Eusebio Di Francesco might not be the most well-known name for football fans outside of Italy but he soon will be as he will be the man leading AS Roma in the Champions League next season. Di Francesco played for Roma in the late 90’s and early 00’s, making 129 appearances and scoring 16 goals as a central midfielder who also won 13 caps for Italy and, crucially, the Scudetto with Roma in 2001. Di Francesco has made a name for himself as a coach due to his fantastic work at Sassuolo over the last five years and now finally gets a crack at a big club. Here we take a look at his tactical philosophy at Sassuolo and what his appointment will mean at Roma.

Defensively

Di Francesco has mostly used a very flexible defensive system where his 4-3-3-formation becomes 4-5-1 when defending deep. The team defends positionally when defending deep and therefore moves according to the position of the ball, their teammates and the space behind and in front. There’s little space between the lines of midfield and defence and oppositions are forced wide. When defending higher up the pitch and using a high press though, Di Francesco implements man-orientated pressing schemes. As you understand, the coach sees the value of different defensive systems and is prepared to change based on the opposition and the players at his disposal.

Below we see a video of Sassuolo’s man-orientated pressing scheme away at Juventus last year which sees them stop the effective build up of Massimiliano Allegri’s men to regain the ball.