📈 Roma v Udinese Form & Tactics
Plenty of excitement came with the arrival of Gian Piero Gasperini after nine glorious years at Atalanta, where he transformed the fortunes of the club. While Roma started the season in positive fashion after picking up 15 points from their first six games, things have started to unravel slightly after defeats to title rivals and some poor defeats in the Europa League.
Roma still sit 4th in the league, just 1 point off the top, with a game in hand, there’s still heaps of room for optimism. However, there have been teething issues for Gasperini; performances on the pitch haven’t been reflective of their league position. Roma currently sit 9th in the OptaAnalyst xG table, picking up 6 more points than expected, with a fairly significant overperformance on both xGF and xGA.
Udinese are enjoying a solid start to the campaign after finishing in 12th last season. With two out of their three defeats coming against high-quality sides in the shape of AC Milan and Juventus, there’s clearly an ability to be competitive against the teams around them and below them.
Udinese’s position in the league is fairly reflective of their performances on the pitch. Udinese occupy 11th spot in the xG table. There’s been an overperformance on xGF of 2.1 goals, while an underperformance on xGA of 3.3 goals. The data suggests Udinese have only been slightly worse than their 9th position in the league table.
