Surprising Statistics About Roma This Season: Top Totti and Ghastly Goicoechea

Surprise has almost become predictable at Roma this season. 

Not a weekend seems to go by without some sort of twist or turn to their campaign.

If there's one thing Roma can rely on, however, it's Francesco Totti.

Totti has been an influential part of the Roma side for two decades now, but what might come as a surprise is just how integral a cog in the Giallorossi machine he remains.

So far this season, the 36-year-old Italian has completed a magnificent 39 accurate through balls, the highest in Serie A. That's a full 16 more than Juventus star Andrea Pirlo in second place and streets ahead of any other player across Europe's top 5 leagues.

With eight assists and 59 key passes creating 14 clear cut chances, Totti is proving he's still as spritely as ever.

Francesco even sneaks into the list of Europe's Top 20 most consistent performers. After 21 games, Totti had earned a rating of seven out of 10 on 17 occasions, an impressive 81 percent of the time, according to WhoScored.com.

Some bonus Totti facts: Francesco Totti’s winning strike against Juventus last weekend was his ninth of the season. It was also the 30th Serie A goal he’s scored from outside the box since 2004/05, more than other player in the same period.

Totti’s rocket also marked his 244th Serie A goal, moving him just one behind Milan legend Gunnar Nordahl in the all-time scoring charts.

Those nine goals from him have contributed to Roma's overall total of 51, the highest in Serie A. 

Certainly, if you want goals, you should look no further than Roma. Especially if it's an early one. 

Roma's fixtures have already seen 31 goals in the opening 30 minutes so far, 19 scored by the Giallorossi and 12 conceded.

At one stage this season, Roma even led the way with goals scored from headers. A remarkable feat when you consider that Roma have actually won the fewest aerial duels so far this Serie A season—a measly 290, averaging at a lowly 12.1 per game.

Roma, as you may have noticed, are formidable going forward this season. It's the other end where the problem lies.

Currently Roma hold Serie A's second worst defensive record, with 45 goals conceded—averaging at 1.8 a game. Those 45 goals mean they have conceded more at this stage of the campaign than at the same point in over the past ten seasons.

A lot of that could be contributed to Zdeněk Zeman's tactical approach in the first half of the season.

Zeman’s focus on attacking play often resulted in Roma's players being left isolated and out of position when caught on the break, leaving very little in the way of defensive shape.

The stats back that up.

With 515, Roma have won the fewest amount of tackles in the league, sharing a joint worst per game average of 21.5 with Sampdoria. In midfield, they're often bypassed, with no Roma players in sight of the top 20 at recovering the ball in the middle of the park.

Those defensive problems aren't limited to the back four. Mauro Goicoechea might want to look away for this next bit.

The Uruguayan shot stopper has made the joint most errors leading to goals so far this season, tying on three with Milan’s Christian Abbiati.

The most catastrophic of the three, his comical own goal against Cagliari last month, also happened to be the 600th goal of this Serie A campaign.

Taking all their defensive frailties into consideration, it may not come as a surprise to read that Roma have lost the most points from leading situations in Serie A so far this season, while a 3-2 defeat is there most common score line—occurring 16 percent of the time.