Rodrigo Mora Scout Report At AS Roma 2026/2027: Can The João Félix-Style Playmaker Transform Giallorossi Attack? - Player Analysis
Rodrigo Mora is a Portugal international currently playing for AS Roma in Serie A and the Portugal U21 national team.
He started his senior career at Porto, having played with their B team and then had the chance to play with the senior team for two seasons before attracting the interest of Roma.
He is mainly an advanced playmaker who reminds us a little bit of the profile of João Félix.
Mora is someone who loves playing in tight spaces and under pressure; he enjoys dribbling and finding ways to get out of complicated situations.
In Serie A, that’s a very impressive quality to have against compact defences and continuous man-marking.
The dribbling qualities and the ability to deal with tight spaces is one of the main reasons why Gian Piero Gasperini and Roma wanted to sign Mora as a quality reinforcement to an already-creative attacking line.
With players like Paulo Dybala, Matías Soulé, and Donyell Malen starting in the team’s attacking line, reinforcing that line with a right-footed playmaker can only help Gasperini have more variety in terms of options for the wide playmakers’ roles.
In addition to that, having a proper advanced playmaker like Mora can also push Gasperini to vary his formation more often and switch to the 3-4-1-2, relying on Mora as the advanced playmaker plus an attacking duo made up of Malen-Dybala or Malen-Soulé.
In this Rodrigo Mora scout report and player analysis, we explore the Portuguese midfielder’s potential attacking addition to Roma, how he adds more depth to the team’s forward line, along with his main strengths and weaknesses.
Rodrigo Mora Potential Roles & Positions At AS Roma
As mentioned above, Mora is mainly an advanced playmaker who can cope with various other attacking and midfield positions such as central midfield, second striker, and the right and left wing.
This means that Mora can cope with any position in attack, as he can also play in midfield when needed, giving Gasperini a wide range of choices and making himself a strong fit for the team’s starting XI.
That said, Gasperini did not want to rush the integration of Mora.
He has started using Mora progressively within the team, but he has not considered the 19-year-old a bona fide starter yet, primarily using him as a second-half substitute.
In the few games that Mora has played at Roma so far, he has mainly been used as a wide playmaker or played behind the striker.
He also facilitated Gasperini switching to the 3-4-1-2 formation at other times, with him being the advanced playmaker.
What makes Mora a very special player at Roma and in Serie A overall is the fact that he is very creative and quick in terms of dribbling as well as acceleration.
These quick yet intelligent dribbling and acceleration decisions inside the final third make Mora stand out as an extremely dangerous player against any defence, and he will progressively prove that in Serie A once he starts getting sufficient playing time.
In addition to that, using both feet in delicate and crucial situations is another aspect that makes Mora very complicated to stop and very unpredictable for goalkeepers and defenders.
He showed during his time at Porto that he can be extremely dangerous inside the final third mainly thanks to the combination of quick dribbling/accelerations and unexpected shooting decisions.
He often knows when to resort to left-footed shooting and when to use his right foot for finishing, depending on the situation and on the possible shooting trajectories available to him.
Being able to quickly make such decisions and still execute his curved shots with precision also confirms that Mora does not underestimate things inside the final third and keeps his concentration levels very high in these situations, and that was already proved on numerous occasions.
Mora has the type of profile that Serie A teams and defenders in particular fear and want to avoid facing, as he has the creativity, flair, dribbling skills, quick decision-making in tight spaces, and the accurate finishing needed to disturb any defence.
In fact, Mora will soon put Gasperini in trouble (the kind of trouble that head coaches love), as performing convincingly and scoring goals in Serie A would eventually make Gasperini think twice about the starting wide playmakers and maybe start alternating between Mora and Soulé or Mora and Dybala more often.
Mora’s roles will certainly depend on his position each time, but what is certain is that Gasperini still wants Mora to make more of an effort from a defensive perspective, as that’s what is more likely preventing the Italian head coach from relying on the youngster more regularly.
If Mora succeeds in understanding the need for consistent, disciplined execution of man-marking and active/effective contribution in the defensive phase, he will certainly earn the trust of his head coach, knowing that the defensive duties represent Mora’s area of improvement.
Apart from that, Mora can be very useful whether in terms of key passing, breaking lines through dribbling and accelerations, finishing from outside or inside the box, and providing passing options inside the final third.
Furthermore, Mora has already started proving himself in Serie A in terms of goalscoring but is yet to provide assists.
Rodrigo Mora Heat Map & Position Map
