Como’s recruitment reaches across borders, but its purpose is increasingly specific. The goal is to assemble players whose qualities make sense together, while leaving room for organic growth.
Máximo Perrone’s journey to Como passed through Vélez Sarsfield, Manchester City and Las Palmas. Martin Baturina arrived with league titles and European experience from Dinamo Zagreb. Nico Paz came from Real Madrid’s Castilla side, where his promise was recognised, but senior football was difficult to achieve.
Three different routes, and three different recruitment propositions. Perrone needed a setting in which to establish himself. Baturina brought substantial first-team experience despite his youth. Paz was offered responsibility that would have been difficult to secure at his previous club.
At Como, those journeys meet in a footballing idea. Cesc Fàbregas wants players who can receive the ball under pressure, recognise when to change the direction of an attack and contribute beyond the position printed beside their name. The attraction is partly the coach himself. The club is becoming particularly good at identifying players that his football requires.
Start with the football, then search for the player
Before the Lens match, sporting director Carloalberto Ludi explained Como’s approach in an interview with Sky Sport. As reported by CalcioComo, the process combines scouts travelling internationally, data and video analysis, and assessments of character. The decisive task is understanding the technical details Fàbregas wants for his game.
The distinction matters. Many clubs can produce a shortlist of talented young midfielders. A more useful shortlist separates those who can receive with an opponent behind them from those who need the play in front of them; those who hold a position from those who know when to move to the side to create space for a well-timed run by a teammate.
The same player can look an excellent purchase in one system and an expensive problem in another. A midfielder’s passing accuracy, for example, says relatively little without knowing where he receives the ball, what sort of pressure he faces and whether his passes help advance the attack.
Como’s stated process tries to connect those questions before a signing arrives. It does not guarantee success, of course. What it does is give the scouting department a more precise assignment, something a good scout relishes.
Fàbregas’s reputation helps complete the recruitment pitch. In an earlier interview, Ludi described his involvement in signing Paz as decisive, alongside that of the president. Players wanted to understand their proposed tactical role before committing. Como could offer a convincing answer through Cesc.
For an ambitious player, a smaller club can become attractive when the route into meaningful football is clearer there. Money supports the offer, of course, but the daily work must eventually justify it.
Perrone and Paz: creating the conditions for creativity
In an interview published during Como’s first season back in Serie A, Fàbregas outlined his principles: proactive possession, high pressing and intelligent management of transitions. He also emphasised adaptability. That is a useful starting point for understanding why the squad contains so many players comfortable in more than one midfield role.
Perrone represents the quieter part of that ambition. His progression from a loan to a permanent signing from Manchester City allowed Como to retain a player already familiar with the coach’s demands. When building a long-term project, continuity matters just as much as ability.
In a possession team, the deeper midfielder’s value often lies in making somebody else’s next action possible. An available passing angle can draw an opponent forward. A return pass can move the press just far enough for another teammate to receive the ball facing the opposition goal. The reward may arrive several passes later, beyond the reach of any conventional statistics.
That is the context in which to understand Paz. The Argentine can decide attacks himself, but asking him to solve every possession from a standing start would waste some of his best qualities. The more reliably Como can move the ball through midfield, the more often he can receive the ball in a position where a simple turn or a disguised pass immediately threatens the defence.
Through Como’s first ten Serie A matches of 2026/27, Paz had recorded 43 shots and 19 key passes, leading the team in both categories. His nine appearances have produced three goals and three assists. The figures describe a player carrying two jobs: creating chances and finishing attacks himself.
That combination presents a difficult defensive choice. Closing his shooting space can expose a passing lane; protecting the runner can allow him to advance. Recruitment around Paz should therefore be judged partly by how effectively it preserves that choice, rather than leaving defenders with one obvious threat to stop.
Douvikas gives the passing a destination
Anastasios Douvikas offers a different kind of clarity. Signed from Celta Vigo, the Greek striker supplies a focal point for a squad rich in players who like to participate in the construction of attacks.
According to Como’s Serie A statistics, he led the club after ten league games with five goals from 4.72 expected goals. That is a modest sample, but a useful one: his scoring was accompanied by a supply of chances, rather than a vast gap between goals and the quality of opportunities received.
For a team built around technical midfielders, the striker’s movement has value before the ball reaches him. A run towards goal can discourage a centre-back from stepping into midfield. Occupying the last defender can create the space in which a player such as Paz turns. Arriving in the box gives possession a destination.
Lens provided an emphatic illustration of the partnership. Douvikas scored a hat-trick and also supplied the assist for Paz’s goal. The relationship works in both directions: the striker finishes moves, but can also connect them.
There is a wider recruitment lesson here. Collecting players who all want the ball to feet can leave a side elegant but predictable. A functioning attack needs somebody to threaten the space beyond the passing combinations. Complementary qualities matter more than assembling several versions of the same talented footballer.
