Four Things We Learned: Giallorossi end campaign with a win

Roma sign off in style

Facing a tough match to finish the season against Sassuolo away from home, who had only lost once in their last 11 matches going into the clash, Roma produced a strong, tactically astute display in a solid 1-0 win.

Ending the season with a victory was the ideal way to bring to a close a positive campaign, as they kept up their remarkable away record - one that saw them only lose once away from home all season and concede just nine goals, with Roma leading the league in both of the afore metrics.

While content after the match, Eusebio Di Francesco spoke of his desire to kick on for the 2018-2019 term, with him keen for his troops to make next season an even better one.

"We want to reduce the gap on the sides that finished in front of us. We want to improve and our performances are the way to show that. We will work hard to get better," he said

"We’re too far off the teams who finished ahead of us. We’ve created a lot of chances this season but we could have done better to finish them off.”

Roma provoke Sassuolo press to good effect

The way Roma expertly manipulated Sassuolo's 5-3-2 formation was fascinating to observe throughout the contest, as they did a great job of provoking the home side to press them, which created usable space in advanced positions.

The below example evidences this wonderfully, where Roma ensure Sassuolo midfielders Francesco Magnanelli and Simone Missiroli press the dropping Maxime Gonalons and Kevin Strootman. This generates a 4v4 for Roma, as Matteo Politano and Domenico Berardi are monitoring Roma's central defenders.

Seeing as Sassuolo were playing with a midfield three, leaving Alfred Duncan stranded, and Aleksandar Kolarov drew out Neroverdi right wing-back, Claud Adjapong, this left huge space centrally for the infield drifting Diego Perotti, plus Lorenzo Pellegrini, to take full advantage of.

Credit must go to Edin Dzeko here too, for his run successfully pins two centre-backs, which crucially increases the space Perotti and Pellegrini can use.

Roma's pressing trap

Using the sideline as an extra defender, Roma did a marvelous job of using pressing traps, to give Sassuolo the perception they had a free man, to win back possession or force them into errors.

As seen in the graphic below, once the Giallorossi recognise Sassuolo pass out in the left half of the pitch, they pounce, angling and curving their intense pressure to cut off the far side, manufacturing a 6v4 situation in the process, so the home side have to play to Rogerio on the touchline.

Roma cleverly leave the Brazilian open, so Francesco Acerbi thinks he's a viable passing outlet, but Alessandro Florenzi then applies a super aggressive press to see Rogerio miscontrol and enable Roma to win back possession.

Dzeko hold up play opens up far side

Through Dzeko's slick dropping movements, magnificent ball control, strength and all-round press resistance, he was able to hold up play to draw Sassuolo towards his zone of operation, before then rapidly switching play to the far side, where Kolarov had oceans of space to utilise.

The image below shows how seven Sassuolo players are focused on the area surrounding the Bosnian, who then expertly executes his aerial pass to Kolarov on the ball far side, thus putting his team in an immensely favourable scenario to attack in a 3v1 superiority.