Why Are Serie A Center-Backs On The Move?

Center-backs are on the move in Serie A, and for very good reason. Here we can see how they can be utilized in rotations up the field, how they can unlock one of your creators on the ball and the importance of rest defense to tie ideas together.

Written by Joel Parker.

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February 11^th – In a 4-0 win over Lecce, Bologna center-back Riccardo Calafiori collects a long ball from his defense, positioned on the halfway line. He then drove the ball from the left towards the center, his pass into the box dummied by Giovanni Fabbian and finished by Riccardo Orsolini.

February 28^th – On the right side of the Napoli buildup, Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s vertical pass into the box is met by Frank Anguissa’s back heel. Charging into the box to finish the move is center-back Amir Rrahmani, who side-foots the ball into the net, as Napoli equalized in their 6-1 win over Sassuolo. A few weeks later, Rrahmani would finish from a similar position in their defeat away at Barcelona.

March 9^th – Away to Bologna, Internazionale’s centre-back Alessandro Bastoni crossed the ball into the box. Charging through at the back post was center-back Yann Bisseck, connecting with a diving header that scored the only goal of the game.

April 11^th – Gianluca Mancini maintained an attacking position after Roma progressed up the field against AC Milan, during their meeting in the Europa League. The phase is kept alive and Lorenzo Pellegrini smacks the post from outside the box, but the first to react to the rebound is the center-back Mancini.

We can always point towards the Serie A for tactical innovation. Football’s recent obsession with inside fullbacks had teams winning the Scudetto with such components in place – Stefano Pioli’s AC Milan and Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli both had fullback movements that supported the rotation with its wingers. However, the dangers of space opening down the channels have sparked a new trend coming through: what if these movements came from a more central spot of the buildup unit?

Center-backs moving ahead of their partner is not a new concept. The concept of the Libero position was designed to free up one of the back five from man-marking tasks and to engineer attacks on the transition. Nereo Rocco’s Milan and Helenio Herrera’s Internazionale both won European Cups in the 1960s with a form of a sweeper involved. In the 1970s, Franz Beckenbauer brought the more attacking components in place, taking the ball into midfield and smacking the ball with the outside of his boot to feed the attackers.

Modern forms of the Libero have stuck around, but not many have electrified a team since Beckenbauer graced the pitch. Still, some buildup units are laying a new blueprint for center-backs to take more control ahead of their usual positions. Now the movement is more than just a back five responding to a back four or dislodging a man-marking system: the next generation of Italian coaches is encouraging a center-back to take up different positions for different purposes.

Daniele De Rossi, Thiago Motta and Simone Inzaghi are all coaching teams that will appear either in the Champions League or Europa League next season. In their ideas, we can point out a particular theme that these three coaches deploy in very different ways.

All three demand fluid actions on the ball and within these actions, the center-back is taking up more advanced positions in the buildup – regardless of whether they have two partners or one covering their movements. So why are these coaches demanding their center-backs to partake in such ambitious runs?

Movements that serve rotation

It is not like center-backs have always remained together in the Serie A. With the back three still the most common of backlines, the central center-back can remain higher when building out from goal-kicks. This deep buildup pattern has been passed through coaches like Antonio Conte and carried on by Inzaghi; situationally, Stefan de Vrij or Francesco Acerbi will be further ahead on goal-kicks for Internazionale.

But Inzaghi has taken this further and kept the very wide split between the outside center-backs. Bastoni and Benjamin Pavard are the usual occupants, and their advantageous positions add to the wide rotations. Situationally, both Bastoni and Pavard hug the touchline and this enables the wing-backs to move into more attacking areas, the midfield to bounce between different lines and for one of the two strikers to show for the ball.

Inter 1-0 Atlético Madrid, 62^nd minute: Inter reset with Çalhanoğlu and Nicolò Barella the deepest, whilst Bastoni and De Vrij covered the midfield spots. Pavard changed his running pattern as Barella passed the ball through to Marko Arnautović, which took Mario Hermoso away from the striker and enabled Arnautović to move into the vacant space. Pavard supported the attack by moving inside towards the box.

As Inter’s movements are very fluid on the ball, you can see Bastoni and Pavard both ahead of the ball at the same time, covered by the central center-back and Hakan Çalhanoğlu taking up deep central spots. As long as there is a midfielder or wing-back deep to cover the space, it is not unusual for the wide center-backs of Inter to partake in different positional arrangements to pierce through. This adds flexibility to a fluid system, against narrow defensive formations, Pavard and Bastoni can find themselves in the most space. Such spaces can continue if they move into vacant areas to become the third-man runner.

