Serie A 2019/20: Roma vs Parma – tactical analysis

This game of Serie A, saw Roma host Parma on 8^th July 2020. Roma resumed their campaign after league restart with a 2-1 win over Sampdoria, while Parma’s first game after the restart ended in a 1-1 draw away to Torino. Since their respective restarts, both teams have lost three games on the trot and are looking to end their run of poor results with a win. The reverse fixture, played back in November 2019, went to Parma, 2-1, as they beat Roma. Roma have all but lost hopes of Champions League qualification, but a win for them would give them a chance to qualify for the Europa league, while for Parma it would mean to consolidate their mid-table position. This tactical analysis brings to light the tactics and plays that both the teams applied in the game.

The fixture was another 2-1 result, this time going to Roma who came back from behind to beat Parma. Roma were arguably the better team throughout the game, playing some slick attacking football and great off the ball movement. If it were not for some poor finishing, Roma could have won by a greater margin. Parma were always the second best team on the pitch on the day, but had their chances too. While their first was a fair penalty, there was another late in the second half that should have been given too. But it was just not their day- an average performance coupled with a poor refereeing decision summed up their 2-1 defeat. This analysis aims to highlight a few of the tactics deployed by both teams in the game.

Line-ups

Paulo Fonseca set his game tactics in a hardly used 3-4-2-1 (< 7%), as they have largely played with a 4-2-3-1 (~81%). Pau López started in goal with a back three of Roger Ibañez, Bryan Cristante and Gianluca Mancini. Jordan Veretout and Amadou Diawara played in the midfield along with Leonardo Spinazzola and Bruno Peres as wing-backs. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lorenzo Pellegrini took up playmaking positions behind sole striker Edin Džeko.

Roberto DAversa set his game tactics in a 4-3-1-2 (almost a 4-3-3), which he has favoured for most game (73%). Luigi Sepe started in goal with a back four of Giuseppe Pezzella, Bruno Alves, Simone Iacoponi and Matteo Darmian. Antonino Barillà, Hernani and Juraj Kucka started in a midfield three with Dejan Kulusevski taking up an advanced playmaking role ahead them. Gervinho and Andreas Cornelius played in front of Kulusevski as the two strikers.

Parma: what’s your position?

In this section of the analysis, we take a look at the defensive shape(s) Parma took up, when they were off-the-ball. The use of shape(s) in plural is key, as we saw them in a bit of a disarray for a few minutes of the game. Parma setup in three defensive shapes in a matter of minutes, with neither working for them. It’s hardly plausible that this was a deliberate plan from their game tactics, as they looked confused about their positions in that moment. They setup with a varying backline (3/4) in all of the defensive shapes. The positions that the midfield and attack had to take up when they’re off-the-ball were also haphazard. Wrong shape and positions meant that the Roma players had a lot of room to play the ball, and move freely themselves, without much pressure from the Parma defence.

Below is an instance from the 61^st minute, when Parma were set up in a defensive 4 (nearly) defensively. The team shape in this case seems like a 4-3-2-1, which is a slight variation of their standard shape of 4-2-3-1 when out of possession. While there’s not much in the shape itself, Parma miss out on covering all the lines. While on one flank, we have Darmian on is rushing back to his defensive duties having over committed to the attack, the other flank has an ill positioned Pezzella. The particularly narrow positioning opens up space for Bruno Peres to run into, thereby allowing Mkhitaryan the option of an overloading wing-back.