Four Things We Learned: Cruise control against Chievo

Back on track

Roma's emphatic 4-1 triumph over Chievo Verona was the perfect way to get back to winning ways after the 5-2 loss against Liverpool in midweek. Indeed, finding the back of the net with relative ease, Patrik Schick scoring for a second consecutive league fixture and the team adhering so well to Eusebio Di Francesco's demands were all reasons to be positive.

Despite Juan Jesus's unfortunate red card and his team hitting the post for the 22nd time this campaign, the Roma boss was justifiably pleased with the victory.

"The lads got their approach spot on and it wasn't easy to go into this game with the right mindset," he said. "We played some excellent football. We moved the ball around really well, fashioned plenty of chances and probably deserved to score a few more."

Rotations key

The Giallorossi's well-executed rotations in the attacking half of the pitch once again served them beautifully to manipulate Chievo's backline. Roma's opener provided a brilliant example of the tactic's effectiveness, where Stephan El Shaarawy and Radja Nainggolan's rotation shattered Chievo's setup.

As shown in the image below, once Nainggolan notices El Shaarawy drop deep to provide Juan Jesus with an outlet, the Belgian shrewdly moves to take over his teammates’ position.

Key here is that Mattia Bani and Nainggolan's man in Lucas Castro have both been drawn to El Shaarawy, thus freeing up immense space for Nainggolan to exploit, as a frustrated Nicola Rigoni points in vain for someone to track Nainggolan.

Nainggolan then latched onto Jesus's pass in behind, before turning, beating Ivan Radovanovic and firing a slick cross in for Schick to score.

Roma unhinge Chievo midfield

Roma persistently unhinged Chievo's midfield to create ideal conditions to progress their attacks. With Perparim Hetemaj and Rigoni usually monitoring Nainggolan and Lorenzo Pellegrini in a man oriented fashion, this left their third central mid, Castro, with a tough choice on who to mark.

The image below sees the Argentine in an intermediate position unsure whether to go to Aleksandar Kolarov or El Shaarawy.

He ends up pressing Kolarov, which in combination with Nainggolan's run removing Rigoni from important central spaces, enables Edin Dzeko to drop into a well crafted passing lane, which disorganises the Gialloblu backline further.

From here, Dzeko can use his ingenuitive hold up play and technical qualities to either retain possession, create an opening or dribble smartly away from danger.

Defensive harrying

Facing off against Rolando Maran's 3-5-2 formation, Di Francesco got his approach spot on to deal with the opposition.

While Roma's front three typically marked Chievo's back three, the crucial aspect came in the roles assigned to the Wolves’ midfield trio.

In the instance illustrated below, which is taken when Chievo build up down their left, Nainggolan presses Rigoni, Daniele De Rossi marks Hetemaj and Pellegrini is intriguingly oriented towards wing-back, Fabrizio Cacciatore.

Although a byproduct of this scheme, that is designed to suffocate their adversaries and hem them in by using the touchline as an extra defender, is leaving Castro free, Roma's press makes it nigh on impossible for him to be accessed from such a distance due to their astutely directed and intense pressing.