THE FANS SERENADED Mile Svilar as he wound up for a goal kick toward the end of Roma's latest win. Moments before, the Slovenian goalkeeper made a double save that preserved his Serie A-leading 15th clean sheet of the season, denying Fiorentina's Moise Kean as he blew past two defenders and ripped a shot to Svilar's left. The Serbian dove and stopped it and stifled the follow-up like a fire.

"Ole, ole, ole, ole, Svilar, Svilar," the fans chanted, repeating the words over and over as Roma put the finishing touches on a 1-0 victory over Fiorentina, the same team that thrashed them 5-1 in October.

Roma are now unbeaten in 19 league games — since a Dec. 15 loss to Como — and only outside of a Champions League place on goal difference. They're a lifetime away from the fan and player mutiny that threatened to cannibalize Roma's season, an uproar only Claudio Ranieri, the city's prodigal son, could quell.

But Svilar is just as responsible for Roma's unexpected midseason turnaround. He's helped the team win 1-0 nine times this season — more than any other club in the top five European leagues. His 110 saves rank third among Serie A goalkeepers, and his 80.1 save percentage is a close second, slightly behind Venezia's Ionut Radu but based on a much larger sample size.

Svilar has been as busy as some of his colleagues in relegation battles. But unlike Lecce's Wladimiro Falcone and Parma's Zion Suzuki, he's hasn't allowed a half-century of goals. While Ranieri has gone to great lengths to make Roma a more solid team — using a back three to increase coverage and possession to take the sting out of counter-attacks — Svilar has had to bail out his teammates a number of times. He made three massive saves to keep the most recent Rome derby goalless before halftime and is the only reason Lazio didn't build an unassailable lead in a game that eventually ended 1-1.

Svilar has played up to the moment, producing some of his biggest performances after Roma lost talisman Paulo Dybala for the season. Svilar's point-blank save against Cagliari — an incredible reaction stop from Roberto Piccoli's right-footed deflection — kept the game square before Artem Dovbyk drove home the winner. His two-handed rejection of Antonino Gallo's piledriver also set the table for Dovbyk to land the killer blow against Lecce. Time and again, Svilar has produced important saves and kept games close enough for Roma to win by just a single goal.

Roma are a different team without Dybala, and as much as the injured playmaker has made his presence felt on the sidelines, staying close to the team when others would watch from the stands, he can't unlock games from the bench. Roma can't rely on Dybala's dribbling and ball protection to create chances and keep possession, a key component of the game plan that took them out of the bottom half of the table. But they can rely on Svilar.

While Daniele De Rossi's tenure as manager was a short one, his decision to turn Svilar into Roma's No. 1 shot-stopper was a legacy move. Like Sinisa Mihajlovic's call to start a 16-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma for AC Milan ahead of veteran Diego Lopez, De Rossi sidelined 37-year-old Rui Patricio for Svilar and reaped immediate rewards, watching on as he saved penalties and earned the confidence of the tifosi. Before that, the 25-year-old spent most of his time tending goal in the backwaters of Europa League football, far from the bright lights his talent attracted at Benfica, where he became the youngest goalkeeper to ever play in the Champions League at 18 years old.

That debut was a nightmare. He scored one of the worst own goals in competition history, backpedaling into his net with the ball in his hands after catching a long free-kick attempt. He struggled to regain his confidence after that and left for Roma as a free agent. But even Jose Mourinho, the man who brought him to the Italian capital, didn't trust him enough to start him in the biggest games.

Now Roma are fighting to keep Svilar. While his contract has two years left to run, he deserves a substantial pay raise on his current €1-million annual salary. A return to the Champions League, which seemed preposterous as recently as November, would certainly help subsidize the increase.

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