Serie A | Torino 0-2 Roma – Player Ratings – La Joya shines bright & Malen impresses

Roma battled hard to defeat Torino 2-0 this evening, thanks to goals from debutant Donyell Malen and experienced forward Paulo Dybala.

Dybala was Football Italia’s Player of the Match but credit must go to the Dutchman too after an impressive first game in Giallorossi colours in which he was only denied a brace by VAR.

Torino: Paleari 6; Tameze 5.5, Ismajli 5.5, Coco 5; Lazaro 5, Gineitis 5.5 (Casadei 6), Ilkhan 5.5 (Anjorin), Vlasic 5, Aboukhlal 6 (Pedersen 6); Adams 5.5, Ngonge 6 (Njie)

Best Torino player: Cyril Ngonge – Nearly impossible to pick the best player on the night for the home side, who were lacklustre. The Belgian forward did the best out of the opportunities he did have but was let down by his supporting players this evening.

Lowest Torino rating: Valentino Lazaro – Disappointing this evening, and was unable to make any of his crosses or long passes work. Misfired tonight but his teammates were not much better.

Coach: Marco Baroni 5.5 – The former Lazio boss would have been hoping for a better result against Roma tonight but in all honesty, there was not much more he could’ve done. His side held out for periods of the match defensively and refused to be embarrassed by the scoreline but offered little in the way of attacking threat or chance creation.

Roma: Svilar 6; Mancini 6.5, N’Dicka 7, Hermoso 6 (Ghilardi 6); Rensch 6 (Tsimikas N/A), Cristante 6.5, Kone 6, Wesley 6.5; Dybala 8 (Pisilli 6), Pellegrini 5.5 (Soule 6), Malen 7.5 (Vaz 5.5)

Best Roma player: Paulo Dybala – La Joya back to his old ways with a really strong performance alongside a host of new faces in this evolving Giallorossi front line. Assisted Malen’s opener with a beautiful pass before scoring from close range to seal the win.

Lowest Roma rating: Lorenzo Pellegrini – Whilst new signing Vaz also looked shaky in his brief cameo, it would be harsh to judge him too much off the back of 20 minutes. Pellegrini, meanwhile, looked like the weak link for Roma in his 52 minutes on the pitch, not that his substitute Soule looked much better, mind you.

Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini 7.5 – Took a gamble on starting Malen up front and it paid immediate dividends. Did well to shuffle his team around and cope with the injury to Mario Hermoso.