Four Things We Learned: Veretout and Mancini combine in style

Return to winning ways

Roma returned to winning ways by comprehensively defeating Udinese 3-0 at the Stadio Olimpico.

Producing a brilliant collective display and an especially accomplished first half, the Giallorossi were fine value for their win. Racing out of the blocks in now customary fashion, the Giallorossi took an early 2-0 early lead courtesy of Jordan Veretout's brace.

Outshining Udinese in many key metrics - including Expected Goals (3.37 to 0.26), shots (13 to five), possession (53.28% to 46.72%) and corners won (seven to two) - Roma's dominance crucially translated onto the scoreboard.

Paulo Fonseca justifiably cut a content figure after the victory, which saw Roma move back into third on the standings.

"We started the game really well," he said. "We scored twice, we created lots of chances and then in the second half we managed the game well too. It was important not to concede, but I think overall we played really well.”

Veretout's relentless running power

Right from the off it was clear Veretout would be operating in predominantly advanced areas with a keen eye on exploiting any gaps between defenders to maraud in behind the Udinese defence.

So quick to get on his bike once he realised a teammate making space for him, if a defender was preoccupied or if an opening arose, the Frenchman pounced.

Such a nightmare to track due to the excellent timing and speed of his runs, both Udinese's midfield and defence were caught out on numerous occasions.

Indeed, his power running was the catalyst for Roma's first two goals. For the opener, upon noticing Leonardo Spinazzola occupying Jens Stryger Larsen and Samir on Borja Mayoral, Vererout attacked the space between them to latch onto Gianluca Mancini's cross to power his header home.

Then, for his second, he shrewdly took advantage of the room created down the right channel by Lorenzo Pellegrini and Rick Karsdorp dropping to draw out their adversaries.

Veretout used this as the cue to surge forward with a wicked out-to-in run to get on the end of Pellegrini's through ball. With Mayoral charging into the box, Vererout then struck a pinpoint cutback for the Spaniard, who was fouled by Udinese keeper Juan Musso to earn a penalty.

Veretout then stepped up to calmly slot home the penalty to take his tally to an outstanding nine goals this season.

A constant thorn in the Udinese side and giving Roma so much offensive impetus, Fonseca was full of praise for his free running and free scoring midfielder afterwards.

“We talked about his goalscoring. I have a challenge going with him: the number of goals he will score this season," Fonseca said.

"At the start of the season I told him that he needed to score at least 10 goals this season, and so I asked him [after today] how many short he was of that. He told me: one.

"Veretout’s movement is really important, and we worked on that passing move with Cristante and Villar at the start of the play too. We needed to get Veretout further forward – he made lots of runs in behind, which also opened up spaces for others. It’s always important that Jordan makes these sorts of runs.”

Pressing stifles Udinese

Udinese's manager Luca Gotti came prepared to disrupt Roma's pressing game with some smart mechanics such as pushing Rodrigo De Paul into areas between Roma's central midfielders and wide centre backs and mixing up Walace and Marvin Zeegelaar's position.

Although they did beat the press at times, the Giallorossi handled their foes admirably to keep them pretty quiet.

With Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mayoral and Pellegrini usually oriented towards Udinese's back three, but all given extra duties, they performed their roles effectively.

The far side attacking midfielder, Mkhitaryan or Pellegrini, was instructed to tuck in so Roma could go 3v3 in midfield as Gonzalo Villar and Veretout would keep tabs on De Paul and Tolgay Arslan. Mayoral would then smartly position himself to block passing lanes to Arslan or be ready to press when a backpass was played.

The wingbacks would subsequently step out to their opposing wingbacks while two of the back three would mark Gerard Deulofeu and Fernando Llorente.

Remaining concentrated and shifting between roles coherently, their cohesion was most evident when Walace would drop into a wingback slot and Zeegelaar would look to surge in behind from the half space.

To deal with this, Karsdorp would step out to press Walace and Gianluca Mancini would monitor Zeegelaar, so neither could easily gain separation.

Having that spare man at the back not only dealt with the aforementioned, but also helped limit the dangerous De Paul when he motored higher, so a centre back could step up to press him to stop him from turning in dangerous zones.

On a night where Fonseca edged the tactical battle with Gotti in this compartment, the Portuguese tactician once again showed his nous and ability to deliver his message coherently to his players.

Marauding Mancini

Mancini's frequent upfield ventures added an additional dimension to Roma's attacks, as he used the freedom granted to him by Fonseca to give Roma another valuable number in advanced areas.

Seeing as Udinese were defending in a horizontally compact manner that focused on shutting off the centre, this left spaces out wide, which in combination with Roma enjoying a 3v2 overload against Udinese's first line of pressure, ensured Mancini had oceans of space to charge into.

On top of forming numerical and positional superiorities to help Roma overcome Udinese on the flanks, his overlapping runs were also key, for they stretched the opposition and gave him an opportunity to then fire in crosses or carry the ball upfield.

A testament to his impact came for Roma's opener, where his measured cross, that followed his clever run around the outside, saw him assist Veretout's flying header.

Further upside could be found from his astute underlapping runs, which saw him combine quickly to receive one-twos before continuing ahead to catch his foes by surprise.

Proving what an asset he can be going forward, his presence certainly gave Udinese plenty to think about while providing Roma with an extra threat against a centrally condensed backline.