From West Sussex to Udine: The tactics that shaped Hellas Verona’s new head coach Gabriele Cioffi – tactical analysis

In recent years, the managerial division of Serie A has become a never-ending carousel.

While new and exciting coaches are always being imported into the likes of the Premier League, Ligue 1 and La Liga, Italian clubs have been relatively closed off from appointing managers that haven’t tasted the delicious nectar of football in the Mediterranean country.

Quite a lot of Italian managers have seemingly taken this stance too. Despite there being a lot of interest from abroad for tacticians such as Massimiliano Allegri and Gian Piero Gasperini, there are a lot of coaches who have yet to try their hand in another country.

Nevertheless, not everyone has found themselves caught in this bubble. There are some Italian managers who have gone elsewhere in the world to gain some valuable experience before returning to their home country with a wealth of newfound knowledge.

One of these coaches is Gabriele Cioffi, who has just replaced Igor Tudor as the manager of Hellas Verona. Having coached in Australia, twice in the UAE, and twice again in England, the 46-year-old’s appointment is one to keep an eye on.

This article will be a tactical analysis, previewing Cioffi’s tactics. It will be an analysis, looking at how Verona can expect to be set up under their new manager’s guidance.

Preferred formation

From Adelaide down under to West Sussex before taking a brief stop in Udine, Cioffi has been all over the world applying his trade. However, most if it has been as an aide to the manager.

From 2015-2021, Cioffi worked as the assistant manager in five of those years, notably acting as the number two to Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola at Birmingham City in the 2016/17 campaign.

Cioffi’s first major managerial job was as the head coach of League Two’s Crawley Town. However, after 72 matches at the helm, the Italian was sacked, leaving with a 29.17 percent win record.

Nevertheless, Luca Gotti soon came calling, offering him yet another chance to be an assistant manager, this time at Udinese. Eventually, Gotti was sacked and Cioffi got his first taste of Serie A management even though it was short-lived.

One thing that was certain is that Cioffi had no settled formation during any spell as a manager, proving himself to be quite tactically flexible:

Looking at all of the formations deployed by the Italian boss during his stint at Broadfield Stadium in the 2018/19 season, the 3-5-2 was his most used, with Crawley setting up in this structure in 32 percent of their games in all competitions.

Regardless, the rest of the time, the Reds positioned themselves within a 4-1-4-1, 3-4-3, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and even with a midfield diamond at times.