A glance at the Serie A Capocannoniere chart currently makes interesting reading for Premier League fans, with a number of familiar names among Italian football’s leading scorers.
Gonzalo Higuain – a player often linked with a move to England but who instead chose Juventus – is sitting joint-second on 15 goals, joined there by rumoured Arsenal target Andrea Belotti of Torino and Napoli’s Dries Mertens.
Inter Captain Mauro Icardi is just one goal behind that trio, but it is unquestionably the name at the top of the list that is surprising to most.
In truth, AS Roma supporters are perhaps as shocked as their Manchester City counterparts to see that Edin Dzeko is the leading marksman on the peninsula.
His current tally of 17 league goals in just 23 appearances is more than he has ever managed for the Giallorossi and beats his highest Premier League tally of 16 back in 2013/14.
Indeed, the Bosnian striker has not found the net this many times since his last full season with Wolfsburg almost seven years ago.
14 - Edin Dzeko has scored 17 league goals this season, 14 more than in the first 23 games of the Serie A 2015/16. Stronger. pic.twitter.com/d1ogiXr4vb
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) February 8, 2017
With five more goals in the Europa League and two in the Coppa Italia, most defences have suffered when facing Dzeko, his ability to get on the scoresheet prompting him to be linked with Real Madrid last week.
Various reports in Spain discussed that possible move, citing Karim Benzema’s drastic loss of form and coach Zinedine Zidane’s reluctance to use Alvaro Morata, which will likely mean both men move on this summer.
That would obviously create an opening up front, but even with so many goals to his name this term, does Dzeko really have what it takes to succeed at the Bernabeu?
Simply put, no he doesn’t. This is unlikely to shock fans in Manchester or Rome, with supporters at the Stadio Olimpico often booing him even this season. “In England there was less pressure but at Roma it’s similar to Bosnia, they do not criticise you, they insult you,” the 30-year-old told Il Messaggero last month. “At home game’s I’ll be ok three times, but if I miss a fourth time, the insults start again. It’s as if they are waiting for the right opportunity to hammer me!”
Therein lies the problem. While he has more goals than anyone in Serie A, he wastes far too many opportunities before hitting the back of the net.
According to WhoScored.com, no player in Europe’s top five leagues has taken more shots than Dzeko’s current tally of 120, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s total of 95 the next highest. When noting that the Swedish striker has also played 100 minutes more and scored just two fewer league goals, the profligacy of the Roma striker truly becomes apparent.
In somewhat of a stunning revelation, Dzeko’s own agent believes the forward wouldn’t actually be interested in such a move either.
“He is already at a big club,” his representative Silvano Martina told Mediaset when asked about the Madrid speculation earlier this week. “Roma have a great ownership, a huge fan base and I don’t see any reason to change if you are in a good place.”
Going on to note that he has scored over 200 goals in his career, the agent perhaps went too far when stating that Dzeko “is the only player who reminds me of the great Marco van Basten.” However, he did eventually make a sensible comment that explains much of his client’s recent success.
“The team plays for him and Luciano Spalletti leaves him free to play his game,” Martino explained, a situation that would be impossible to imagine in a Los Blancos side boasting the talent of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
It has only been his willingness to sacrifice himself and work for his team-mates that has allowed Benzema to feature so prominently in Madrid over the last few years, while the likes of Higuain simply moved on when unable to play in a similar manner.
This season has been a perfect storm for Dzeko. Francesco Totti’s slow waltz into retirement has seen him become little more than a bit-part player, making late cameo appearances in the last five or ten minutes of matches. Diego Perotti and Stephan El Shaarawy have struggled for form and fitness, often leaving the Bosnian No.9 as the only option for the central role in Spalletti’s attack.
There, the play of Radja Nainggolan and Mohamed Salah and Roma’s other creative players has led to that constant stream of chances.
It must also be noted that 12 of his goals have come in 11 home league appearances, meaning that he has scored just five times in 12 away fixtures, struggling to have the same impact on the road.
He has undoubtedly improved from last season and two goals away to Napoli show that he can make a difference when it matters, but as AS Roma’s Curva Sud knows all too well, he can also still manage to miss numerous important chances.
The boos are unlikely to stop no matter how high that goal tally goes, just as Edin Dzeko is unlikely to find himself swapping the Stadio Olimpico for the Santiago Bernabéu any time soon.