The domestic team figures help keep the discussion grounded. Como’s 18 league goals had come from 18.11 xG after ten matches. Their attacking output was broadly consistent with the chances created. Nine goals in France should not become the expectation against every opponent, nor should it be allowed to obscure what the more ordinary weekly evidence says.
International recruitment does not mean one type of signing
Baturina is a useful corrective to the idea that Como simply rescue prospects from the benches of wealthier clubs. When his signing was announced, Dinamo Zagreb had already given him 165 first-team appearances, including extensive European experience. He was young, but hardly unfamiliar with responsibility.
That distinction should matter to anyone studying recruitment beyond the largest leagues. A player developed outside the most heavily televised competitions is not necessarily inexperienced. He may already have dealt with title expectations, European opponents and the pressure of being central to his team’s attacking play.
Como’s task with Baturina is consequently different from its task with a player making the transition from academy football. It is to translate established ability into another league and a different distribution of responsibility.
At Lens, he replaced Paz and later scored. That does not make the two interchangeable. It does show the value of having another midfielder capable of carrying attacking responsibility when the most prominent creator leaves the pitch.
Lucas Da Cunha offers a further variation. His development under Fàbregas has involved a change of role, with Ludi previously highlighting his progress in central midfield. Recruitment strategy is incomplete if it considers only incoming transfers. Improving the fit of a player already at the club can be just as significant.
The most interesting squad-building question becomes: what can this player do within our football that his current position or previous environment has not fully revealed?
The risks sit behind the attractive football
The attacking possibilities are easier to sell than the defensive obligations. Moving players forward creates better options around the ball, but it can also leave space for opponents to counter into when a pass goes astray.
This is why Fàbregas’s emphasis on managing transitions belongs in the recruitment discussion. A technically gifted midfielder who cannot react quickly after losing possession creates work for everybody behind him. A defender in a proactive team must be assessed partly on what happens when the protection in front disappears.
Possession, pressing and defensive coverage have to support one another. Pressing high with only part of the team can make opponents’ escape routes easier. Sending both full-backs forward without adequate cover can turn an ambitious attack into a race towards the wrong goal. These are structural risks of the approach, rather than problems a single creative signing can fix.
The season also contains evidence that the football does not always flow. Como lost 2–0 at Frosinone and were held 0–0 by Roma. Their nine-goal night cannot erase the need to find solutions when space is tighter and an opponent survives the first period of pressure.
Nor does an extensive squad list automatically provide unlimited rotation. Before the Lens game, Fàbregas spoke about limited options and the importance of selecting players who had recovered best. Competing every few days requires enough trusted players for specific jobs, not merely enough names to fill a bench.
For recruitment staff, that makes availability, adaptation and versatility practical questions. Can a new arrival contribute before he has mastered every detail? Can he cover another role without forcing the team to change its approach completely? Can the coach rest a key player without removing the mechanism through which the team normally progresses the ball?
A shared identity needs a route into the team
The international character of the squad inevitably raises questions about what makes this team Como. The answer cannot rest entirely on nationality. Players from different backgrounds can build a recognisable footballing identity through shared responsibilities, repeated work and a relationship with supporters.
There is nevertheless an important distinction between buying a coherent first team and building a club capable of producing players for it. The academy has to offer a credible route into senior football if the project is to become more deeply rooted.
At Lens, academy-developed Matteo Papaccioli made his European debut and scored. Mattia Liberali also scored after coming off the bench. Those moments widened the story beyond the established international names, although one exceptional match is insufficient evidence of a dependable development pathway.
The harder measure will be opportunity over time: training with the first team, meaningful minutes, suitable loans and roles that remain available when the stakes rise. A young player needs more than the promise that the coach appreciates talent. He needs a realistic way to demonstrate it.
What another club could actually learn
Como are an imperfect template for clubs with fewer financial resources. Wealthy ownership and a coach with Fàbregas’s reputation provide advantages that cannot simply be reproduced by hiring more scouts or consulting a database.
The transferable element is the quality of the connection between recruitment and coaching. Define how the team intends to play. Identify the actions each role requires. Use data to narrow the search, then investigate the player’s decisions, character and capacity to adapt. Consider how the new arrival changes the possibilities for the players already there.
That last point is especially important. Perrone’s contribution cannot be understood only through his own attacking totals. Paz’s influence depends partly on how he receives possession. Douvikas benefits from the creators around him while giving their passing a purpose. The squad makes more sense when viewed through those relationships.
For Como, the next challenge is to make that understanding durable. Knowledge concentrated entirely in the head coach is vulnerable to his departure. Scouting, academy development and future appointments need to preserve what the club has learned, while leaving room for the football to evolve.
As a Como supporter, I find that a more compelling possibility than another spectacular scoreline. The excitement is watching players from different football cultures become intelligible to one another: recognising the run, trusting the pass and knowing who must cover behind them. If Como can keep improving those connections, their recruitment will have helped create an identity that supporters can recognise long after the novelty has worn off.