Player Focus: Ninja Nainggolan Running the Show for Roma

When wreathed in the all-consuming black of Roma’s third shirt, Radja Nainggolan’s nickname il Ninja takes on another dimension. Practiced in the arts of sabotage and infiltration, there’s a Stakhanovite stealth to his game. But Nainggolan is no member of the order of the shadows. He steps out of them more and more. 

Those who were in the dark about his skills before can be no longer. Brought to light at Cagliari and then Roma since the spring, Marc Wilmots’ decision to overlook Nainggolan for Belgium’s World Cup squad is now even more glaring. “I still haven’t digested it because I deserved to be in Brazil,” the 26-year-old revealed.

Nainggolan has been Roma’s Player of the Season so far. If the absence of a player as talented and sought after as Kevin Strootman, who is still recovering from knee surgery in March, has not been felt it’s of great credit to the Shinobi they field in his place. When Nainggolan signed much was made of his furtiveness. It was as though he played in an invisibility cloak. One moment an opponent would have the ball. The next he wouldn’t.

To extend this metaphor further, entering his zone of the pitch was a little like encountering Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. Imagine hearing a shout of ‘Get over here’ and then being struck by his spear attack and pulled towards him. Escaping it is no easy feat. Neither is evading Nainggolan in Serie A. In 3 and a half seasons in the league prior to joining Roma no one had made more tackles (468) while only Andrea Pirlo (460) won possession more times in the middle third of the pitch than him (499).

As alluded to earlier, sabotage isn’t the only skill honed by a Ninja. He must also be trained in infiltration. Nainggolan knows how to pick his way through enemy lines. He was eighth in Serie A in terms of accurate passes (4843) and had scored 7 goals from 211 shots. No one with over 160, though, had found the net on so few occasions. Were Nainggolan to up his conversion rate and become more decisive Roma would have their own Arturo Vidal, an all-rounder with outstanding production on and off the ball. 

Close to Juventus before heading to the capital, it was thought at the time that il Ninja formed part of any eventual succession strategy for El Guerriero. Alas that was wide of the mark, but as was the case with Juan Manuel Iturbe this summer, edging the Old Lady to his signing last spring did have a psychological impact. It changed the record after Roma’s 3-0 defeat to Juventus 10 days earlier, reminding everyone of their ambition and how they weren’t about to lie down and submit.

That the gap wasn’t as pronounced as the scoreline suggested was already an underlying feeling, yet it received confirmation in one of Nainggolan’s first appearances in giallorosso, a Coppa Italia quarter-final towards the end of January when Juventus were eliminated 1-0 and revenge was swiftly obtained. 

A valuable recruit, he represents an obvious upgrade on Michael Bradley, his predecessor, and is an equal rather than a deputy to each element of Roma’s first choice midfield trio comprising Daniele De Rossi, Miralem Pjanic and Strootman. His game has come on leaps and bounds too. Nainggolan gives the impression of wishing to prove a point after not figuring in Wilmots’ plans for the World Cup. Every game that passes, every Nainggolan performance casts his decision in a more baffling relief.

It’s a motivation that has quite literally driven his game forward. That the demolition man is also a builder comes without a surprise, but Nainggolan does more than lay brick upon brick. He is now applying the final flourishes and the finishing touches. Man of the Match in Roma’s season opener against Fiorentina when he scored the icebreaker and set up Gervinho for the clincher, Nainggolan provoked the only goal of the game against Empoli and was his team’s chief source of chance creation. In Tuesday’s Champions League match away at English champions Manchester City, he was the one to put Francesco Totti through to equalise and seal a fully deserved draw. 

Nainggolan’s progression in the final third is borne out in the statistics: He was 21st in that area of the pitch in total passes last season with 17.6 per game and is now 7th with 25.4. Up from 16th in the league to 6th he is proving more successful (completing 21.0 per game) and more accurate too (realising 82.7% of those he attempts). Glance at his heat map for this campaign with Roma, compare it with his last full season at Cagliari and you’ll notice greater activity and more red in advanced positions. 

In addition to his assist against City, Nainggolan ran 10.6km. “Now I’m going to rest up because I’m dead,” he tweeted. Back in action in Turin on Sunday when Roma play Juventus in a top of the table clash, the Ninja must recover his powers. He has to be ready.

How do you think Radja Nainggolan has improved as a player? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below