Totti Still Proving His Worth to Roma Despite Diminishing Role

Radja Nainggolan put his foot in it again. Only this time, he did so off the pitch. On Tuesday, the Roma midfielder was the special guest at an event put on by the club to announce a new commercial partner. Mobbed by fans who sang his name as he made his way to the venue on Via del Corso, the adulation he received served to make what he then had to say even more surprising.

To call it a pop at Roma supporters would be a slight exaggeration. Nainggolan was merely making an observation. “When ‘Checco’ came on [at the weekend] the fans got enthusiastic and everything changed,” he said. ‘Checco’ for the uninitiated is Francesco Totti. Once again, Roma’s captain had come to the rescue on Sunday, turning defeat to Sampdoria into victory. “They could have done it in the first half as well,” Nainggolan pointed out. “We were 2-1 down and getting whistled. It’s not easy to play when that happens.”

The Rome edition of Il Corriere dello Sport led with this story on Wednesday. Their headline was “What an own-goal!” God forbid, Nainggolan should be honest. His comments do appear to confirm a long-held suspicion about this Roma team, though. To say they suffer in Totti’s presence is wrong. He is a blessing, an inspiration and an example to all his teammates. However, one of the reasons the club considered it time for him to call it a day last season was apparently the 'atmospheric pressure' caused by the Totti-centricity of the media and the fans.

Luciano Spalletti immediately sought to redress this and tackle it head-on upon his return to the club. When Totti came off the bench and rescued a point for Roma in Bergamo in April, Spalletti told the media his veteran No.10 didn’t save anything. It was a team effort. Flash forward to Sunday. Aware of how the result would be reported, Totti tellingly downplayed his role and instead talked up the collective endeavour. One imagines these comments will have pleased Spalletti every bit as his performance. What friction there was between them in the spring has now been smoothed over.

Spalletti does not want Totti out. On the contrary, he wants more Tottis in his team. Don't we all. “I could do with five players who have the same mentality and not the ‘piedino’, Spalletti said at the weekend. The ‘piedino’ - or little foot - is his adaptation of the ‘braccino’  - or little arm - which tennis and basketball players suffer when they’re under pressure to make a game-winning shot. They feel as though their arm gets shorter. In football, the foot gets smaller instead. Come to think of it you'd think it would actually help stop Roma shooting themselves in it in quite spectacular fashion. Alas, the two often happen simultaneously.

The Porto games and red cards shown to Thomas Vermaelen, Daniele De Rossi and Emerson Palmieri are a classic case study. Chances that you’d expect players of the calibre of Mohamed Salah and Edin Dzeko to take go begging. The night at the Bernabeu last season springs to mind. Life could be so much easier on Roma. Instead, quite inexplicably they have this tendency to self-harm and make it difficult on themselves. As Abel Balbo says “negative performances cannot be justified by the whistles of the supporters. There have always been whistles at Roma and any other team. It seems an excuse to me.”

The “explosion” heard every time Totti comes on is understandable. Towards the end of last season, fans feared it might be their last chance to see him. His contract extension wasn’t signed until June and it was the statement Roma put out that insisted this season would be his final one, which has perpetuated the phenomenon.

Of course, the sense of anticipation wouldn’t be so feverish if Totti didn’t keep coming on and making a decisive impact in every appearance. Recast as a super sub, alla Jose Altafini, no player to have scored at least five goals across Europe's top five leagues since the turn of the year has averaged a goal more frequently than Totti (1 every 53.6 mins), and his knight-in-shining armour cameo against Torino in April reduced one supporter to tears. Totti has now scored five goals and set up another three in his last eight Serie A appearances.

Far from being made to admit ‘defeat’ in a perceived effort to marginalise Totti, this has been a great victory for Spalletti. He has got Totti to accept a new role and be astonishingly effective from it. Totti in small doses is the most potent Totti. “It has to be a bonus,” Balbo explains. “and Roma’s players should be able to show their worth regardless..” This team has the firepower to blow opponents away. You might recall Roma were the top scorers in Serie A last season (83 goals scored) and had their most prolific campaign since 1931. This season they have picked up where they left off and currently top the charts for shots per game [23.3] and shots on target [8]. And yet, Roma still depend on a player who will turn 40 in two weeks.

Some see it as a limit. Others just stand in awe. Spalletti believes Totti can play for another five years and, as the great man himself says, if he carries on playing like this why should he stop?

Will Francesco Totti still be playing for Roma next season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below