The 2025-26 season is winding down and the recurring issue across the campaign has been the same one Roma supporters have been pointing at for months: the defensive shape under pressure. The team has had patches where the back four (or back three, depending on the formation that week) has held its own. Across the season as a whole, the defensive metrics tell a less flattering story.

The basic numbers: goals conceded per match has trended around the lower-middle of Serie A, which sounds acceptable but masks concerning underlying patterns. The expected goals against has been worse than the actual goals against on several stretches, suggesting the team has been bailed out by goalkeeping more often than it should be. Mile Svilar has had a strong season behind a defence that’s frequently asked too much of him.

The structural issue is the gap between the back line and the midfield when the team is in transition. Several Serie A opponents have systematically targeted that space — particularly the area between the central defenders and the deeper midfielders — and produced high-quality chances from it. The pattern is consistent enough that it’s not a one-match concern.

The full-back situation has been a season-long question mark. Injury rotation across the right side, in particular, has prevented any settled partnership from developing. Defensive cover from the midfield to the full-backs has been inconsistent, and opponents have routinely created opportunities on the wider channels.

The central defenders have done individually creditable work in many matches. The issue is less individual quality than collective cohesion. The communication and the line management have been variable. Against the better Serie A opponents, the defensive line has been pressed back deeper than the manager would prefer, which exposes the gap to the midfield that’s been the persistent issue.

Set pieces have been a season-long defensive concern. The conceded goals from set pieces, particularly from corner-kick situations, has been higher than the team’s overall talent profile would suggest. Set-piece defending is largely about discipline and pre-match preparation rather than individual quality, and the variability in this dimension has cost real points across the season.

The midfield contribution to defence is part of the story. The dual-pivot pairing that’s been used most often this season has covered ground but hasn’t always provided the screening pressure that the back line needs. Higher-pressing opponents have been able to play through the midfield more easily than they should against a team with this much individual talent in the centre.

The manager’s response has been visible across the season. Different formations have been tried. The personnel rotation across the back line has been more frequent than ideal. The training emphasis on defensive transitions has reportedly intensified through the second half of the season, with some visible improvement in specific matches but no consistent step-change.

The contrasts with the better defensive units in Serie A this season are instructive. The teams holding cleaner defensive shapes — Inter, Napoli at their best, Atalanta in some patches — have built defensive consistency through settled partnerships, repeated pressing patterns, and clear collective principles. Roma has had moments of all of these but not the sustained pattern.

For the run-in to the end of the season, the realistic ceiling on the team’s results probably depends as much on whether the defensive shape can be tightened as on whether the attack can find a consistent rhythm. The squad has shown it can score goals when the attacking pieces are working. It hasn’t shown it can defend leads against quality opposition consistently, which has cost meaningful points.

Looking ahead to next season, the squad construction conversation will probably involve at least one new central defender, possibly a settled full-back partnership, and likely reinforcement of the deep midfield positions. The current squad has talent, but the specific shape required to play how the manager wants doesn’t quite have all the pieces.

The broader Serie A context matters too. The competitive density at the top of the table is high. The teams with stronger defensive foundations have generally accumulated points more reliably across the season. Roma’s points-per-match has been respectable but inconsistent, which is the typical pattern for a team with attacking quality and defensive frailty.

The supporters’ frustration is understandable. The team has the talent for more. The collective shape has held the team back from realising it consistently. The next eighteen months of squad development and tactical work will determine whether this season’s pattern represents a transition phase or a structural ceiling. The honest assessment in early May 2026 is that it’s not yet clear which.

The remaining matches will give some indication of where the team’s trajectory actually sits. A strong finish doesn’t fix the season’s recurring patterns, but it sets a different platform for the summer and pre-season. A poor finish reinforces the case that the structural changes need to be more substantial. Either way, the squad-building conversations will be among the most consequential since the manager arrived.