The pliancy of Paulo Fonseca’s AS Roma
Fonseca has led the club in a period of turmoil post-Monchi’s failure and immediate departure
““My coaching philosophy? Well, I have very clear ideas - ideas I think you can see in my teams. That involves having the ball, taking the initiative and being an offensive team. These are the aspects that define my game and my aim in matches.””
That was Paulo Fonseca the first-African born manager to manage in the UEFA Champions League on what was his football philosophy during a UEFA summit. After refashioning himself at Shakhtar Donetsk after sub-par stints at Porto and Paços, Fonseca joined Roma in June 2019 after the sacking of Eusebio Di Francesco and the departure of Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo infamously known in the footballing world as ‘Monchi’. In the 2019/20 season, Monchi implemented his footballing vision into his Roma side whilst qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. Fonseca has helped older players such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Chris Smalling reinvent themselves and rediscover their form again. Whilst Fonseca’s Roma have shown signs of flexibility on a game-to-game basis they had a tendency to hide and shy away vs bigger sides such as Inter Milan and Juventus. Here I’ll analyse one of Europe’s most exciting coaches and his flexible side.
Roma’s positional play under Fonseca
“ Right now, I can highlight Maurizio Sarri and Pep Guardiola as the coaches I admire the most because they are bold, they have their own ideas, they are brave enough to play their own game and attack.”
This was Fonseca on who he saw as his role models in the coaching world, clearly favouring two coaches who are renown for their fluid positional play. Roma under Fonseca has been a pleasure to watch with them scoring 77 goals from expected goals of 72.5.
Roma will normally use a 3-2-4-1 or a 2-3-4-1 as the fullbacks will push into the higher areas as the deepest-lying midfielder will drop into the defence and the midfield partner occupying the six space. Roma under Fonseca will progress the ball into lateral zones to create a combination with the centre forward (Džeko) with a lay-off to open up possible shooting opportunities for either of the wingers (which are usually inverted).
Fonseca opts for vertical passing lanes rather than horizontal ones when progressing the ball, as he wants Roma to distribute the ball to the flanks usually to the wide forward who will move into the half-space to work 3v3 connections to create a crossing opportunity for his fullback or in the half-space.
Roma’s 2-3-4-1
Roma’s ability to release early balls into pockets of space has been an important part of their offensive play, with the player who disperses the ball making runs into alternative pockets to combine with other players. A reason why this has been so successful is because of the brilliant veteran at centre forward that is Edin Džeko. Džeko combines and flicks on the ball to players (runners) in the channels to thus create more forms of generating shots.
Džeko flicking the ball off to the channels for the runners in the image
Roma normally circulate the ball in the opposition half with vertical interchanges between the players to move the ball from flank to flank while creating space for passes in the centre. Due to Fonseca’s automatisms placed inside of the team, the attacking midfielder (Pellegrini) will drop deeper with the wingers occupying the half-spaces and the two fullbacks stretching the pitch to combine and form an interchange between the lines. As expected, Džeko will drop between the lines and flick the ball through to runners (as seen above). Dependant on the opposition, however, Fonseca will alter Džeko’s role. For instance against teams with a low block, Fonseca will instruct his team to play from deep and force the opposition’s deep block to push higher up and therefore allow Roma to distribute long balls in behind to Džeko.
Roma’s ball circulation vs Udinese
Roma’s build-up play
Under Fonseca, Roma is a team who lay an emphasis on width in every stage of possession and every phase of play. Roma have tended to switch the ball from flank to flank to create wide build-up routines to progress play forward before working crosses to their attackers in the box or they can switch play, in the hope of attracting pressure to one flank.
Roma build with a 2-3-3-2/2-3-2-3 shape as the fullbacks will drop either side of the pivot with the wingers stretching the pitch. Situationally, in 19/20 Amadou Diawara drops in between the two centre-backs, making the other two CBs(Mancini and Smalling) be a bit wider. This forms a defensive three chain in the first phase.
Based on the opposition, Fonseca encourages his centre-backs to attract pressure by circulating the ball amongst themselves to create space in the next lines, especially working passes to fullbacks who drop deeper in order to encourage the opposition to push forward. His January loan signing Ibañez has proved to be a success and a key clog for Roma in the build-up phase.
Roma defensive three chain
CONCLUSION
Roma currently sit 3rd in the Serie A table, 3 points behind 2nd placed Inter and 4 points behind league leaders AC Milan- whilst averaging 2.06 points per game. Fonseca’s men also have scored the 2nd most goals in the league with 35 from an xG of 35.40- displaying that their free-scoring form is more down to tactical acumen rather than fluke. Fonseca has helped veterans such as Dzeko, Mkhitaryan, Pedro and Smalling renovate themselves whilst blooding and helping youth such as Ibanez, Zaniolo and Zalewski. With such a strong core and the likes of Diawara and Pellegrini around, Fonseca has put he and his team in a real chance within returning to the UEFA Champions League ; whether from league places or winning the Europa League itself. Fonseca has rebuilt himself and this Roma side amidst times of misery for both, now can he be the one to usurp the Milan-Juventus dominance and bring home the scudetto for the first time since 2001? I most certainly would not be surprised.
Written by Ami
