, as their impressive progression under Paulo Fonseca continues.

In a thoroughly entertaining contest, where Roma got the job done to consolidate third place in the standings, Fonseca spoke insightfully on the match.

“I think we delivered a really professional performance. We have a lot of respect for the opposition today. They have quality," he said.

"Especially in the first half, we played really well. In the second half, we managed things a bit more. Perhaps in the second half we could have made more of our chances to break, but overall we did very well. Our target was to win and we were able to do that. Now we turn our attention to the next match.”

Mayoral leads the line with aplomb

Tasked with leading the line, Mayoral undertook his duties with relish. Posing a huge threat in behind and intelligent with his checks towards the ball, adversaries found him challenging to keep tabs on.

Astute at exploiting spaces between defenders, between the lines and inside the box, this enabled him to not only create space for himself but others too.

The fact all three of Roma's goals owed something to his intelligent positioning and movement served as a testament to his effectiveness.

The first saw him time and direct his run perfectly to split two defenders to latch onto Henrikh Mkhitaryan's super cross to finish clinically with one touch.

His second involvement saw him smartly receive between the lines after some strong Roma pressing. He quickly recognised he had time and space to turn after scanning over his shoulder.

Mayoral then steadied himself and picked his spot before unleashing a sensational long range screamer that arrowed into the top corner. A fantastic finish to a wonderful move.

Lastly, the Spaniard's crafty curling run into the area saw him reach Rick Karsdorp's cutback ahead of Vladimir Golemic, who bundled Mayoral over to hand Roma a penalty that Mkhitaryan slotted home.

Combining deadly finishing and movement, his striking instincts and spatial awareness were integral towards his outstanding showing, which highlighted what a terrific option he is when Edin Dzeko doesn’t start.

Pressing battle vs. Crotone's build up

One of the most interesting themes of the match was Roma's high pressing vs. Crotone's build up. With both teams trading punches and enjoying successes, Roma ultimately just edged the battle.

Setting up their front three to mark Crotone's back three and the wingbacks to mark their opposing wingbacks, this was a good starting point. The most intriguing aspect of the duel then arose in midfield, where the home side had a 3v2 advantage. In true Fonseca fashion, he devised a plan to combat this.

Inherently Roma's two central mids, Bryan Cristante and Gonzalo Villar, would pick up two of the three. But the spare man, typically the far side eight, would be monitored by either a backtracking attacking midfielder or a stepping out central defender. Seeing as Roma had a 3v2 superiority at the back, the latter option made sense when feasible.

In addition, how Roma would curve their pressing to direct Crotone towards the sideline while positioning themselves to cut off passing lanes into potentially free opponents was good to see.

The away team were rewarded for their collective efforts when their pressing saw them regain possession in midfield ahead of Mayoral's sublime second.

High wingbacks threaten

In situations when Roma were attempting to build out from the back, one of the tactics they implemented was to push their wingbacks extremely high up towards the attacking midfield line.

This subsequently meant Bruno Peres and Karsdorp stretched and unbalanced Crotone's rearguard, which not only created room for attackers and midfielders to drop into, but also saw them ready to receive second balls or quickly maraud forward.

The best example of this strategy arose for Roma's third, where Karsdorp surged ahead to be isolated against his man to help form a 3v3 advantage for Roma against Crotone's last line.

Upon receiving Cristante's exquisite through ball, the Dutchman instantly fired in a neat cutback that led to the penalty.

Bearing fruit on many occasions, this method allowed Roma to attack quickly and directly, and to still pose a threat if they couldn't get beyond the press, which Fonseca deserves the plaudits for.