The men of De Rossi's staff: Enrico Iodice

Born in Maniago near Pordenone, the 39-year-old has a degree in Physical Education and a UEFA A licence. He previously spent ten years at Udinese and a season at Hellas Verona.

“Having spent my whole life in the North-East, it’s a huge privilege for me to be able get to know this wonderful city and its history. Having said that, I haven’t had much opportunity to enjoy it properly yet because we spend most of our time at the training ground in Trigoria – but that itself is a joy.”

How did you first get started in the game?

“I joined Udinese from Pordenone Calcio and started off in the youth academy but quickly got involved with the first team as a technical assistant. In my second year I had to leave the academy to focus solely on the senior team. That’s where my journey began and I’m now in my 13th season in Serie A.”

Who was the first coach you worked with at Udinese?

“[Francesco] Guidolin. Then [Gigi] Delneri, [Luca] Gotti, [Igor] Tudor, [Giuseppe] Iachini, [Gabriele] Cioffi and [David] Nicola, albeit not in that order. I spent ten years at the club and was lucky to be able to learn a lot from different coaches.”

Have you seen any of those coaches again since you’ve been at Roma?  

“Yes. When we were in Milan for our Europa League match against Milan, Julio Velazquez [who coached Udinese in 2018] came to see us. He’s continued to follow Serie A closely. I often speak to him. I learnt a lot from him, especially in terms of his approach.”

What do you mean by approach?

“I mean his modern approach to the profession. He studies opponents in great depth and, just like Daniele, he’s very demanding, especially with himself – that’s important.” 

Why’s that?

“Because it’s one thing to be demanding of others. But if you’re demanding of yourself, if you always expect more from yourself and call yourself into question, the people around you automatically raise their own game. When you’re a convincing figure, people follow you.” 

How did you start working with De Rossi?

“Daniele got in touch with me last summer. We had several mutual contacts but didn’t know each other personally. I got this call from him unexpectedly and he spent a long time telling me about his ideas and plans and asked if I wanted to join him. I was fascinated by his vision and his energy so I didn’t think twice. Roma came calling in January and the last nine months have been a whirlwind. I’m grateful to Daniele and the owners for this opportunity.”

What does Daniele ask you to do on a day-to-day basis?

“As I said, he’s incredibly self-demanding and that rubs off on the rest of us. His mindset is ‘Don’t look for excuses and focus on the things we can determine.’ With that sort of attitude, you get the staff on board, and more importantly you get the dressing room on your side. We work really well as a group and speak openly about everything.”

Given your experience of working with different coaches, is that sort of open relationship common?

“It depends on the character and personality of the coach. Daniele involves us a lot in his choices – the drills we do, the technical decisions, the all-round management. He listens carefully to everyone’s opinion, then the final decision is his of course.”

What about your own work specifically?

“The main goal of analysis is to determine which areas can be improved and which ones are going well. We focus on those aspects and come up with training drills for them. Alongside that, you have to study the opposition and work out match strategies, find the best way to deal with different opponents – both when attacking and defending – based on the key tenets of our playing philosophy.”

You mentioned the Europa League match against Milan earlier. Can the decision to field Stephan El Shaarawy on the right, on Milan’s strong flank, be considered an example of your work?

“It’s a perfect example. It wasn’t an obvious move. It was a great idea Daniele had. Milan tried to lure us out by building possession with five players plus Maignan, who gets involved when they build from deep. We decided to start pressing them a few metres further back and strengthen our right wing, where they had Theo [Hernandez] and Leao, so that we could cause problems for them ourselves on that side. We thought Stephan had the right set of skills to do that. He was completely up for it and, as always, it’s the players who make the difference. He had a great game – the whole team did. Only by working as a team at all times do you obtain results.”