When Roma celebrated, in the middle of last week, their best start to any season, praise showered on them from various quarters. One of most important endorsements came from the coach who parted company with the club earlier this year.
The veteran Zdenek Zeman, whose affection for the club will always survive the fact he has twice been ushered to their exit door, said with typical sincerity how much he enjoys watching the Serie A leaders.
Zeman is the purists’ purist, a dogmatic believer in football as entertainment, a risk-taker who has lost a number of jobs because his teams prioritise attack.
His eye has been drawn naturally to the 17 goals that unbeaten Roma have accumulated in their six wins. But he would also acknowledge that Rudi Garcia, the fourth head coach at the club in the past 18 months, has turned Roma into a more effective side than he could, even when, last season, they were playing with traditional Zeman pizzazz.
No side in Europe’s major leagues has a better defensive record than Garcia’s Roma, who have conceded only one goal.
They blitzed Bologna 5-0 on Sunday, moving to the top of the table and proving they can be urgent as well as patient. They were up 3-0 after 26 minutes. Previously, all their victories had been achieved with second-half strikes as the careful, probing passing game Garcia favours wore opponents down gradually.
Garcia’s impact has been anything but gradual. He arrived in June, two years after leading Lille to a double of French league and cup, and oversaw a busy summer of trading.
Key players left Roma, such as the talented young defender Marquinhos, the striker Pablo Osvaldo and arguably last season’s most brilliant performer, Erik Lamela, who joined Tottenham Hotspur.
Roma reinvested most of the yield from those sales in new players, but some of the newcomers came with baggage, most notably Adem Ljajic, who had some disciplinary issues at Fiorentina and with his native Serbia, and Gervinho, who had lost confidence at Arsenal.
Ljajic celebrated his 22nd birthday with Roma’s fifth goal on Sunday, while Gervinho scored the second and now has three goals in Roma colours. The latter is the player Garcia recognises from their time together at Lille, buoyant and bubbly.
The Ivorian has quickly become an emblem of rejuvenated Roma. This weekend’s trip to Inter Milan at San Siro may be Roma’s toughest test yet, but they will go there full of self-belief.
sports@thenational.ae
