Four things we learned from Roma's 3-0 win over Hellas Verona

Di Francesco demonstrates Roma’s new squad depth

Roma returned to winning ways in a match where Eusebio Di Francesco made changes aplenty to the starting lineup.

Bringing in the likes of Cengiz Under, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Stephan El Shaarawy, Federico Fazio and Alessandro Florenzi, after his 11 month injury lay off, worked wonders, as the five changes to the starting line-up all proved their individual quality, added some additional energy and showcased how strong Roma's squad really is.

Pellegrini cleverly exploits space on the right

The inclusion of Pellegrini proved a masterstroke by Di Francesco, for the dynamic midfielder was instrumental throughout the win. The way he'd cleverly exploit the right-half space in Roma's offensive phases to use his powerful running ability was certainly a key feature of his game.

With his direct opponent, Marcel Buchel, regularly getting drawn towards the ball, Pellegrini would astutely venture into the right-half space to avoid his opponent and receive possession freely. In addition, the way Under would stay higher and pin his marker crucially afforded the former Sassuolo star massive spaces to turn and run into.

Pellegrini and Under dovetail perfectly

Another effective tactical component for the Giallorossi - which also involved the multifaceted Pellegrini - arose when he and Under performed well-coordinated opposite movements to manipulate the away side's defensive structure.

Here, when Under would drop deep, which crucially drew his opponent with him, this importantly opened up the right channel for Pellegrini to target his forward runs into. Indeed, these well synchronised passages of play yet again allowed Pellegrini to take full advantage of his aforementioned strengths to make the most of the unoccupied space.

Full-backs passing out of defence with ease

With Verona coach Fabio Pecchia regularly instructing striker Moise Kean to push up and apply pressure to whichever Roma centreback had possession, plus having his trequartista in Mattia Valoti man-mark Daniele De Rossi, Roma intelligently did a fine job of bypassing this structure.

The deeper and slightly infield positioning of left-back Aleksandar Kolarov offered an ideal solution, as it created a 3 v 1 situation in the first line of Roma's build up. This subsequently allowed the home side to play around Kean and easily progress upfield into the huge spaces in wide areas, a tactic that was duly aided by Florenzi pushing high to draw his adversary on Roma's right, and by Romulo, Verona's right winger, preferring to sit deep and cover midfield areas instead of pressing Kolarov.