Is Dybala the superstar Roma has been waiting for?
There are few cities more romanticised than Rome. It was once home to one of the biggest empires the world has ever seen. It is the home of mythology and love, the home of warriors and artists. Giotto di Bondone (a renaissance painter who lived in the late 1200s/early 1300s) once said:
“Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning”
He was right. Rome is the city of yearning. It has always yearned for a superstar. For twenty-five years, it did have that superstar — in the form of Francesco Totti. He was born in the city, raised in the city and for his whole career — despite the glamour of Real Madrid calling — dedicated his life to the city. Yet when he left there was a hole left in the hearts of Romans (the blue side of the city would beg to differ, it should be noted). It has been five years since Il Capitano graced the Stadio Olimpico with his presence. Since then there has been a Champions League semi-final and exceptional talent — including the Rome-born Lorenzo Pellegrini. None though, have brought the superstar factor that Totti did. You may also notice that Roma had to create their own superstar, they’ve never been able to attract one in the prime of their career to the club.
At twenty-eight, Paulo Dybala should be in the prime of his career (yes, development in football isn’t linear, but the point still holds). Instead, he finds himself leaving Juventus on a free transfer.
The Argentinian and his agent, Jorge Antun, attempted to call the Bianconeri’s bluff on a contract offer and ask for more money. This did not go to plan, the market for attackers with questionable injury records has somewhat crashed in recent years, and the Turin club opted to spend big on Dušan Vlahović and build the attack around him. It has left him with what appeared to be a lack of options this summer. Inter Milan were the most heavily linked but the ball was always firmly in their court, and when Romelu Lukaku became available Dybala was left on the backburner. There were further links with Atletico Madrid, Manchester United and AC Milan but nothing ever seemed concrete.
Dybala is affectionately known as La Joya (which translates to The Jewel) and despite being a lost diamond this summer, he has been one of the joys of Italian football in recent history. He is a five-time Scudetto winner, a four-time Coppa Italia winner, a four-time Serie A Team of the Year selectee and the 2019/20 Serie A Most Valuable Player. He has scored 136 goals and provided 64 assists in 386 games in Italy (his time at Palermo and Juventus, all competitions). He has 47.9 million followers on Instagram — more than Kevin De Bruyne and Robert Lewandowski (who he was eligible to play with at International level), and equal to Gareth Bale.
He has been a superstar. Whether he still is, is up for debate. Off the pitch, he almost certainly still is. He is one of Adidas’ leading athletes, he frequents high-end fashion shows and is seen on Instagram with celebrities on a regular basis. While that will matter to some degree to his club (commercial revenue is important to a club run like Roma), what will matter more is what he does on it.
Is he still capable of being a superstar on the pitch?
For the benefit of this piece, I will be looking mainly at Dybala’s last season at Juventus.
To begin we must briefly outline the system in which Max Allegri’s Juventus’ played last season — to which there are two answers. For a large chunk of the season, they utilised a 4–4–2 formation (which was seen by some as a 4–2–3–1). Allegri is known as a pragmatic and adaptable coach, someone who doesn’t have a set system (i.e. Conte, Klopp, Guardiola). He shapes game plans depending on the players at his disposal or the opposition he is facing. Until January, The Old Lady would play with a front two — with Dybala floating around in pockets of space, playing off of the mystery of a footballer that is Alvaro Morata. Then — in January — the arrival of Dusan Vlahovic changed things for Allegri and Juventus. It saw him lean more towards a 4–3–3 formation, with the Serbian leading the line as a lone ‘9’ — leaving Dybala to start off the right wing. In essence, though, his role and the way he played didn’t really change. Dybala is someone that likes to take up space both out on the right-hand side and in the central spaces. If we take a look at his heatmap from last season, we can see this:
In total, Dybala started twenty-nine games as the ‘second striker’ — scoring twelve goals and providing four assists, and four games as a right winger — scoring once and providing two assists. In the sense of position, the Argentinian is quite flexible. You can play him as a false nine, a striker, an attacking midfielder and a right winger. However, he will nearly always play the same and find a way to occupy the same spaces — no matter the starting position. Allegri has been critical of Dybala in the past for this (as have some Juventus fans) due to how deep he drops, something Allegri doesn’t want from his main attacker (see Vlahovic now).
While it may be a lazy comparison to make — it is one that I still feel holds some value. Dybala in a positional sense is very much like his compatriot Leo Messi. It’s why they’ve never meshed overly well at International level. Both want to pick up the ball from deep, and progress it through their close control and elite vision. They will take up spaces behind the lines, and if they can’t find it there you will find them moving either extremely deep or hugging the touchline in order to receive the ball to their feet.
While he has never been an elite goalscorer (his best season was 2017–18, in which he scored 22 league goals), he is one of those players whose goals become engrained in your mind, due to how good they are. One of his best attributes is his ability to cut inside onto his left foot and bend the ball into the far corner (or catch the keeper out near side). Dybala is an extremely intelligent footballer when it comes to how he shapes his foot in a shooting motion. Here’s a look at his goal in a 3–2 win against Sampdoria last season:
As the ball is lofted into the box, Dybala (circled) is lingering on the edge of the area (a common theme you’ll find with him). At 5–8½ (175cm) and without the jumping power, he knows he will likely not be a threat in the box, so he plays to his strengths — looking to pounce on a loose ball or weak clearance.
The ball does drop to the edge of the box — initially to Locatelli, who has a shot which is blocked, bringing the ball back out to him again. As the Italian midfielder lays the ball off, Dybala is already in a shooting motion.
