After the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, current Eredivisie leader Feyenoord took a 1-0 lead at home, avenging half of last year's UEFA Cup final defeat to Roma and losing the title, and the other half depends on whether Feyenoord can hold his current advantage at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in the second leg!
For Jose Mourinho, the situation has worsened, and the team has clearly performed well away from home, but with Dybala leaving injured in the first half, captain Pellegrini missed a penalty and Tammy Abraham dislocated his injured shoulder, the defeat was particularly bleak.
Rome did not have the strength to fight on two fronts
In the Serie A on April 9, Mourinho also rotated the squad in order to prepare for the Europa League, Dybala, Pellegrini, Tammy Abraham, Ibáñez, etc., either did not enter the squad or were on the bench. In the end, Roma narrowly beat Torino away, but after arriving in the Europa League, Roma continued the cycle of difficult goals.
Roma who played away from home in this game completed 17 shots, but only 3 shots on target, and 2 hit Feyenoord's goal frame, for Roma, they are really close to scoring a goal, but neither Tammy Abraham nor Bellotti are trustworthy strikers, of which Tammy Abraham played 58 minutes without a single shot on goal, and Bellotti played 38 minutes and got 3 shots, but none of them hit the goal.
Dybala was too important for Rome
When Dybala left, Roma's fate was almost decided, on the one hand, in the first two games of April, Dybala was Roma's first penalty taker, scoring penalties in two consecutive rounds (when Pellegrini was no longer there), but Pellegrini once again proved that he did not seem to have grown much this season and there were some problems with his mentality.
On the other hand, Roma's away results are quite poor, especially since the end of January and the beginning of February, when Roma can only rely on home points more often.
Roma's last 8 away results
In the last 8 away games, Roma have only won 1 game, drawn 2 and lost 5 games, including in addition to the poor performance of Serie A, the two knockout games of the Europa League also rely on home stadiums to get through!
Although the results are bad, if you look at the data of these eight games, you can see that Roma may not fall into the downside on the road, but there will always be difficult to score. And this season, Roma have already hit the goal frame 26 times in all competitions, according to statistics, Roma shot on goal frame data is the most among European teams! Three more than Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
In Serie A, Roma tied for first place with Juventus with 14 shots on the goal frame, and in the Europa League, Roma ranked first with 11 shots on the goal frame, 5 more than second-placed Manchester United!
The Roma striker was disappointing
If we consider some other data:
Roma are the third team in Serie A with the third most chances to create, but only third in Serie A in terms of goals.
Roma have the second highest number of shots on goal in the Europa League, with a total of 157 shots on goal but only 15 goals! Roma need an average of 15 shots on goal to score a goal! Manchester United, on the other hand, had the most shots on goal in the Europa League, with a total of 197 shots on goal, but scored 21 goals, averaging less than 10 shots on goal.
If Feyenoord, who has a similar number of shots on goal as Roma, then the Eredivisie leader, without participating in the Europa League play-offs, scored a super high conversion rate of 22 goals with 128 shots, far exceeding Roma's goal efficiency!
Mourinho was also helpless
Under these circumstances, who can say that Roma's failure to qualify for the Champions League and take the lead in the opening game against Feyenoord is Mourinho's responsibility? Mourinho's tactics are unlikely to give players the right shots.
Whether it was Tammy Abraham, who scored 27 goals and five assists last season, or Belotti, who was highly anticipated this season, Roma had always expected them to explode, but the results were disappointing, and the two players collectively fell into a goal drought this season. If Bellotti has the excuse of continuing to be injured for the first two seasons, then Tammy Abraham's performance is indeed worrying.
But now, even Tammy Abraham has to miss a period of time because of a dislocated shoulder, and this is the third time that Roma have suffered a dislocated shoulder injury this season, and new signing Solbakken has been dislocated twice in the winter window, so rare injuries can be rotated, and it can be seen that Roma's luck is also bad.
Roma's current ranking in Serie A
In addition to being passive in the Europa League, Roma are not doing well in Serie A, and although they can currently be in third place, this is more due to peer foil, AC Milan and Inter Milan's recent poor performance, allowing Roma to return to the top four.
But these two teams are better than Roma in their own strength and value, no one knows when they will recover, and Roma in the last 9 rounds of Serie A, they have to play Atalanta and Milan in the last nine rounds, which is a very bad situation for Rome.
According to some media predictions, Dybala may miss two weeks due to injury, he is Roma's top scorer this season, Dybala is likely to miss the second leg with Feyenoord, the match with Atalanta, and may not even catch up with AC Milan, Mourinho and Roma, are really on the verge of two collapses!
Conclusion: Champions League qualification is the lower limit for Mourinho and Roma
This season, both Roma and Jose Mourinho need to try to return to the Champions League, on the one hand, it will make Roma financially healthier, and on the other hand, Roma have some good players in the squad, and they also need to be tested in the Champions League.
Therefore, Roma cannot give up in Serie A or the Europa League
If Roma cannot recover their financial health, then this summer window will still not be able to make much reinforcement, which will inevitably affect whether Mourinho, who is already uncertain, will still be in charge of Roma next season.
But this question is still very difficult for Roma, Roma has 53 points in 29 rounds, from the point of view, Roma can at least surpass last season's 63 points, but want to qualify for the Champions League, according to past experience, 70 points is not less, 75 points are basically guaranteed.
Roma also need to pick up at least 17 league points in the last nine rounds of Serie A, otherwise it will really be up to Milan to pull over. As for whether Roma can reverse Feyenoord's promotion, Chat Jun believes that there is great hope, even if Dybala, Abraham, Solbakken and other players will be out due to injury in the second leg, but Wijnaldum, who has recovered from serious injuries, has indeed brought a lot of help to Mourinho, Roma still have a chance, but need stricter patience!