“It is an option. It’s an idea that appeals to me and it would test my players in the duels, the one-on-ones. Me or you. That’s something I like doing sometimes.
“Sometimes you journalists place too much emphasis on whether we play three- or four-man, almost as if this team couldn’t play with a three-man system. I think that’s totally untrue. You only say that because we tried it for spells in a few games and it didn’t go particularly well, but there have been other games in which we struggled with four.
“I think a three-man defence – if you do it well, with players who can play defensively even when you’re attacking, with defenders who can be your team’s first attackers – is a very interesting solution. That doesn’t mean we’ll play with three but it’s an idea I’m considering. It could be a useful counter-measure in tomorrow’s game.”
Where do you think the match might be won tactically? And is 4-3-3 a possible tactical tool?
“Definitely. Your colleague just asked me if the defence could be a tactical tool and I said it could. You’re asking me if 4-3-3 could be a way to win it and I say of course it can.
“You’ll never be able to prove otherwise of course, but you can win a game one way or the other. The initial formation doesn’t matter that much. In the past people used to play 4-3-3 with static full-backs. They’d stand there the whole game and just watch the corner flag. The centre-back stayed in the centre.
“We younger coaches study the best coaches and they teach us that as soon as the referee blows for kick-off, everyone starts to move. Lots of teams build play with two centre-backs, maybe with players who stay high or stay narrow. When I used to play, the full-back normally played on the flank. Nowadays they tend to come inside a lot more.
It’s not about 4-3-3. We often use these numbers to talk about how we defend, which depends on what we want to do and how we want to build, which can be quite rigid sometimes. But even then, it all depends on your opponents because if you play on the flank and you find their full-back in front of the defence, why would you stay on the flank? It’s a chess match and it’s fun. Of course an alternative is to exploit the numerical superiority on the overlap, whatever formation you play.”’
Those were Daniele De Rossi’s responses to journalists during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon in the lead-up to today’s massive Europa League semifinal match against unbeaten German champions Bayer Leverkusen. De Rossi and Roma will be tasked with trying to be the first side in 50 matches to best Leverkusen. And for the manager, that starts with the tactics and starting eleven to outdo one of Europe’s hottest young tacticians, Xabi Alonso.
In this match, Roma will be without Zeki Çelik, who will be suspended after being red-carded in the quarterfinal victory over Milan. However, on the injury front, it looks like De Rossi will have two of his biggest pieces ready to go after there was worry that both could miss out.
Romelu] Lukaku has trained very little but he wasn’t out for a long time as it was only a small injury. We’ll take another day to assess him but yesterday, although it was a fairly soft training session, he looked pretty good. We’ll have another look at him today. We might push him a bit more to see how he responds and then we’ll decide. I haven’t made my mind up yet.
“Chris [Smalling] trained yesterday too. The session was what it was but he did all of it. I hope and I think we’ll have both available but we’ll have to see how long for.”
Those two being available from the start would provide a massive boost for Roma on both ends of the pitch. And reports from around the peninsula indicate that it’s expected that the two veterans will both start.
With Lukaku starting in attack, De Rossi will be able to form his preferred attacking trident, with Lukaku flanked by Stephan El Shaarawy and Paulo Dybala. Meanwhile, after having to deal with the suspension of metronome Leandro Paredes against Napoli, De Rossi will have his regista back to form his go-to midfield trio with Paredes between Lorenzo Pellegrini and Bryan Cristante.
The only real question mark heading into this one is how De Rossi sets up his defense. As seen in his presser comments, he was non-committal about a three-man versus four-man backline. We think he’ll at least start with the latter, considering it has been his most used formation since he took over.
If that is the case, three of the spots seem to be called for, with Leonardo Spinazzola on the left and Smalling and Gianluca Mancini in the center. With Çelik suspended, Rick Karsdorp not playing much lately, and Rasmus Kristensen not on the UEFA list, we may see something new on the right. De Rossi was asked about Diego Llorente possibly shifting out wide.
“It’s possible. We consider ideas based on how the players look in training and recent experiments with centre-backs on the right. We try to consider lots of things.”
If De Rossi goes this route, it would also give him the tactical flexibility to shift between a three and four man set up without having to sub personnel. And it would probably be similar to what Luciano Spalletti used to do with Antonio Rüdiger playing as a right back in a “three and a half” man defense. That would round out the XI in front of Mile Svilar.
ROMA (4-3-3): Svilar; Llorente, Mancini, Smalling, Spinazzola; Cristante, Paredes, Pellegrini; Dybala, Lukaku, El Shaarawy..
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