Roma continue to do well in Serie A as they impressed again on Friday night by securing a 4-1 win at Fiorentina. Once again, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Nicolò Zaniolo, and Edin Džeko shone in Roma’s attack while Paulo Fonseca’s tactical understanding continues to shine through the more time he gets with his players. This tactical analysis will look at the tactics deployed by both teams.
Lineups
Vincenzo Montella opted for a 3-5-2 that saw young Serbian starlet Dušan Vlahović lead the line alongside Kevin-Prince Boateng. In midfield, the nicely balanced trio of Milan Badelj holding behind Erick Pulgar and Gaetano Castrovilli continued.
Paulo Fonseca has evidently found his preferred eleven which saw Amadou Diawara and Jordan Veretout continue in central midfield behind the exciting attacking midfield trio of Zaniolo, Pellegrini, and Diego Perotti.
Tactical analysis: Roma’s defensive setup
One of the key defensive mechanisms of Fonseca’s Roma is compactness. This means compactness vertically as well as horizontally, with Roma defending as a very collective structure where each player helps his teammates in pressing and covering. This means that the two wingers, Zaniolo and Perotti, defend in very narrow positions to maintain this horizontal compactness and prevent central passing lanes opening up for the opposition.
However, Fiorentina’s shape lent itself simple to press in a man-orientated manner too. Thus, Roma deviated a little from their normal defensive approach since the front four was slightly man-orientated. This certainly was the case with the number 10 Pellegrini who largely man-marked Badelj as Fiorentina looked to build from the back.
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