Nicolò Rovella Scout Report At Monza 2022/2023 – The Monza Metronome Who Has The Potential To Be A Key Midfielder For Italy

Italy and midfield are two words that have been linked well over the years. The greatest example of this has been Andrea Pirlo, the midfield boss for the national team and the teams where he played for more than a decade. If we want to look for some recent examples, we can find Marco Verratti, Nicolo Barella, or Sandro Tonalli; surely, many grew up with Pirlo being their football idol.

Nicolo Rovella is one of the many talented players to emerge from Juventus youth system. Over the years, many footballers who developed there have not been able to debut with the Turin team and win a starting spot. So far, the case of Rovella, currently on loan at Monza, has been the same. However, it seems that, given his quality and potential, he may be one of those who can take a place in the Vecchia Signora starting eleven.

He has already been out on loan at different Serie A teams. Last season at Genoa and the current one at Monza, Rovella, at 21 years old, has demonstrated a profile of a player of extremely high quality, with ample room to continue growing. His technique with the ball and intensity to defend make him a player who will be in a great one in Europe, or at least in one in Italy quite soon.

He is a very special player early in his career; therefore, we will conduct a tactical analysis in the form of a scout report, analyzing how Rovella has integrated into Monzas tactics, as well as providing an analysis of his game in both phases.

A Defensive Specialist

Its not normal to see such complete players at Nicolos age, but he certainly is. He has an extremely positive profile in both phases. However, first, we will focus on defence, where he consistently demonstrates inexhaustible effort, tactical understanding, a commitment to covering his teammates, and excellent timing, as well as his ball-stealing technique.

He characterises himself by using his body very well, which is quite strong, and helps him win balls with his tackles, as well as placing his body in front of his rivals and thus winning the ball. He has good shielding, so recoveries end up being successful almost every time, and not just attempts at it. The Monza player also opens his body well to cover passing angles or possible spaces where the player could move.

He has great intelligence and reading to recognize the opponents movements. This is usually seen in his defensive actions near the box where he is not impulsive to stretch his leg and make an excessive tackle that generates a penalty, but he waits for the right moment and chooses well the strong side of the player to look for to tackle to win the ball. Many of the clearances in that zone are executed with great elegance, a quality that is always positive and fun to see in a player.

His positioning is really good as well. He serves in many roles that have contributed to the teams defensive phase. He has gone to man-mark the #6, as well as outside with one of the full-backs, or activating triggers with the rival midfielders, whom he does not let turn or if they can, then he responds with his insatiable pressure at great speed and incredible stamina that allows him to be on all sides of the field. Hes tactically intelligent and also physically ready to get the work done.

One of the really good things defensively about Rovella is that he never gets tired. He can go first with the midfielder, then the defender and finish pressing the goalkeeper. However, if he created space with his moves that didnt end in a defensive action, he would run back at high speed to try to win the ball back or disrupt the opponents execution by simply being near them.

He is extremely smart when he must come back in transition. He knows where to take his position, usually in the left half-space, but he doesnt just stay there.

Its quite common to see him make pretty good return moves, chasing