Ideally, he would be able to bend the ball into the far post, but he recognises that this path is blocked and that the keeper has left a large amount of space to his own left-hand side. Dybala has the intelligence and technique to shift his weight and shooting motion to arrow the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.
He’s also a very good set piece taker too but was often second in command to both Pjanic (excellent at free kicks) and Ronaldo (not so excellent at free kicks). One of my favourite Dybala goals is his tight angle direct free kick vs. Atletico Madrid:
It’s yet another example of how he is able to bend the ball with pace and power due to his shooting technique.
Dybala is a player that more often than not exceeds their expected goals total, and this is down to his ability to score goals from difficult areas (like above). While he isn’t going to be the person to score you 20+ league goals on a consistent basis, he is someone that will come up with those moments of magic — the ones that win you important games, the ones that win you titles and secure Champions League football. It’s an intangible skill that can get overlooked, but it is one that he has possessed and retained. Of his 144 goals listed on transfermarkt.com, 42 have been ‘game winning’ — he steps up on a regular basis, something required of a superstar.
La Joya is also one of the best in the game creatively, ranking in the 82nd percentile for expected assists (0.19 per ninety), 84th percentile for assists (0.23) and 96th percentile for shot-creating actions (4.2 per ninety). He has an exceptional awareness of his surroundings (much like Francesco Totti possessed), which makes him dangerous from nearly every position on the pitch. Here’s a look at his assist to Morata against Milan at the beginning of the season:
Juventus have cleared a corner, and as Milan try to put it back into the box the ball has fallen to Danilo on the edge of his own box. You can see Dybala (far right) has already identified space to run into and is on the move.
He then attracts the attention of both Milan defenders, and allows the ball to run across him to his stronger left foot — this delays the pass to enable Morata the best position possible to receive the ball. Again, it shows Dybala’s intelligence of his surroundings and the importance of timing the pass exactly right.
The pass is inch perfect to allow Morata (who still has a lot to do) to run into acres of space behind the opposition backline — putting Juve 1–0 up in a massive game early in the season.
Here’s another assist, this time for Vlahovic (his first goal for Juventus) against Verona:
As the Verona defender heads the ball down, Dybala is yet to touch the ball and there doesn’t appear to be any danger for the opposition.
His intelligence, awareness of surroundings and quickness of thought come to play again, however — as he noticed that Verona have left a huge amount of space in behind, and Vlahovic already has the advantage over his defender.
The ball isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have to be, it is played into the space and then leaves the rest up to the striker — who gets there before the goalkeeper and scores. It’s something the Cordoba-born attacker thrives at. He is able to identify where the space is, both when receiving the ball and finding a pass.
As previously mentioned, he is also an elite ball carrier. His close control ability is second to none, and he is able to manoeuvre his way out of tight spaces like a Smart Car finding any place possible to park in. The evidence of this is clear when you look at the data. He ranks in the…
88th percentile for dribbles completed — 1.59 per ninety
88th percentile for players dribbled past — 1.79 per ninety
99th percentile for carries — 47 per ninety
93rd percentile for progressive carries — 5.79
This — combined with his ability to operate between the lines and drop deep — makes him invaluable to the sides he plays for.
However, there is a reason why there was a lack of interest around him this summer. He is efficient (2.02 tackles and interceptions per ninety), but there is a lack of intensity and pressing in his defensive game. He can often pick and choose when he defends, much to the frustration of fans. In the modern game, this is massively important, and it can leave some players behind. There is a reason why the top teams all have attackers that defend with intensity and are able to intelligently press in order to win back possession or cut out passing lanes. It’s something that shouldn’t matter too much in a Mourinho side (as there is less reliance on pressing from the front), but it can explain why some of the more elite sides weren’t willing to take a chance on Dybala.
The main reason for concern though is injuries. Last season alone he missed fifteen games through a range of different muscle injuries and thigh problems. The season before that he missed eighteen games through a ligament injury. At twenty-eight, it’s a concern — particularly when it comes to muscle injuries. If he can overcome those, then you’ll get a consistently brilliant footballer, capable of producing moments of sheer magic week-in, week-out. If he doesn’t, then you get a frustrating footballer, one that will produce an odd moment of magic but always leave you wanting so much more.
How he fits alongside Tammy Abraham and Lorenzo Pellegrini (if Zaniolo leaves as expected) remains to be seen. He does *seem* like a natural fit on the right-hand side of Roma’s attack. Mourinho seems to want to play a 4–2–3–1, and the three of them — alongside a left-hand-sided attacker, do have the potential to play off each other. Dybala and Pellegrini both like to float around and find space, and if they are able to interchange then it can cause problems for opposition defences, you then have Abraham to hold the ball up, run in behind and feed off the talent of two of Serie A’s most creative players.
To answer the question, yes. I believe Dybala is the superstar that Roma have been waiting for. Off the pitch, it isn’t a question — he has the profile, the stature and the sponsorships. He is the most well-known player to play for Roma since Francesco Totti retired. On the pitch, there is more risk. Injuries are a concern, as with any transfer, is how he fits. However, despite that, he is still one of Italian football's most talented players. He was voted the most valuable player in the league only two seasons ago.
Rome is the place of legend, and at twenty-eight, Dybala goes there with a good part of his career left. The potential is there for history to be written — Roma have just won their first ever European trophy, and the second season of Mourinho has typically been his most fruitful at the clubs he has been at. Dybala is a superstar, a diamond. Yet this summer he didn’t feel like one. Roma feels like the perfect place for his story to continue, and if it goes right then we may have another Roman tale to be told.
