Four Things We Learned: Finally finding some form

Cengiz Under, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov all got on the scoresheet, as the Giallorossi picked up a first victory in the league in over a month.

Roma triumph - and in style

Roma returned to winning ways with a timely 4-0 victory over Lecce to close the gap to Atalanta in fourth to just three points for the time being. Coming out of the traps quickly, the Giallorossi asserted themselves by dominating the ball and playing some slick football to put the visitors on the back foot.

Outshooting Lecce 26 to 14 and bettering them on XG 3.4 - 0.67, Paulo Fonseca rightfully cut a content figure afterwards.

"The team trained very well over the past few days and I was very optimistic going into this one," Fonseca asserted.

"Let’s not forget the form Lecce are in – they’d won three on the spin. We did very well indeed in the first 30 minutes and it was a different game compared to others. The players had more confidence and displayed more bravery. In a period like this, that was really important.”

Roma deadly in transition

Starting with a front four consisting of Under, Mkhitaryan, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Dzeko, this dangerous quartet wreaked havoc every time they got a chance to attack Lecce in transition. Whether Roma recovered the ball following some excellent pressing, counterpressing immediately after they lost the ball or capitalised on a Lecce error, they were lethal on the counter.

With Dzeko acting as a brilliant first out ball, where he could then lay the ball off to runners nearby or out wide, he was a key catalyst towards their success. So rapid to break forward and running great routes, both wide and centrally, they took up good positions to not only stretch their opposition's shape but also so the ball holder had a variety of upfield options.

Indeed, having a nice blend of speedy and technical players, who were joined often by the marauding fullbacks, only amplified their effectiveness.

A testament to their quality here arose for their opening two goals. For the first Mkhitaryan's pressure saw him regain possession from Jacopo Petriccione, allowing Roma to surge ahead and enjoy a 3v2 superiority over Lecce, before deftly playing in Under to score.

Then, for their second Gianluca Mancini nipped in to intercept, which set the wheels in motion for a wicked counter. The stopper then carried the ball upfield and pinpointed Pellegrini, who turned instantly and obliged Dzeko's run that had vitally pulled out Fabio Lucioni. Mkhitaryan then targeted the vacated space and was duly found by Dzeko, as the Armenian went on to slot home with aplomb.

Right focus pays dividends

Focusing 40% of their attacks down the right, Fonseca's plan worked wonders against Lecce's narrow 4-3-2-1 shape, which often struggled to deal with how Roma frequently overloaded the right.

With Fonseca clearly instructing Pellegrini and Mkhitaryan to venture over to this side from their respective number 10 and left wing posts, they fruitfully joined Dzeko, Under, Bruno Peres and Jordan Veretout in populating this half of the pitch.

Doing a smart job of generating overloads and supporting attacks due to their close proximity to one another, which ensured many nearby options were present, Lecce's shape struggled to contain the threat, as they were constantly unbalanced by Roma's tactics.

A key byproduct attached to this was that Kolarov posed a fantastic outlet for switches of play due to Lecce shifting aggressively to the right to try and combat Roma.

Using the overload to isolate principle, Kolarov benefited from the huge spaces ahead of him, where he had time and freedom to dribble, fire in crosses or cutbacks or hit incisive infield passes.

It was also important to note how when a switch of play was struck, how swiftly Roma's players would begin to attack the box from different angles to provide multiple options for the Serbian international.

Veretout's unorthodox role

The tactical acuity of Fonseca was again on show in this fixture, with him playing Veretout in an intriguing role that essentially saw him act as an auxiliary right back/wide central defender when Roma had possession.

From this station, his presence enabled him to help form ideal 4v3 overloads in build up so Roma could comfortably beat Lecce's first wave of pressure.

Clean with his passing and boasting a good range, the Frenchman did a solid job of connecting and constructing offensive moves. Factor in his ball carrying ability and how this provoked pressure to drag out an opponent to manufacture space ahead, and he was certainly valuable from this hybrid role.

Another reason why he was instrumental came from how he covered the space in behind Cengiz and Peres, as he provided structural security when a turnover occurred.

Alert at reading the play and snuffing out danger, he easily transferred his stopping qualities into his tweaked position, which gave his advanced wide men plentiful freedom to attack with vigour.

It was also interesting to note when the Salentini were methodically building up that Veretout went back into midfield alongside Bryan Cristante.

Showing how adaptable and tactically flexible he is, Fonseca certainly would've been happy with how Veretout performed in this slightly unorthodox role.