Comparing Fonseca’s Roma to last year’s Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham vs Roma on Offense

We know both teams scored the same amount of goals and won the same amount of matches, but goals and wins only tell part of the story. Tottenham relied heavily in the league on Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son, as well as a sizeable contribution from Gareth Bale.

Spurs’ three stars scored 51 goals, 75 percent of the team’s total output. Although 12 players scored for Tottenham, Lucas Moura and Tanguy Ndombele slotted in behind the top three with three goals a piece. So while 12 players scored only 5 scored more than 2 goals.

Interestingly, Roma also had three players score double-figure goals. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Borja Mayoral, and Jordan Veretout all scored at least 10 goals for the club. However, the 33 goals they combined for represented only 57 percent of Roma’s total.

Roma had seven players score at least four goals and had 16 total players score in the league. To say that Roma used the entire team is an understatement. Likewise, where the three top scorers for Tottenham were their front three, two of the top three scorers for Roma were midfielders.

Roma more balanced offensively than Tottenham

This approach, without the talent of Harry Kane, was necessary for Roma, but also reflected a team that created more chances. With 3.05 goal-creating actions per match compared to 2.89 for Tottenham, Roma were consistently more threatening.

Roma shot more than Tottenham, with more than 14 shots per match compared to Spurs 11.6. Add in more than 200 more progressive passes – passes of at least 10 yards forward not from the defensive third – you have a team that attacks more than Tottenham. With 100 more crosses than Spurs had and a 2 percent higher completion rate on their passes, Roma was more efficient on the offensive side of the ball.

Roma made completed a lot of passes in attacking areas. Roma had more than 700 more touches in the attacking 1/3 of the pitch than did Tottenham. Those touches in the attacking third led to more than 200 more touches in the penalty box.

Roma had 984 touches in the penalty box compared to 770 for Spurs. That is nearly six more touches in the opponents’ penalty area per match. That is a big deal for a team with attackers as proficient as Tottenham’s.

If you apply this team approach and add in a talisman-like Kane, one could see where Tottenham could explode offensively next season.

Unfortunately for both Roma and Tottenham, they had one other similar area, a struggling defense.