Recreating Spalletti's 16/17 Roma Side

[GCVS00]

 

I have a sort of fascination with understanding the tactics of less covered managers and sides. One such manager, in my opinion, Luciano Spalletti. Now the Italian national team manger, the 65 year old Tuscan has managed to put together a long career of highs, winning the Scudetto with Napoli in the 22/23 season and leading a Roma team to domestic cup success in the mid-to-late 2000s. His tactics and triumphs with both of these teams have been extensively covered and analyzed, especially with his use of Totti as a False 9 in his famed 4-6-0 with Roma.

 

However, one team of Spalletti's that I feel flies under the radar a little is his 16/17 Roma side. I am a fan of Italian Football and have found myself drawn to managers such as Maurizio Sarri and his Napoli side. However, some seem to forget that in the 16/17 Serie A season, Sarri's Napoli actually finished behind both Juventus and Spalletti's Roma.

 

Boasting the second best goal tally and goal difference, Spalletti's Roma was complete with players such as Wojciech Szczęsny, Mohamed Salah, Edin Džeko, Rajda Nainggolan, Antonio Rudiger, and Daniele de Rossi, not to mention Emerson, Leandro Paredes, Stephan El Shaarawy, a nearly retired Totti, and Alisson on the bench. The talent in this squad was incredible, but how did Spalletti translate this talent from paper to the pitch?

 

Edited May 20 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

Spalletti has famously stated that formations no longer exist in football and the football was all about exploiting space instead of systems. This was evident with his Napoli side, which could be described as lining up in either a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. The same can also be said for Spalletti's 16/17 Roma side. According to Understat (https://understat.com/team/Roma/2016), Roma mainly used the following three formations: The 4-2-3-1, 3-4-2-1, and the 4-3-3. Regardless of the starting shape, the build-up/attacking shape that Roma typically lined up in looked like a blend between a 3-4-3 and a 3-5-2. For the purposes of this recreation, I have settled on using the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 shape, partially because these shapes were most used by Spalletti and partially because the match engine now allows for makeshift back threes (thank you IFB!). However, I will also try my hand at translating these principles to the 3-4-3 or the seldom used 3-5-2. 

 

BUILD-UP

(taken from https://outsideoftheboot.com/2017/05/31/team-analysis-roma-luciano-spalletti/)

This build-up structure involved the two CBs and the RB (Rudiger) forming a makeshift back three, with Daniele de Rossi usually acting as a single pivot in front of the back three. The LB, usually Emerson Palmieri, would take a higher position, allowing the left winger to tuck in. The more advanced midfielders, usually Strootman and Nainggolan, would position themselves higher than de Rossi, acting as passing options in between the lines. Džeko, due to his aerial prowess, would stay higher and act as a focal point for the attack, as well as an option for a long ball if the short passing was not working. Salah's role and positioning in this system is extremely interesting. Salah is an incredible player and was also phenomenal during his time in Rome. Spalletti wanted to take advantage of his pace and goalscoring abilities, so he tasked Salah with being extremely direct and narrow, running in behind frequently to receive a long ball from the defense/de Rossi or run onto a flicked header from Džeko. To compensate for the lack of width on the right due to Salah's narrow positioning and Rudiger's position as a makeshift RCB, Spalletti would instruct Nainggolan to move into wide areas whenever Salah went narrow. Additionally, both players could remain narrow whenever Rudiger made runs forwards. Whereas the width on the left was mostly provided by Emerson, the width of the right was provided by committee, with any of the players able to hold width depending on personnel and the state of the game. Of course, when lining up in a back three, the wingbacks provide the width on both sides of the pitch.

 

STYLE OF ATTACK

So now that we've talked about a rough shape that Roma like to attack/build-up in, how do they actually attack? In the league, Roma had the third highest possession at 57.1%. To me, this signals an attempt to generally keep possession, but not at all costs, like Sarri's Napoli for instance. Thus, unsurprisingly, Roma were far more willing to play long passes and play on the counter, taking advantage of de Rossi's superb passing ability, Džeko's aerial prowess, and Salah's speed in behind. Roma would look to get the ball to de Rossi, who would dictate play and look for a switch out wide or a killer pass in behind. Generally, if these passes weren't on, Spalletti instructed his team to work the ball down the flanks to progress into the final third, utilizing quick one-twos to move the ball quickly past the opponent. This pass map from the first goal of Roma's 4-0 drubbing of Fiorentina highlights this:

