Di Francesco on the brink as Bologna pile more misery on Roma

Date: 23rd September 2018 at 4:59pm
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Roma’s dreadful start to the season continued as they fell to a toothless 2-0 defeat to Bologna at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on Sunday.

Federico Mattiello fired home on the half hour mark to score Bologna’s first goal of the season, and despite a number of chances Roma, a rapid counterattack allowed Federico Santander to seal the victory for the hosts.

The visitors started brightly, with a short corner to Lorenzo Pellegrini swung in menacingly to the back post for Federico Fazio. However, the Argentine’s powerful header was tipped onto the crossbar from close range by Lukasz Skorupski, with the former Roma goalkeeper on hand to deny Diego Perotti soon after.

Skorupski was also on hand to prevent Justin Kluivert with a good stop, before the match was turned on it’s head against the run of play.

Sebastien De Maio was given acres of space to pick out Mattiello at the far end of the box, and he made no mistake in cutting inside and finding the bottom corner with a wonderful strike.

Roma ought to have equalised on the stroke of half-time, as Skorupski spilt an Alessandro Florenzi cross, but Pellegrini blazed over from close range.

Bologna’s victory was put beyond all doubt on the hour mark. With the Lupi piling forward, Diego Falcinelli broke out with only Kostas Manolas back for Roma, before slotting into the middle for the unmarked Santander to drive on and rifle home.

Despite pushing men forward in the hope of salvaging something, Roma looked the most likely to concede again late on as Bologna substitute Orji Okwonkwo squandered two good counterattacks.

Roma a shadow of their former selves

Barring a tricky period in January, last season all was rosy at the Stadio Olimpico, as the Giallorossi embarked on a memorable run to the Champions League semi-finals and secured third place at a canter.

This term has proved disastrous so far, with all the failings that have seen Roma pick up just five points so far on show in Bologna. The Lupi were lackadaisical in defence and left huge gaps across the pitch, particularly behind their fullbacks. With little to no creativity, forward Edin Dzeko cut an isolated figure and aside from set pieces, the visitors rarely looked like scoring.

Meanwhile, passes were sent directly into touch and basic errors were all too common, whilst there was a notable lack of urgency across the team.

Di Francesco facing uncertain future

The defeat sees coach Eusebio Di Francesco come under further pressure, with only a single victory from the club’s opening six matches in all competitions.

Even in victory, on the opening day against Torino, an unconvincing performance was rescued by a fantastic Dzeko volley in the dying moments, whilst a late defeat to AC Milan and a shock 2-2 draw at home to Chievo, despite being two goals up, hints at a fragile team.

Di Francesco has had to deal with the departures of key stars in the mould of Alisson, Radja Nainggolan and Kevin Strootman, but his tactics appear stale and he has struggled to get the best out of a talented team.

Unless he can find a way to motivate his stagnating squad, the former Sassuolo tactician could be living on borrowed time.

 

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