Roma’s attack is about to undergo a significant transformation, but by the end of it, Paulo Dybala will still be a monumentally important component of it.
Dybala seemingly intends to stay at Roma despite a release clause remaining active in his contract, and he could even sign a new deal to commit the rest of his prime years to the club.
The only question is, how will Roma use Dybala next season, given the rapidly evolving nature of their attacking options?
Strikers Romelu Lukaku and Sardar Azmoun have left, while Tammy Abraham is a wanted man and could be sold. On the wings, Roma barely have any natural options, with Dybala himself often covering on the right flank towards the end of last season.
With Roma ready to replenish their wings – focusing on targets like Federico Chiesa and Matias Soule from Dybala’s former club Juventus – there have been suggestions that La Joya could be utilised as a false nine next season.
Daniele De Rossi has previously hinted he would be open to putting Dybala at the tip of his formation, but has been waiting for some fast wingers to put alongside him to make it work. Should Roma succeed in landing that kind of player this summer, it’s a strategy that may come into fruition – especially considering the excessive cost of a lot of the centre-forwards that may be of interest to the club.
So, what are the arguments for and against Roma converting Dybala into the man who plays centrally at the top of their attack?
FOR
Embed from Getty ImagesMost obviously, it’s worth emphasising that Dybala has played a lot of his career in a central attacking position. And this isn’t just talking about his preferred role as a number 10. In fact, he’s spent a lot of time playing as a striker.
To dub him a ‘false nine’ – even if tactically he is a creative player rather than a target man – might be understating what kind of job he could do as a centre-forward.
When he came to Italy with Palermo, Dybala played primarily as a striker. In fact, in his three seasons there, more than 85% of his game time came up front. Still only 21 by the time he left, he scored 21 goals for Palermo from 89 league games.
At Juventus, he became more of a trequartista, but still featured up front half of the time in his first season and to an even greater proportion in his fifth. At Roma, though, it has barely been his role.
Yet Dybala has played more than 130 times in his career to date as a striker, accounting for around 30% of his time on the pitch. He may have received more licence to roam for Roma, but he knows how to play as a centre-forward.
He also knows how to put the ball in the back of the net, and that’s crucial for a striker. Since he arrived at Roma in 2022, he has scored 34 goals. Over those past two seasons, no player has beaten that tally for the club. While he was outscored by Lukaku in 2023-24, Dybala’s goals-to-games ratio from his Roma spell so far is virtually identical to the Belgian’s (0.442 for Dybala, 0.447 for Lukaku, to the nearest thousandth). With Lukaku now gone, Dybala is the biggest goal threat remaining on Roma’s roster.
He is also Roma’s most influential player, and that influence is felt more when he plays centrally. While several of his goals last season came in games he started as a winger, the actual actions that beat the goalkeepers often came from the middle of the pitch. He also has a far better rate of providing assists when playing through the middle. Furthermore, he might not have to track back as much from there when Roma are out of possession (not that it would excuse him entirely of defensive duties, of course).
Placing Dybala as Roma’s central striker would allow for better balance, as it would open up a space for a right winger who can be as much of an outlet as what they may have on the opposite flank. As things stand, both Dybala and Tommaso Baldanzi have stronger tendencies to drift into pockets in central attacking midfield positions, which can disrupt the side’s structure by leaving no option on the wide right.
Roma converting Dybala into a striker would free up funds that may have been put aside for that position, so they can be invested instead in another of the squad’s major deficiencies: new wingers. And given that those players seem slightly easier to buy at the moment, it would make sense.
AGAINST
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile Dybala does have plenty of prior experience as a striker, much of it has come playing alongside a target man. At Palermo, he partnered Abel Hernandez at first, for example. For Juventus, he supported centre-forwards like Mario Mandzukic or Alvaro Morata. There is actually little evidence of Dybala being the lone striker in a system.
Furthermore, due to his playing style, he may still have a tendency to drift into other spaces to get on the ball. In fairness, that’s why he’s being referred to as a false nine and not a centre-forward in these forecasts of how Roma could line up next season, but if it has been one thing not having an outlet always available on the right wing, it would be another to not have an outlet always available up front, especially in the kind of game where his side might be up against it. Conversely, that type of game might be the one that frustrates Dybala the most and encourages him to come deep for the ball, when really his teammates would need him to stay high up the pitch.
There could also be an issue at defending set pieces. Edin Dzeko’s utility in that regard was an underrated aspect of his game and even Abraham and Lukaku have been handy players to have for those moments. If Roma don’t sign a target man in favour of using Dybala up front, it would reduce the height available to them.
Besides, Dybala might not always be available anyway. So far at Roma, he has missed more than a quarter of the club’s matches due to injury. As a striker, he may be at risk of receiving further contact blows, which could make him more fragile. And while in his current role Dybala is always a benefit to have when he is fit, if history repeats itself, the absence of the team’s starting striker for more than a quarter of a season would be an issue.
And that feeds into the theory that this would just be a short-term solution to paper over the cracks, effectively delaying the inevitable of Roma finding their long-term striker solution. Dzeko left the club in 2021 and Roma seem no closer to settling on someone who can give them as prolonged service up front as he did. Dybala could play well as a striker for a season (or two or three if he signs an extension), but Roma would only find themselves back at the drawing board when the time came to invest in a centre-forward again after the conclusion of his time there.
VERDICT
With that in mind, it’s fair to conclude that Dybala would be a good solution for Roma to use as a striker or false nine. However, the caveat should be that they sign a well-chosen backup striker with a different profile.
That could either be a young prospect who could gradually take over in the role, or a more senior target man who could give Roma some guarantees when Dybala is unavailable.
But in an ideal world where Dybala can play in the majority of games, it would be fascinating to see Roma’s transformation tactically with him at the tip of their attack, as De Rossi’s dream plans come to life.
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