If you’re not an avid follower of Italian football, you might only have a vague notion of who Cristian Romero is. However, if you’ve watched Italian football keenly in the last three seasons, you’d be under no illusions as to how talented this central defender is. In fact, the 22-year-old Argentinian has actually been one of the best defenders in Europe this season and looks set to continue his development towards becoming one of the continent’s most impressive defenders.
Romero came to Italy in 2018 when he joined Genoa. His rise since has been steady. In his first season, he impressed enough to motivate Juventus to buy him for €26m. He was then loaned back to Genoa for the 2019/20 season too, as Juventus wanted to give him a chance to continue his development by playing week in, week out. In total, Romero made 57 league appearances for Genoa in those two seasons and adapted seamlessly to the demands of constantly changing coaches. Incredibly, in his two campaigns at Genoa, Romero was coached by six permanent head coaches, whose styles sometimes differed quite drastically. As such, the young Romero has already had to adapt to different coaching methods and defensive systems.
Last summer, Romero was handed another loan move. This time, he joined the talent-developing juggernaut that is Atalanta. The Bergamo club has produced and improved talent consistently over the last five years and Romero has proved no different. He has been a crucial member of Atalanta’s defence and has slotted perfectly into head coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s aggressive nature of defending and progressive attacking play. Juventus could certainly have done with his abilities this term and must rue the decision they made by allowing Atalanta to have the option to buy Romero come the end of the season. It remains to be seen if Atalanta exercise that option, but, if they don’t, it will be due to Romero’s wish to go back to Turin rather than Atalanta not wanting to keep him.
Playing in the Champions League against sides like Ajax, Liverpool and Real Madrid has highlighted that Romero is ready for the highest level of competition and, while it looks likely that Atalanta might qualify for the Champions League again, Romero is ready for even bigger clubs. Juventus still own him, of course, but they have also invested heavily in other young defenders such as Matthijs De Ligt and Merih Demiral who look like they are ahead of Romero in the eyes of his parent club. Therefore, we cannot ignore the possibility of Romero being the target of some of Europe’s biggest clubs. This analysis will look at what kind of defender Romero is, how he has performed, and why he should be at the top of the list of every team looking to strengthen their central defence this summer.
Aggressive front-foot defending
Romero is a very quick and aggressive centre-back who has thrived playing in intense, man-orientated defensive systems. At Genoa, Romero often played as a right-sided centre-back in a back-three, although he occasionally played in systems using a back-four. Under Gasperini, however, Romero has been moved into the central centre-back position of Atalanta’s back-three. From there, Romero has had to lead since that position is crucial to hold Atalanta’s defence together. Indeed, Romero has emerged as the organiser of Atalanta’s defensive line and has been responsible for keeping the defensive line high by constantly pushing up.
Due to his aggressive style of play, he has thrived in Atalanta’s man-orientated defensive systems. Often, Romero is tasked with directly marking an opposition striker and then uses his physicality, speed and reading of the game to nullify his opponents. Among all centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues, Romero is in the 99 percentile for pressures, successful pressures, pressures in the middle third and interceptions and in the 98 percentile for pressures in the defensive third, tackles and tackles won. This highlights how good Romero really is (all stats per FBref). As stated, he reads the game exceptionally well, as highlighted by his interceptions and he is equally adept at tackling and pressing opponents. Highlighting his overall defensive ability, Romero is also in the 95 percentile for ball recoveries, in the 93 percentile for blocks, and in the 91 percentile for aerials won.
All in all, he is a complete defender, capable of pushing out of the defensive line to defend in midfield as well as defending crosses into the box with his excellent aerial ability and positioning.
Excellent ball-playing from the back
Romero really excels defensively, but he is also a very good asset to have in possession. Due to his power and technical ability, Romero can often bring the ball out of defence by dribbling through an opposition press. This is highlighted by him being in the 99 percentile for goal-creating actions from dribbling. Actually, he is in that percentile for all goal-creating actions and in the 98 percentile for expected assists.
His passing is very good too, with Romero capable of passing out from the back (as highlighted by him being in the 90 percentile for passes under pressure). Additionally, Romero is useful higher up the pitch too, with him in the 93 percentile for through balls among his fellow central defenders in Europe’s top five leagues.
What these stats tell us more than anything is that Romero is not only useful defensively but also a very good player to have in order to aid progression of the ball.
Romero compared to other top centre-backs
We’ve looked at a lot of stats here so why not continue by comparing Romero to some other centre-backs from Europe’s top leagues. I decided to compare him to Virgil van Dijk during Liverpool’s title winning campaign, Victor Lindelöf during this season, Sevilla’s Jules Koundé who has also been linked to big clubs as well as Juventus duo De Ligt and Demiral.
Romero’s defensive stats are off the scale. He averages 2.98 tackles per 90 minutes, which is head and shoulders above the others with Demiral closest at 1.57. Romero is also outstanding in terms of interceptions, averaging 3.24 interceptions per 90, more than two per game more than his closest challenger, Demiral again, at 1.18. Romero’s aggressive nature can be seen in the number of pressures he averages; the Argentinian averages a whopping 17.8 per 90 minutes, almost twice the number of Demiral’s, who again stacks up best among the others, 9.90. Van Dijk is the strongest of the six in the air, as he averaged 4.82 aerial duels won at an 81% success rate. Romero is second, winning 3.94 aerials duels at a 68% success rate.
Going forward, Romero’s ability to step out with the ball stacks up well too as he completes 0.43 dribbles per 90 minutes, which is only beaten by Koundé’s 1.04 dribbles per 90 minutes. Romero isn’t as involved as the others in build-up play, though, as highlighted by him having the fewest touches per 90, which could partly be explained by the others playing at teams who use more patient build-up patterns than Atalanta. He is, however, third for shot creating actions, Romero’s 0.64 per 90 bettered by Koundé’s 0.77 and De Ligt’s 0.76.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen by now, Romero is performing at a very high level and looks ready to move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs. He would need a period to adapt to a more ball-oriented defensive system, as most top teams use, but he has the abilities to perform in every defensive system imaginable. His physicality is an asset, his reading of the game is excellent and his ability on the ball is very good so Romero is a defender for the biggest scene. Arsenal and Manchester United should look at him, Barcelona would be an ideal destination and, of course, his parent club should try to bring him back and give him game time at the heart of their defence. Regardless of where he ends up, Cristian Romero has a very bright future ahead of him.
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