Gasperini sees meaning in Roma's goals, but the concessions are piling up too
Roma's 5-2 win at Udinese stretched an unbeaten start to 10 league games, and Gian Piero Gasperini says the scoring numbers are no accident — even as his side's defensive record slips.
Roma are ten matches unbeaten into the 2026-27 Serie A season after Saturday's 5-2 win away at Udinese, and Gian Piero Gasperini wants his players to notice what the numbers are telling them.
Five different scorers — Bryan Cristante, Rodrigo Mora, Donyell Malen, Evan Ndicka and Daniele Ghilardi — found the net in Friuli, and Roma have now averaged four goals a game over their last four outings, according to Football Italia.
Speaking to DAZN after full time, Gasperini said the trend was too consistent to dismiss. "The numbers count and they're definitely telling us something. We score a lot of goals and with a lot of different players. Now we believe we can be decisive in terms of creativity and finishing. We're scoring goals with lots of players and that's a good signal," he said.
Why five different scorers matters more than the scoreline
A single prolific striker can flatter a team's underlying attack, because the supply chain collapses the moment he is marked out of a game. Roma's goal distribution against Udinese resists that reading.
Cristante and Ndicka are not forwards. Ghilardi is a centre-back. When a team's scoring load is shared across midfielders, defenders and attackers alike, it points to patterns of play — overloads from deep, runners arriving late into the box — that do not depend on isolating one individual to break down.
That is the interpretation Gasperini himself leaned on: the signal is not simply that Roma score goals, but that so many different players are doing it. It suggests structural causes behind the output rather than one in-form name carrying the team.
The cost of the same structure at the other end
Roma led 4-0 at half-time against Udinese but conceded twice after the break, and Football Italia notes they have shipped seven goals across their last three league matches. A team built to flood the final third with numbers inevitably leaves gaps in transition when possession turns over, and Udinese's second-half response exposed exactly that trade-off.
Gasperini was candid about the dip in intensity. "Even the teams that compete for first place will run into problems," he said. "We came out 4-0 up and I'd asked for us to not concede any goals, but we have to play in Manchester in three days time. This was our eighth game in 20 days and it's normal to feel a bit tired. The second goal hurts more because we were static. But as soon as we put our foot back on the gas, we put them in difficulty."
That admission matters as much as the praise for the attack. A side that can switch intensity back on, as Gasperini describes, is managing fatigue reactively rather than controlling a game from a settled defensive structure — fine against a struggling Udinese side, a different question against stronger opposition.
Fixture congestion is forcing Gasperini's hand on selection
The emergence of younger players has been central to Roma's run. Mora scored again on Saturday, Emanuele Lulli came off the bench during the week, and Niccolo Pisilli has been a regular feature. Gasperini credited the squad's depth for absorbing the schedule.
"I'm lucky enough to have lots of players, young and old, who give me their availability," he said. "Generally, the young ones want to stand out more and improve. We've got a good mix. We have other flaws, but we're doing everything well. Ghilardi was annoyed about his disallowed goal in the Champions League, a great goal, so today he's feeling satisfied."
Gasperini framed the current stretch as unusual even by his own standards. "I'm struggling to remember having such a long period with three games a week," he said. "It happened to me at Atalanta when we won the Europa League, but that was in March/April. I can't remember another period like this around this time of year, and with games at such a high level."
He expects relief soon, both in scheduling and in squad options. "I think that we will have a few fewer commitments after the break, and then we will also be able to divide minutes a bit better when we recover Svilar, Kone, Dybala and Pellegrini," he said.
Roma's next test comes in Manchester in the Champions League, three days on from Udinese, with the same question still open: whether a team built to outscore opponents can tighten up defensively once the fixture list, and the absentees, start to thin out.