Eusebio Di Francesco Preferred Formation
In his first season in Rome, Eusebio Di Francesco has steered his former side to their first Champions League semi-final in 34 years and look set to finish in the top four in Serie A.
The season has been a bit up and down for Roma though, with real highs but also quite a few lows.
Performances have varied from dominant displays against high-quality opposition to being demolished by others.
The consistency hasnt really been there throughout.
It should be remembered, though, that Di Francesco has only been in the job one season, and it is his first managing a top club.
And its still possible, though another miracle is needed, he leads AS Roma into a Champions League final in a few weeks.
In this article, I take a look at his tactical setup and whether he can be the man to make Roma a winning club.
Di Francescos tactics almost exclusively play out of a 4-3-3 formation, which he has stated is the ideal formation, apart from the fact that it does not allow for marking the opponents playmaker by default.
At times, like in the brilliant crushing of Barcelona as well as the heavy defeat at Anfield, Di Francesco has deployed a 3-4-1-2 to try to combat his opponent.
Most often, though, Di Francesco sets up a back-four with attacking full-backs, a midfield three with one holding midfielder and two more advanced, either side of him (a position called mezzala in Italian terminology) and two wingers, either side of a strong striker.
Eusebio Di Francesco Attacking Strategy
I will start with Di Francescos attacking strategy, then discuss his ideas on building from the back, and finally, how his sides look to create chances.
Di Francesco is a very attacking coach and wants his team to dominate every game.
His possession style is very vertically focused, and he wants the side to progress the ball forward as quickly as possible.
One important facet of Di Francescos tactics is the use of positional rotations in different areas of the field.
Normally, this involves the central midfielders and wingers rotating to change positions, with the midfielder moving wide to open up space for a pass into the half-space, which the winger has vacated.
This movement is the most often used rotation by Di Francescos teams and maintains the balance in the positional structure in possession, but causes confusion for an unprepared opponent.
One example of this rotation is shown below.
The aim behind this is probably to create a free man between the lines while simultaneously creating a 2 vs 1 situation against the opponents full-back.
Either this comes by the central midfielder overlapping the winger, or as usual, by the full-back bombing on down the wing.
As Ill come to later, using the wings well
