Four Things We Learned: Giallorossi navigate ideal warm-up for Shakhtar showdown

Ideal precursor to Shakhtar clash

A trip to face Udinese at the Dacia Arena was always going to be a challenge for Roma, but thanks to their resilience and some more Cengiz Under mastery, the Giallorossi took home all three points.

Made to work hard for the 2-0 win over Udinese, this match should act as a timely tune-up for their upcoming Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday.

Keeping just their second clean sheet in the last 10 matches (despite Alisson' superb form in goal), was indeed another huge positive to take away from the triumph. Late goalscorer Diego Perotti summed things up accordingly when speaking after the contest, saying: “It's a vital win because it's really tough in the league this season. Apart from Juventus and Napoli, everyone else is dropping points.

“We had to win these three games before our Champions League match. Now we can focus on Shakhtar.”

Roma's robust defensive structure

Whenever Udinese attempted to build out from the back, Roma's man-marking made life extremely difficult for the Zebrette. The front three would mark Udinese's back three, while Radja Nainggolan would track Udinese's holding midfielder in Valon Behrami.

Daniele De Rossi and Lorenzo Pellegrini would then watch Udinese's more advanced central mids, Seko Fofana and Antonin Barak. Roma's fullbacks would monitor their opposing wing-backs and lastly Kostas Manolas and Federico Fazio would occupy Massimo Oddo's front two of Rodrigo de Paul and Stipe Perica.

All-in-all, this had a suffocating effect on the home side, therefore forcing them into many turnovers or into low percentage long balls upfield.

Roma astutely manipulate Udinese defensive structure

The image below gives a fine illustration of how Roma disrupted their opposition's stopping setup to manufacture advantageous scenarios for themselves.

Here, with both Nainnggolan and Pellegrini having shifted over to the right half space, Behrami and Fofana have duly followed them, which creates oceans of space in between Udinese's defensive and midfield lines for Edin Dzeko to exploit.

Note also the positioning of Cengiz and how Nainggolan's run occupies Samir, with both drawing their men away so Dzeko can take full advantage of Roma's well crafted 6-v-5 overload situation.

Roma's frontline movement stretches Udinese

Another method the Giallorossi employed to generate vital central spaces in the final third came through their forwards' runs in behind. These stretching movements did a wonderful job of pinning the Bianconeri Friuliani backline, thus opening up the space between lines for line for Nainggolan to make use of.

Alessandro Florenzi's driving infield run is a crucial component here too, for he expertly provokes Behrami to leave his post so Florenzi can find Nainggolan completely unmarked.