(taken from https://www.chiesaditotti.com/2017/2/7/14540760/roma-routs-fiorentina-4-0)

This goal highlights Roma's strengths: quick build-up through the flanks, leading to a through ball putting the attacker in on goal to finish brilliantly. Further, this a good demonstration of Roma's style of attack in their build-up shape:

https://vimeo.com/217385264

 

TO PRESS OR NOT TO PRESS

In addition to Roma's incredible attack, we must also discuss Roma's defense. Roma's defense was more of a mixed-bag. They conceded 38 goals, the second-lowest tally in Serie A that season. This is pretty good! However, looking at xG, this tally falls to around 41 xGa (xG against), only fourth best. This is not as good. Although these are objectively pretty decent stats, their defense was too leaky for them to reasonably compete with Juventus, falling second in the Scudetto race by 4 points. This leaky defense begins with Roma's attitude towards pressing. 

(taken from https://outsideoftheboot.com/2017/05/31/team-analysis-roma-luciano-spalletti/, please check this article out, it's super informative)

 

Roma's basic pressing structure in a back 4 (they were playing in their 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 in the above picture) appears to be a 4-1-4-1, with two of the midfielders joining the wingers and striker in the press. Here, Roma are pressing pretty high, but some players, notably Džeko, are not aggressively applying pressure. Because of this, opponent's were usually able to bypass the first line of pressure easily, running directly at Roma's back 4 and de Rossi. The best word to describe their press would be inconsistent, as they would often press high but less aggressively.

Edited May 20 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

In translating this tactic into FM, this is what I have decided on:

I decided on the 4-3-3 shape because it gets Nainggolan on the right rather than in the center and reflects how de Rossi would act as a single pivot. The roles that can be changed around, in my opinion are the Goalkeeper and Striker. Any goalkeeping role would work and any of a TF, CF, or DLF would work for Džeko's role. I chose an IFB-D for Rudiger's role over a FB-S because I wanted to replicate that makeshift back three shape in possession. Additionally, using the Overlap Right instruction increases the RBs mentality to balanced, meaning we should see that back three in build-up and some forward runs in attack. The other roles I believe to be pretty self explanatory. WB-A for Emerson because he would get high and stay wide, IW-S for El Shaaraway because he would cut inside onto his right, IF-A for Salah because he is Salah, and a Mezzala-S for Nainggolan because he liked to get wider occasionally and wasn't a prototypical playmaker. The following pictures detail the player instructions used.

 

RB:

 

LCM:

 

RCM:

Edited May 20 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

Incredible result in the Derby della Capitale. Tactic is coming along nicely!

Edited May 20 by GCVS00

[GCVS00]

I'll try to get this posted today but I have work so it may be posted tomorrow/later in the week!

[TheMartello]

Can´t wait!

[GCVS00]

So, I just holidayed a season and this is what happened. Honestly given that we were in the bottom half of the table for the first half of the season due to injuries to Lukaku and Dybala, I will take a sixth place finish. We played pretty well all things considered, including 4-1 victories against AC Milan and Juventus. Roma's squad is pretty rough though, so I'd want to try this tactic with a slightly better team to see how it performs! We had 56% possession, which is almost identical to the real life number as well!

[Guest]

Are the instructions based on how they actually played? I mean, counterpress? Play out of defence? Distribute to centrebacks? Spalletti actually started Szczesny instead of Alisson purely because he had better medium-long kicks. Alisson started 0 league games under Spalletti and only became a regular under Di Francesco who preferred to play out of defence.

[GCVS00]

5 hours ago, Ein said:

Are the instructions based on how they actually played? I mean, counterpress? Play out of defence? Distribute to centrebacks? Spalletti actually started Szczesny instead of Alisson purely because he had better medium-long kicks. Alisson started 0 league games under Spalletti and only became a regular under Di Francesco who preferred to play out of defence.

So, in my mind, counterpress is fair leave to out, I just saw them attempt to press when they lost the ball, but not super aggressively, which is why I have the pressing intensity set to a tick above the middle.

 

As for play out of defense, I wanted the team to have more of the ball, because I found when I unticked play out of defense, our possession numbers got a lot worse. Distribute to centerbacks and take short kicks is a fair criticism, honestly I just instinctively tick that for all of my tactics lol. I think it's fair to leave the distribute section unticked, which, when paired with play out of defense, will still emphasize possession but also will allow for the goalkeeper to make medium-long kicks.

Edited May 21 by GCVS00