Numbers behind Roma’s downfall under Jose Mourinho

Roma are left reeling in the Serie A following the loss to Milan yesterday and question marks are being raised about Jose Mourinho’s future.

The Portuguese has two games to potentially save his job. If Roma drop points against Verona and Salernitana, the club could take action even before their upcoming Europa League clash against Feyenoord. But the numbers are damning for Mourinho, who could only watch on from the stands at the San Siro with a match analyst beside him.

With the side ninth in the league and only one point ahead of 10th placed Torino, the Giallorossi have already lost seven games and they have won only eight. During his time at Tottenham, Mourinho was sacked after ten defeats in the Premier League and with the second half of the season yet to be played, the signs aren’t great for the Portuguese.

When Mourinho was sacked by Manchester United, the Red Devils had the worst tally of points at that point of the campaign since the 1990/91 season. At Roma currently, the Giallorossi have picked up only 29 points and that is the worst tally since the 2002/03 season and that speaks volumes for the situation.

Milan scored early in the second half yesterday and this season, Mourinho’s side have conceded six goals in the first 15 minutes in the season and only Cagliari have a worse record in this regard. 

Goalscoring has also been a bit of a problem for the side, especially without Paulo Dybala and yesterday was a good example, as the team couldn’t create too many chances. 

In fact, Roma have registered only 3.80 shots on target per 90 minutes, which is the 9th best record in the league. An overreliance on Dybala is suggested by the fact that he has created 0.55 assists per 90 minutes, with bit-part forward Andrea Belotti at second with a tally of 0.27, as per FBRef. That suggests the gulf in quality between Dybala and the other Roma players and this also has an impact on Romelu Lukaku’s goals.

While Lukaku has eight league goals, he hasn’t scored in three games now and he wasn’t great against the Rossoneri in the absence of Dybala.

Mourinho has to make a lot of things right and while injuries are certaintly to be blamed to an extent, the fact that there is no visible system in place in his third season says a lot about the situation.

Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN