When you’re staring down the barrel and almost certainly facing the sack, the last thing you want to face is a match against your most hated derby rivals. That was the situation facing AS Roma boss Eusebio Di Francesco last weekend, after a terrible run of results that culminated in an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Bologna.
That was on September 23, a disjointed Giallorossi side conceding twice to a team that had failed to score at all in 2018/19, new Bologna boss Pippo Inzaghi overseeing his first four matches in charge without breaching the opponents net. This factor only served to heap pressure on Di Francesco, and reports suggested the next two games versus Frosinone in midweek and Lazio the following weekend would be decisive in terms of his future.
Something had to change from that inept display, and Di Francesco shook up both his formation and lineup at home to Frosinone. Gone were the relatively inexperienced duo of Lorenzo Pellegrini and Bryan Cristante in a 4-3-3, the boss instead opting for a 4-2-3-1 with robust and mature midfield duo Daniele De Rossi and Steven N’Zonzi protecting the defence.
This allowed the trio of Stephan El Shaarawy, Javier Pastore and Cengiz Under to provide striker Patrik Schick with plenty of chances, the Giallorossi creating no less than 18 chances in a rampant 4-0 win. Yet with this excellent yet expected victory versus lowly opponents, the danger was far from over.
Next up was the Derby Della Capitale, with neighbours Lazio clearly showing the better form of the two. Di Francesco stuck to his guns with De Rossi-N’Zonzi combination within the 4-2-3-1 as Roma blitzed the Aquile out of sight with a 3-1 victory, only slightly changing the attacking personnel as Edin Dzeko came in for Schick and Under was replaced by Alessandro Florenzi.
A masterclass from former Manchester City left-back Aleksandar Kolarov was one of many highlights in the fixture as his side posed a real danger from set-pieces. Indeed, the Serbian scored a crucial second goal, his sublime free-kick putting Roma 2-1 up after Lazio striker Ciro Immobile had levelled the scores.
Roma had reacted well even when Pastore limped off during the first half, his replacement Pellegrini putting in a superb performance despite that unfortunate injury to a key player which could’ve knocked the side off course. “The decision to put the team together was to shake off fear and malcontent,” Di Francesco told Sky Italia after the match. “We reacted as men today, which was what I had asked for.
“The most difficult moment of the match was Fazio’s error on the Immobile equaliser, but we were calm and knew we’d score again. We showed the character to remain in the game and not let our heads drop, so that proved we can get past obstacles and difficulties.”
It wasn’t even enough for Roma to come back from the brink, as Di Francesco pressed on with his new 4-2-3-1 formation, blitzing Viktoria Plzen by a 5-0 scoreline in their Tuesday evening Champions League tie. This time it was Bryan Cristante that shielded the previously leaky defence along with N’Zonzi, but the care-free attack provided Edin Dzeko with chances that allowed the Bosnian to fire in a hat-trick.
“Aside from experiments, I was trying to find the right solutions,” the boss admitted after that resounding win when questioned over his previous struggles. “It’s not easy to experiment at Roma after all, but I was trying not to completely revoke my 4-3-3, instead making a few adjustments. Now I think we’ve found a good system and shape, so I’ll modify a few players, but try to give a sense of consistency to the approach from game to game.”
If such consistency leads to results such as these, Roma and Eusebio Di Francesco will soon have forgotten that he was on the brink of being fired. The top teams in Serie A will be looking over their shoulders too as – buoyed by their recent form and new formation – the Giallorossi will surely start to rapidly climb the league table.
