Reviewing Ranieri’s first month back at Roma and restoration of optimism

On 14th November, 2024, Roma released a statement on their website, with some very familiar words: ‘Claudio Ranieri is the new head coach of the first team’.

It had all happened very quickly, with Ranieri emerging as the likely successor to Ivan Juric only a couple of nights before his return was confirmed (and not before a period of widespread uncertainty regarding alternatives). For a third time, Ranieri had the Roma reins.

The reaction was fairly mixed and it will still take some time to analyse properly how his third spell will be judged, but one month on from his confirmation, it seems an appropriate time for a progress report.

Ahead of Sunday’s game against Como, Ranieri has a record of two wins, two defeats and one draw with this current Roma side. All the results have fallen in line with expectations; Roma weren’t the favourites against Napoli or Atalanta, whereas they were against Lecce and Braga, and the Tottenham game seemed like one that would be close to call.

But the fact that Roma’s last two results have been back-to-back wins – for the first time this season – offers a glimmer of hope that Ranieri is steering them in the right direction. After all, there were games Roma were expected to win earlier in the season and didn’t.

Embed from Getty Images

The 4-1 triumph over Lecce and 3-0 dismantling of Braga represented the first time since March, when Daniele De Rossi oversaw wins over Monza and Brighton, that Roma had won two consecutive games by three goals or more.

It could be a natural consequence of Roma’s slightly more attacking approach under Ranieri. The players are still working out what to do in the final third, but are showing more conviction to get there and are being afforded the freedom to have a go.

Roma’s nine goals since Ranieri returned have all been scored by nine different players: Evan Ndicka, Mats Hummels, Alexis Saelemaekers, Gianluca Mancini, Niccolo Pisilli, Manu Kone, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Saud Abdulhamid and Mario Hermoso.

It’s a sign that throughout the Roma squad, there is more belief being generated, while players are making better runs from midfield and other areas.

There are a couple of notable absentees from that list of scorers: Artem Dovbyk and Paulo Dybala. It would be ideal to see Dovbyk taking on his share of the goalscoring duties again as the main striker, having fluffed his lines a couple of times in recent weeks despite some glimpses of potential, while Dybala is starting to show some flickers of his quality again in patches. He has still been underwhelming this season on the whole, but it’s now starting to faintly look like his output will come back.

And other players are improving, with Kone continuing his surge in importance (having already started to grow in influence towards the end of Juric’s spell), Abdulhamid recently benefitting from his chance at right wing-back, and of course, Mats Hummels finally being given a chance.

Hummels’ regular exclusion was one of the great mysteries of Juric’s tenure, but Ranieri has put his faith in the iconic German defender and Roma are starting to look more stable. Is it a coincidence? The chances are that it is not.

Ranieri hasn’t done anything extraordinary with these Roma players yet. That shouldn’t have been expected in these circumstances. But after some trademark tinkering early on, he has seemingly found a formation to settle on (3-4-2-1) and build with. And irrespective of that, just like he managed to in his second spell, he is simplifying their approach and getting a better response from his players because of it.

Embed from Getty Images

Look at how Pellegrini and Abdulhamid went to celebrate with him after their respective goals against Braga. It seems Roma now have a coach that their players want to do proud. Their performances still have margins for improvement and the next test will be to be more competitive in the big games, but so far, most of Ranieri’s decisions have paid off. And as was hoped from the beginning, some unity is being restored as Roma become more recognisable.

One month in, it’s been a pleasure to have Ranieri back. Let’s hope there is enough to enjoy over the next five.