Player Focus: Gervinho Must Rediscover Best Form to Help Roma Secure a Top-3 Finish

A year ago, Gabriele Romagnoli, a La Repubblica columnist, compared watching Gervinho to the final scene in Thelma & Louise. They evoked the same emotion in him. "Let’s not get caught… Let’s keep going," one says to the other. Coming to the end of the road, surrounded by police, the cops stepping out and unholstering their sidearms, both clasp hands and make a pact to accelerate into the blue rather than turn themselves in. Gervinho, Romagnoli wrote, plays as if he were cornered on the edge of the Grand Canyon too. With nowhere left to go and defenders on his tail, head down, he dribbles on.

This was the height of the cult of Gervinho in Rome. Romagnoli had him down as a swashbuckling pirate. He also called the Ivorian ‘Gervantes’, football’s equivalent of the great Spanish writer Cervantes. He was Roma’s Sancho Panza, "a dreamer-squire who drags the indolent hero beyond the limits of his fantasy." Meanwhile, coach Rudi Garcia was the Gervinho whisperer. To Arsene Wenger the player had been nothing more than a crazy horse. Absurd. Ridiculous. To his old mentor, however, he was a wild one that could be turned into a thoroughbred and run like the wind.

In a league where fewer dribbles are attempted per game than any other among the top five in Europe (32.6), Gervinho’s ability to beat his man, break through defensive lines and create situations where Roma had numerical superiority made him a thrilling agent of chaos. But allow me if you will to return briefly to Thelma & Louise. Because when stripped of all the romance the only thing they and Gervinho have in common right now is that they went off a cliff.

"When does he get back from the Africa Cup of Nations?" has been a common refrain among those Roma fans with a wry sense of humour these last couple of months. Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Inter in particular had a poignancy to it. Gervinho hadn’t scored in the league since he last met the Nerazzurri in late November and that was one of only two goals he has struck in Serie A this season. The other incidentally was on the opening day of the season against Fiorentina. At San Siro last weekend, Gervinho touched the ball 29 times, fewer than any outfield player who started and finished the game. Of the 11 shots Roma had, he accounted for only one of them and it was off target.

It wasn’t as though he was particularly isolated either. Roma had a 54% share of the ball and completed 367 of their 464 passes. Still Gervinho didn’t create a single chance. La Gazzetta dello Sport awarded him a 5.5 in their player ratings. He was awarded a 6.44 by WhoScored. "Once upon a time, he was devastating," wrote Matteo Dalla Vite. "He opened games up, devoured opponents and also found the back of the net. Yesterday (Saturday) evening there were a few flashes of the old Gervinho, but on the whole, his progressive decline is indicative of a Roma side that is making hard work of things."

How so? Well, there are several reasons why Roma’s campaign has come away at the seams. Players who did the extraordinary last season have become a little more ordinary. That goes for Morgan de Sanctis, Daniele De Rossi and Miralem Pjanic too. They haven’t been able to maintain the same exceptionally high standards set a year ago. There has been a collective regression. Impacting on it was the heightened expectation that this was going to be their year. Pressure sky-rocketed. The fixture list got more congested. Roma were back in Europe too, but the added depth revealed itself to be shallow and injuries made the burden on their shoulders even heavier. This bunch played more minutes and often through the pain barrier. Their bodies broke down and their production slumped.

The Africa Cup of Nations also deprived them of Gervinho and Seydou Keita. Rather than make things better in the January window, Roma instead made things worse, loaning Mattia Destro, the most prolific player of the Garcia era, to Milan, and choosing to sign banged up, injury prone players like Victor Ibarbo and Seydou Doumbia, who weren’t immediately available and couldn’t deliver a much-needed boost right away. Owner James Pallotta hasn’t got much value for money from the trio of forwards Walter Sabatini signed for the club this season. Damningly the €40.9m spent on Juan Iturbe, Doumbia and Ibarbo has bought only one league goal. Little bang for Roma’s buck.

Within this context there has been a greater yearning for Gervinho to return to being as decisive as he was last season. "Roma want their Gazelle back," the pink declared on Tuesday, not least because they have greatly indulged him. The 27-year-old returned late from his summer holidays and missed the tour of the US, but was not reprimanded. Roma granted him the pay rise he sought even though he had only been at the club a season and, over the winter, he was also allowed to join up with the Ivory Coast early to better prepare for the Africa Cup of Nations. After all these concessions, there’s a sense that it’s time he started to repay their faith in him.

Now 149 days without a goal in Serie A, last year Gervinho scored 9 compared to the 2 he has today in the league. His goal per minute ratio has climbed from 303 to 843. Never a go-to goalscorer like Destro promised to be, what has been dearly missed is the unpredictability and sense of anarchy he brought to Roma’s game. "Gervinho is involved in 75% of our goals," Garcia said in pre-season. His runs take away and take out defenders. There’s more space for his teammates to work in and do damage from. At this stage last year Gervinho had 10 assists. That number has fallen to 3 and the last was against Cesena at the end of October.

A lack of attacking animation has cost Roma this season. While the defence has given the impression of being less solid, it is still only second to Juventus’ and has conceded ‘only’ seven more goals than at this stage a year ago when, almost completely different in composition with Federico Balzaretti, Leandro Castan, Mehdi Benatia and Douglas Maicon, it was the best in Italy. Meanwhile in the adjacent ‘Goals For’ column, you’ll notice Roma have scored a sackload fewer; 22 to be exact. Their attack ranks ninth in Serie A. It’s behind the likes of Inter, Genoa, Milan, Palermo and Fiorentina. To add another layer of perspective, since Gervinho’s last goal it has rated 14th, only out-performing those of Empoli and Cesena by two goals.

This helps explains why Roma have drawn more games (10) than any team in Europe’s top 5 leagues in 2015. Of course the blame doesn’t fall entirely on the strikers. Understandably more cautious after their Champions League scars, there is a tendency to look over the shoulder and subconsciously apply the handbrake. Evaporating enthusiasm and fatigue means there is less inspiration and less movement. This has affected Totti. He needs those things going on around him to do his best work. Instead his age and lack of pace have been more exposed. In contrast with last season and how quickly everything has unravelled, it is all so depressing. The mood is downbeat.

Roma used to play with allegria. They smiled. The sooner Gervinho rediscovers his own the better. Maybe when that happens Roma will finally be able turn that frown upside down once and for all. As Garcia says, they no longer have any time to waste if they are to hold onto their place on the podium and qualify again for the Champions League.

How important a role can Gervinho play in Roma's quest to return to the Champions League? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below