Serie A 2019/20: Roma vs Juventus

Despite not having the best start of the season, Roma have been improving under Paulo Fonseca’s management. At the midpoint of the season, they were still one of the continental competition contenders. They were at the 4^th spot on the table, one ahead Atalanta before the game.

For Juventus, they were not the only contender of the league, Inter Milan, their rival, dropped points in this round of Serie A fixture. A win at the Stadio Olimpico could bring them back to the top with point superiority.

The game ended in a Juventus win, with two hot young prospects, Nicolò Zaniolo and Merih Demrial suffered serious injuries. The result did not fully reflect the game, as the home team provided a stern test for Juventus.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you the tactics and analysis of both teams.

Lineups

Fonseca organized his team to play in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Federico Fazio had some adductor problems recently, so Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini started the game together. Davide Santon was injured while Leonardo Spinazzola was on the bench, Alessandro Florenzi had his chance to impress the manager again. Some Roma attacking players, Justin Kluivert, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Javier Pastore were injured and remained sidelined.

Maurizio Sarri’s Juventus played in a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Aaron Ramsey behind Paulo Dybala and Cristiano Ronaldo. Demiral won his position to start with Leonardo Bonnuci, as Matthijs de Ligt was on the bench. Juan Cuadrado was trusted as a right-back once again, starting ahead of Danilo.

Roma exploited flaws of Juventus press

Juventus, as the stronger team, always intended to press high, retrieving the ball and dominating the game. However, by possession, they only had 43.61% in this game, much lower than their season average of 57.12%. The figure hinted the press of Sarri’s team was imperfect, as Roma exploited the flaws of their pressing system to play out from the back.

Juventus committed six players, which means, all their forwards and midfielders in the press. However, Roma played out from the back with a stable build-up structure that gave them the numerical advantages. Amadou Diawara, one of the pivots, always dropped to the defensive line, while his partner, Jordan Veretout stayed in front of the defenders to provide another layer of the build-up.