Just three months into the season, Roma have already sacked not one but two head coaches. They are currently in the bottom half of the Serie A table and far from certain of a knockout spot in the Europa League, so their campaign has already gone quite some way downhill.
By Neel Shelat
The 2024/25 Serie A season is shaping up to be a special one. At present, just two points separate the top six, so we could well be in for an unforgettable title race. Roma, however, will almost certainly not be involved as they currently have just 13 points from 12 games – precisely half of league leaders Napoli’s tally.
The Giallorossi were surely not anticipating such a terrible start to the season after a promising end to the 2023/24 campaign, as Daniele De Rossi seemed to get them back on the up after José Mourinho’s departure. They supported him quite strongly in the summer too, but it all quickly went downhill thereafter.
Summer spending thrown down the drain
De Rossi initially took over on an interim basis, but his position was made permanent before the end of the 2023/24 season following a very promising run of results. Roma gave him a contract until 2027 and soon set out to support him by spending heavily in the summer.
They made over ten new signings, spending significant amounts on the likes of Artem Dovbyk (€30.6 million), Matías Soulé (€25.7m) and Enzo Le Fée (€23m). They also brought in Saudi international Saud Abdulhamid, Swedish youngster Samuel Dahl and 17-year-old right back Buba Sangaré for relatively low fees, struck a deal with Borussia Mönchengladbach for Manu Koné and made three free signings, namely Mathew Ryan, Mats Hummels and Mario Hermoso. All of these deals made good sense in isolation and they fit De Rossi’s tactical system quite well on the whole, so Florent Ghisolfi’s first transfer window as Roma’s technical director looked quite good on paper.
The trouble was that all of this good work was undone by a bizzare and baffling decision just a month into the new season. After Roma failed to win any of their first four matches – drawing with Cagliari, losing to Empoli, playing out a 0-0 against Juventus and then conceding a last-gasp equaliser to Genoa – they took the call to sack De Rossi. The decision was reportedly pushed by the club’s owners, the Friedkin Group led by brothers Dan and Ryan Friedkin.
At the time, fans were furious to see a club legend with over 600 appearances as a player tossed aside so harshly. The decision did not make much sense from a purely sporting point of view either as the host of new signings surely deserved some more time to settle in, and De Rossi had done enough towards the end of the previous season to merit support through a tough period. In hindsight, even Ghisolfi has suggested that this was a bad call.
Jurić doomed to fail from the off
After De Rossi was shown the exit door, Roma went and hired Ivan Jurić as his successor. The Croatian tactician was available after leaving his post at Torino in the summer, having previously managed sides like Crotone, Genoa and Hellas Verona. Clearly, this was going to be his first spell in charge of a top-level club.
The timing of it all was quite unpromising from his point of view. Not only was he joining the club mid-season with a very congested fixture list due to domestic and continental commitments, but he also came in at a time when the environment at the Stadio Olimpico was far from positive as fans voiced their dissatisfaction over the dismissal of De Rossi. Of course, they had nothing against Jurić, but the 49-year-old head coach found himself in a position where anything but instant success would very quickly build pressure on his position.
The trouble was that it was entirely unreasonable to expect Jurić to turn Roma’s fortunes around overnight. His tactical setup and back three system actually had a lot of similarities to the way De Rossi set his side up in possession, meaning the players did not have to take too much new information on board in this respect. However, it obviously also meant that they were unlikely to perform much better than they did under De Rossi at the start of the season.
Worse yet, Jurić’s out of possession tactics were quite different to De Rossi’s. While the Italian coach used a back four system and focused on trying to maintain a solid block, the former Torino tactician implemented his typical back five with a heavily player-oriented approach, often involving a lot of pressing. Roma’s squad is neither the youngest nor the most athletic, so such a system was always likely to give them more problems than upsides. Indeed, that proved to be the case as the Giallorossi only managed to keep three clean sheets in 12 matches under the Croatian coach, having kept two in the first four games of the season.
It should be said that Jurić did not help himself with some of his selection decisions, such as choosing to leave out experienced defender Mats Hummels for the most part despite such a leaky defence. Another such decision ultimately led to his dismissal, as he opted to leave Paulo Dybala – arguably Roma’s best attacker this season – out of the squad for what proved to be his final match.
All things considered, the tactical and selection changes from De Rossi to Jurić never looked likely to dramatically overturn Roma’s fortunes, and ultimately only had a negative impact.
What next?
For the third time in 2024, Roma are in the market for a new head coach. They have been linked to various names already, but one interesting rumour suggests Ghisolfi wants to bring De Rossi back though the Friedkins are not as keen.
If handled appropriately, that could be a good way to steer the club back towards the right direction and get the fans back on board. Clearly, the squad is well built to suit his tactics and he had the support of the players too, so he could well improve their performances with enough time. Realistically, though, this is quite unlikely given the circumstances around his dismissal.
Other potential targets could include Edin Terzić, Paulo Sousa or Frank Lampard, and Erik ten Hag though none of them have particularly inspiring track records that suggest they could turn Roma’s fortunes around. The biggest name that has been linked – and likely the best option on the current market – is Roberto Mancini, who was recently dismissed from Saudi Arabia’s national team. Although he has been out of club football for a few years now, he has some big names on his CV and should have the tactical nouse to at least try and salvage an already disastrous season for Roma.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
You can follow every AS Roma game on FotMob – with deep stats, xG, and players ratings. Download the free app here.