A team that has some relatable patterns to Inter is Bologna. Motta’s team have established a unique identity through the center-back movements, made more impressive by the fact they move out of a back four, as opposed to a back three. There are usually two stages to their progression: Sam Beukema steps ahead in the deeper buildup unit and Calafiori takes the baton into the middle third. There are many different passages that Bologna has developed within their buildup, geared by different vertical movements in center of the field, but within these many passages, we can draw similarity to Inter with a midfield on multiple lines and the space being carried by the center-back can create a two-versus-one alongside the striker.

Napoli 0-2 Bologna, 4^th minute: Calafiori’s touch encourages Anguissa to step out aggressively from his midfield position. Stanislav Lobotka steps back to cover Kacper Urbański, but Napoli does not close the passing angle to Dan Ndoye and the one-two can be made with Calafiori. As the center-back moves around Anguissa, a two-versus-one is created around Lobotka and the center-back can take the ball further.

Calafiori can provide attacking support for Joshua Zirkzee in this manner. When Bologna progresses down the left side, a common pattern that they use would come from Remo Freuler also being positioned on the wider left channel (alongside the fullback and winger) which drags another midfielder out of their position and enables more space to be open for Calafiori to charge into.

With Bologna being so flexible in possession, a variety of players can take up different positions in the front line, but the same pattern can emerge with the movement manipulating the pressing midfielder and creating an overload against another.

Roma 1-3 Bologna, 60^th minute: Common passing pattern from Bologna, to create the same two-versus-one behind the opposition midfield line. Calafiori carries the ball and Freuler is in a deep-left position to support. Michel Aebischer receives the ball and the overload is made inside for Bologna to progress. He opted to keep the circulation going at this point.

The way Pavard and Bastoni create the progression is very different to the way Calafiori does. Pavard and Bastoni are designed to create space for attackers to join, whilst Calafiori is very direct and his third-man runs are a lot more aggressive. When describing his assist against Lecce, the Italian defender described how he “felt free to take up that position.”

Spazio e occupazione pic.twitter.com/tiiWLWjShu

— CO (@CharlesOnwuakpa) April 24, 2024

The positions between the movements are also different, Pavard and Bastoni are often much wider whilst Calafiori is involved more in the center of the buildup when he makes his third-man run. However, the objective in these movements is the same: both serve the attacking rotation and are designed to establish small overloads against the opposition.

Movements that serve underlapping

Patterns that involve underlapping runs are now much more frequent in positional play, thanks to wide-pinning and a fixation on playing into the halfspaces that could cause a threat. In much deeper areas of the pitch, we can see some of the more rigid systems in Serie A using underlapping runs to aid their circulation.

Allegri has established a reputation for being one of the most cautious coaches with the tools at his disposal. Even in his systems, Federico Gatti moves ahead of the ball to create access back inside for the Juventus wing-back to continue with their circulation or for the player to move the ball inward with an opposition midfielder dropping out of their position.

Roma 1-1 Juventus, 15^th minute: Gatti passed to Timothy Weah and his run ahead of the ball dragged Lorenzo Pellegrini with him. Paulo Dybala presses Weah and leaves Manuel Locatelli free to create the passing angle.

This is a common pattern when Juve is on the ball because the rest defense is not disrupted that much. Against teams that man mark, or against fellow back five opponents, the space can open up on the sides of the midfield and the movement of Gatti can free up space for midfielders back inside of the circulation.

Another rigid structure that uses underlapping center-backs is Atalanta. Being rigid was not the occurrence for Gian Piero Gasperini’s team in the past, when they were consistently getting into the Champions League spots. Now the team is much less aggressive out of its backline movements, Sead Kolašinac the main conductor when underlapping the left wing-back.

Sporting CP 1-1 Atalanta, 4^th minute: As the ball is circulated from right to left, space opens for Kolašinac to connect with Matteo Ruggeri and make an underlapping run as Marcus Edwards steps towards the wide center-back.

Giorgio Scalvini and Rafael Tolói also adjust to new positions ahead of the ball, coming out of the defensive line, but this is under specific tactical instruction from Gasperini, as opposed to an organic pattern like Kolašinac’s movements. In Serie A, the older generation of coaches still use center-backs ahead of the ball, but not to the expense of rest defense and maintaining two center-back’s deep.

Inzaghi’s Inter use this combination too, but it is utilized in deeper parts of the buildup unit to bypass the high press. As Inter are often arranged with the central center-back next to the single pivot, when the goalkeeper has the ball, it leaves the wide center-backs stretching out to maintain balance. With the wing-back hugging the touchline and dropping towards the ball, a one-two can see an attempted high press bypassed.

Regardless of whether the buildup unit is more rigid or fluid, we can see similar movements being made from the back three systems because the space opens up so effectively against Serie A defenses.

