Como midfielder Máximo Perrone has contributed zero goals and zero assists across three Serie A matches in 2026-27, yet the lariani sit sixth in the table with seven points from three unbeaten games — and have just dismantled RB Leipzig 4-1 in their Champions League debut. The 23-year-old Argentine is accumulating minutes in a squad that is, by any measure, overperforming the noise around it.
The so-what is this: Como are no longer a curiosity. They are a Champions League side, the only Italian club to win on the opening night of the group stage according to commentary from Alessandro Del Piero, and Fàbregas's project has arrived at a scale that changes what is expected of every player in the squad — Perrone included.
His individual numbers are modest. An average match rating of 6.73 across three Serie A appearances places him in functional rather than decisive territory. An AI overall of 72 out of 100, with a potential of 78, suggests a player whose ceiling has not yet been reached — a midfielder still assembling the tools that will define him at this level. The gap between those two figures is not a criticism; it is an invitation.
What surrounds Perrone matters as much as what he produces directly. The Champions League line-up that faced Leipzig featured Nico Paz, Martin Baturina, and Anastasios Douvikas — names that signal Fàbregas's attacking ambition. The club is simultaneously moving to extend Diao's contract through 2031, a statement of institutional confidence in the project's longevity. Perrone operates within a squad that is being built to last, not merely to survive.
The challenge for Perrone is one of definition. In a team generating seven goals in three league matches, a central midfielder without a direct contribution risks becoming scenery. The potential score suggests he has the capacity to be more than that. Whether Fàbregas's system, now stretched across domestic and European competition, creates the conditions for Perrone to assert himself more visibly is the question his season will answer.
Three matches in, the answer is still forming.