Frustration for Como but Fàbregas’s side have one of strongest identities in Serie A | Nicky Bandini

For the second time in less than three weeks, Cesc Fàbregas found himself standing in front of the TV cameras, trying to explain a scoreline that made no sense. “It’s not normal,” he had insisted last month, after Como lost 3-1 to Milan despite “making 700 passes to their 200” (659 to 320, actually, but who’s counting?). Yet there was more than a hint of deja vu on Sunday as his team drew 0-0 at home to Atalanta while holding 79% of possession and attempting 28 shots.

Opta put Como on 5.24 expected goals – the second-highest figure accrued by any Serie A team in a shut-out since the analytics company started tracking such data 15 years ago. An astonishing number, against opponents who finished third in Serie A last season and who had taken 13 points from their previous five games.

Sunday’s match was shaped by an eighth-minute red card for Atalanta’s Honest Ahanor, who appeared to throw a hand at the face of Máximo Perrone after an off-the-ball exchange. The Argentinian made the most of the contact, but such lapses of judgment are rarely excused in this era of VAR.

Within 10 minutes, Atalanta had taken off their centre-forward Gianluca Scamacca, preparing to retreat into a low block. Como, under Fàbregas, rarely need any invitation to set up camp in the opposition half.

If anything, the team that returned to the top flight last season has been accused of becoming too predictable, too insistent on trying to dominate the pitch even against their most dangerous opponents. After the Milan defeat, Fàbregas felt compelled to defend himself against accusations that he only knows one approach.

“[As a player] I won with Antonio Conte, I won with [José] Mourinho, I won with [Arsène] Wenger, I won with [Pep] Guardiola,” he said. “I won with every different style of play. You’ll never hear me say that one works and another doesn’t. If you only care about the result, you can still lose a lot. And when it’s all ‘play the ball, play the ball’ you can lose a lot that way too.

“On the day I arrived, the club, the ownership talked to me about Lake Como, lifestyle, people who want to see a front-footed play-style. That’s what I was asked for. They didn’t say: ‘Win, win, win.’ They said: ‘Win, but create an identity, create a specific kind of player who would want to come and play in Como.’”

By that measure, he has succeeded. Como have one of the clearest footballing brands of any side in Serie A. The club has prioritised signing technically adept footballers who are comfortable with the ball at their feet, allowing them to play keep-away and set the terms of engagement against almost anyone. Even in their most chastening defeat this season, a 4-0 loss at Inter, they still had more shots and almost 60% of possession.

We might remind ourselves that this is not some unlikely Cinderella story. Como are owned by the billionaire Hartono brothers and have spent more than €200m on transfer fees alone since they were promoted in 2024. Still, there are plenty of clubs across Europe who have invested more and got less.

Como under Fàbregas are an entertaining watch, and not just because you never know which A-lister might show up in the stands. The ambition of their football is one thing and so is the fact of seeing so many young players trusted to express themselves in a league where too many teams are still shy of trusting “kids”.

Nico Paz has grabbed the most attention, with good reason – the 21-year-old has eight goals and six assists so far this season, but numbers alone fail to capture his extraordinary pitch awareness, the way he always seems to know exactly what is going on behind him as he opens his body on the turn. Álvaro Morata said he would play on for free next season if the club can persuade the Argentinian to stay another year.

But there are others who perhaps have not had enough attention while existing in Paz’s orbit. Perrone, 23, and Lucas Da Cunha, club captain at 24, have developed into a brilliantly consistent midfield pairing, while the 21-year-old Jacobo Ramón is an exceptional distributor from defence. The Croatia international Martin Baturina, 22, has had a swaggering January, with three goals and three assists in his previous four games.

He was excellent again on Sunday, serving Tasos Douvikas with several scoring opportunities from a starting position on the left-wing. Baturina’s pressing helped Como to turn Atalanta over in the 12th minute, and he picked out his teammate in all sorts of space only to see the Greece international get his shot all wrong.

The next big chance came in the 34th, when Baturina led Douvikas in again with a through-ball from the centre-circle all the way into the Atalanta box. This time the shot was on target, but Marco Carnesecchi got down well to save.

On and on Como came. Douvikas played the pivot to serve Paz inside the box, but he could not beat the keeper either – not this time nor again moments later when he shot from the edge of the area. Carnesecchi intervened once more before half-time to take the ball off Ramón’s toes from a corner.

Atalanta steadied themselves in the interval, introducing Raoul Bellanova, a wing-back, for Nicola Zalewski, who had notionally begun this game playing behind the attack. They gave up less in the second-half, and almost scored on the counter through Kamaldeen Sulemana.

Still there would be more hairy moments. Morata headed too close to the goalkeeper from a deep cross. Ramón, once more ranging forwards, made a gesture of complete exasperation after he blasted a shot in at the near post, only to see Carnesecchi make the save yet again.

It appeared Como had finally found their reward in the 95th minute when they were awarded a penalty, after a VAR review, for a handball by Giorgio Scalvini. But Paz’s spot-kick was tame, aimed without conviction at the bottom left corner and kept out again by the keeper.

Ought this responsibility have fallen to someone else? This was Paz’s third penalty in Serie A, and he has scored none of them. Although exceptional from other kinds of set-piece – he scored a memorable free-kick against Lazio earlier this season – this appears to be one part of the game he has not mastered.

Paz had tears streaking down his face as he left the pitch at full-time. Fàbregas defended him strongly, saying: “I’m not going to kill a kid for a penalty. I’ve missed them, Leo Messi has missed them, John Terry has missed them. We stand with Nico, we stand with young players who have the courage to try to make the difference …

“Da Cunha would have been the taker, but he had already come off. Nico made the decision to take it himself because he is a champion and if you want to achieve important things in football then you need to take on responsibility.”

This has been Fàbregas’s message all along: that he wants his Como players to back themselves. He could not fully mask his frustration at another missed opportunity for a statement win against a rival, but Como remain sixth, on course for a Europa League spot and not yet out of the top-four conversation.

You can lose – or draw – playing any kind of football, just as Fàbregas argued. Como have not yet found the secret to winning these biggest games but, with a Coppa Italia quarter-final against Napoli coming up next, it certainly feels like they’re getting closer.