Four Things We Learned: Centre-backs close the vice

Complete showing at the Olimpico

In what was their most convincing performance of the campaign, Roma impressed throughout their 2-0 victory over Fiorentina.

With so many positives to be gained from the result, including Lorenzo Pellegrini's continued good form, Chris Smalling's returning excellence, the front three's slick dovetailing and the deserved clean sheet, Roma were good value for the win.

Emphatically outperforming La Viola in Expected Goals (3.33 to 0.37), shots (17-6), headers won (18 to 12) and tackles (20 to eight), Paulo Fonseca duly praised his troops' classy all-round display afterwards.

"It was a great performance against a really good side. Today we were good in pretty much every aspect; we were secure defensively, we pressured them well, we launched attacking moves quickly to release the forwards… and we created a lot of chances to take advantage of," Fonseca said.

Centre backs aggression crucial

With Fiorentina boss Giuseppe Iachini deploying experienced duo Franck Ribery and Jose Callejon in attack, Roma came with a plan to press them aggressively and impose themselves physically on the pair.

While Roma's back three of Smalling, Roger Ibanez and Gianluca Mancini unsurprisingly dominated the diminutive duo in the air, their excellence in ground duels was equally important.

Fierce in the tackle and always awake to Ribery and Callejon dropping deep to link play, their touchtight pressure ensured they were under constant duress. Unable to turn and face, control cleanly or enjoy any time or space to execute their actions, Roma forced many turnovers.

Tracking them all over the pitch, including into Roma's attacking half to stop counters before they could develop, Ibanez and Mancini were typically the ones to harry, but Smalling still stepped out if required.

The fact Ribery only won eight of his 30 duels and Callejon three of 11 duels, plus could only muster one touch inside the area between them, demonstrated how dominant Roma's intense stoppers were.

Pressing scheme effective

Coming up against Fiorentina's 5-3-2, Fonseca chose to combat this with a shrewd plan. To start with, Pedro, Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan would press La Viola's back three. Then, the Roma wingbacks would be on the opposing wingbacks, not afraid to step out high.

Considering the visitors enjoyed an extra number in midfield, Roma overcame this with some good communication and situational awareness.

Central midfield duo Jordan Veretout and Pellegrini would mark two of Fiorentina's three central mids. To deal with the third mid, they used a combination of methods, including smart angled pressing to block access, pushing a centre back up, getting the ball far wingback to tuck in or using good backwards pressing from their attackers.

The central defenders also played their part as mentioned above, as they tracked their markers diligently and remained concentrated to handle threats.

Pressing high with gusto to good effect, it was encouraging to see the Giallorossi set up many quality chances from their pressing while nullifying their opposition.

The graphic below underlines this aptly, which shows where Fiorentina lost the ball on the pitch, with the yellow sections highlighting the instances when Roma's pressing led to a shot on goal.

Second ball structure

By pushing their wingbacks extremely high, this helped Roma win second balls from long balls upfield and goal kicks from Antonio Mirante.

Seeing as Dzeko was typically the target and an attacking midfielder would be in support, the presence of the advanced wingback (usually the dynamic Leonardo Spinazzola) helped generate a 3v2 overload.

A perfect example of this structure working arose for Roma's opener, where Dzeko drew two defenders as he challenged for the header.

In front of him was Mkhitaryan ready for a potential knock down while Spinazzola was to his right hoping to receive a flick on and burst in behind. Although Dzeko didn't win his duel, with the ball bypassing everyone, Spinazzola was nonetheless ideally positioned to latch onto the loose ball before eventually going on to score.

Serving as a smart tactic to beat the press and quickly breathe life into attacks, Fonseca would've been satisfied with how nicely this coordinated approach worked.