A common mistake we make is that of placing managers or players in boxes. There’s always a temptation to pigeonhole them as the next this or a disciple of that. Comparisons are fun and do serve a purpose to make someone or something relatable to the uninitiated. But they can also be unhelpful and misleading, framing a debate about the subject in a way that loses sight of who or what they really are.
Take Eusebio Di Francesco for example. The Roma manager has never hidden his admiration for his former coach Zdenek Zeman. In many respects Di Francesco has followed in his footsteps, working at Lecce, Pescara and Roma. The 48-year-old learned a lot from Zeman and it’s true you can see traits of the Czech’s management style in how he goes about his business. Di Francesco likes his teams to play 4-3-3. He bangs on about verticality. And he loves to develop the next generation, nurturing young talent with careful attention. But that’s where the parallels end.
Di Francesco has many other influences. “Montefusco, Vitali, Cagni, Lippi, Scoglio, Orrico, Fascetti. They all taught me the importance of three fundamental principles: sacrifice, running, togetherness.” Each of them rounded Di Francesco as a coach. And yet ever since he embarked on his second career in football it’s as if the initials ZZ have been inscribed on his forehead. Not by Zeman, but by the media. It brought ulterior pressure.
Roma lost a friendly 4-1 to Celta Vigo just a week before the start of the season. Four-nil down at half-time, the reaction was as predictable as it was overblown. Di Francesco spent the next week, wasting more energy than he would have liked, defending himself from the accusation Roma had made the mistake of appointing another Zeman; a kamikaze coach who would rather win a game 4-3 than 1-0 every day of the week. Defence is an afterthought with Zeman. Balance overrated.
The notion that Di Francesco is his own man with his own ideas about the game got lost. At Italy’s coaching school in Coverciano, the first thing they teach you is to forget everything you know about football. There are no books because no sooner are they written than they are out-of-date. Football moves on. If Di Francesco set out to be the second coming of Zeman, Coverciano’s director Renzo Ulivieri would have kicked it out of him.
“Many of the coaches who come here want solutions. But we don’t give them any,” he said. “They want exercises. But we don’t give them any. We teach them how they can invent or build their own.” This should also be our starting point when judging managers, particularly the Italians. If they are former players we should forget everything about their past and focus on the present. Study what they’re doing now. Avoid viewing them through the prism of someone else.
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Of course echoes of Zeman’s philosophy can still be heard in Di Francesco’s outlook on the game. But the results Roma have achieved this season, even the 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge, can’t have made you think of Zeman. The trap to fall into here is to say they’ve been more reminiscent of the Fabio Capello side Di Francesco won the Scudetto with in 2001. Consider the statistics.
Roma have won their last four league games 1-0. They have kept seven clean sheets in Serie A, the best record in Europe’s top five leagues after Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. Tuesday’s 3-0 win against Chelsea at the Olimpico made it more than five hours since goalkeeper Alisson conceded a goal in all competitions. And it’s not as though Roma have got lucky either. Take their Expected Goals conceded in their last three league games: it stands at a measly 0.50.
Roma’s defence is the best in Serie A and despite playing a game fewer than champions Juventus, they have conceded half as many goals. It’s cause for cautious optimism, especially in a league where the team with the best defence has won the title every year for the last 13 years.
Reading those numbers you might labour under the misapprehension that Roma are a retread of old school Italian teams. You maybe visualise Capello moving Marcel Desailly into midfield at Milan and locking everything down. But then you’d be wrong. Di Francesco still believes attack is the best form of defence just not in the same way Zeman does.
For its organisation and coordination Roma’s pressing game feel like one of the best in Europe at the moment. Edin Dzeko chases down the goalkeeper. Kevin Strootman and Radja Nainggolan run at the centre-backs. Roma’s wide players go after the full-backs. Its courageous, aggressive and effective.
Look at it this way. In the first seven games of the season, opponents averaged 111 passes in Roma’s half with a pass completion rate of 68%. In the last three, they have managed just 68 passes and their completion rate has fallen to 57%. The Chelsea games not only feel like the moment Di Francesco made this team his own but also serve to underline he is his own man.
In a fortnight Roma fans have witnessed their side’s best away performance in the Champions League in almost a decade (it’s a toss-up between Lyon 2007 and Real Madrid 2008) and their biggest win against an English side since Ipswich Town in 1983. The performances have not only altered perceptions of this Roma team but Di Francesco too. Zeman he is not. Capello he is not. Di Francesco is simply Di Francesco.
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