Movements that serve the pivot

It is not just the center-backs themselves that benefit from their movements going forward. The constant adaptations in the first line of the buildup are designed to attract pressure away from the right receivers and take the ball away from a deeper phase to try to break down a lower block.

One could argue that the purpose of Inter’s entire buildup is to free up Çalhanoğlu in different central spots and for the right angle to be produced. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Inzaghi at Inter has been taking Çalhanoğlu away from the forwards and having him in a position where he could have more influence on the ball. In their 1-0 win over Juve, deemed as a title decider even in early February, it was the wide center-backs constantly attacking the spaces down the channel that enabled spaces to open up once the ball was back at Çalhanoğlu’s feet. Juve’s narrow 5-3-2 low block was the perfect structure to go up against with this dynamic.

Inter 1-0 Juventus, 14^th minute: Pavard’s carry took Dušan Vlahović away from the front of the press and Inter could circulate the ball back. With Locatelli blocking access to Martínez and Weston McKennie on Mkhitaryan, space is left for Çalhanoğlu to receive, pick his pass and Bastoni to join the passing sequence with Federico Dimarco ahead to create a two-versus-one.

Earlier in the season, Çalhanoğlu’s through pass into Matteo Darmian, who played in the wide center-back spot, directly contributed to their 2-1 win over Atalanta. As Denzel Dumfries pinned the wing-back, Darmian made a third-man run with the left center-back also pinned and the Turkish creator connected with his direct run into vacant space.

There have been many key players in Inter’s twentieth Scudetto win; Martínez about to finish the season with the Capocannoniere, Marcus Thuram being the ideal partner in the attack, but its Çalhanoğlu’s passing range accompanied by Inter’s center-backs stretching so wide and deep, that has established Inter as the champion.

They aren’t the only ones who are trying to use this dynamic. De Rossi returned to his home back in January, this time as coach. This has seen a huge tactical shift from Roma, now playing in a 4-3-3 system with a lot of positional freedom from deep. Roma’s deep buildup takes a lot of interesting and different positions, often swinging Leandro Paredes into a left-back position to build numerical superiority down that channel.

From the middle third, Paredes is the conductor and can take up many different positions amongst the first line of the buildup. This is coordinated with the two center-backs constantly adapting their positions ahead of the ball or carrying the ball up the field to free Paredes in a creative spot. As a result, their movements are more vertical, in comparison to the movements of Inter, who aim to stretch the field as much as possible.

Napoli 2-2 Roma, 47^th minute: Paredes was no longer on the pitch for Roma, but center-back dynamics are the same (take note of Ndicka’s position too). As the ball was circulated, Napoli’s medium block collapsed onto Dybala’s position, which created space for Mancini to move the ball out wide.

With Paulo Dybala often coming towards the ball, the Roma buildup can take a quite peculiar shape when in the opponent’s half. However, the movement from the likes of Evan Ndicka and Mancini can keep the opposition midfield from stepping up and compressing the field. When in this position, Roma is effective at turning these phases into shots, often overloading one side of the field.

The base is king

The clip from Calafiori discussing his assist against Lecce concludes with a very important statement: “It all starts with the idea that it doesn’t matter who takes up what position, as long as you cover it.” When Calafiori moves out of the center-back spot, or Beukema in a deeper area, it’s with the knowledge that both fullbacks have taken up slightly narrower but deeper positions, to react to a transition if it takes place.

When Bastoni and/or Pavard move high up into the channels, it’s to create space for Çalhanoğlu, but the Turkish midfielder has returned the favor by keeping their defensive positions filled. Both Inter and Bologna have taken up very fluid systems within their buildup, which may mask their care for the defensive transition, but the players are firmly in place to counteract if the ball is lost.

This is not instilled within Roma’s buildup just yet. Their rise under De Rossi has been very impressive, but not without its issues off the ball, as they have conceded a crazy amount of shots and plenty on the counterattack with a team that’s lost in its fluidity. Napoli is another team that started to include Rrahmani in the attacking phase and arrived late on the ball in the box. This pattern under Francesco Calzona started to appear when he first came in, but massive tactical problems elsewhere have seen this appear less and less.

Depending on the opponent and game state, center-backs can be left in the most amount of space amongst the outfield players. With the right structure around them, Serie A center-backs are trying to carry this space and overload the opposition in a different area of the field to manipulate them.  

Takeaways

This innovation in the Italian game points towards what Serie A have evolved into. Now the league hosts plenty of dynamism and interesting ideas within the buildup, even if the defensive part has not quite caught up.

With Milan, Juventus and Napoli expected to change their coaches in the summer, we can expect another face of Italian tactics to reveal itself. Center-backs constantly on the move have brought the brush strokes to a familiar canvas, but what will the picture be?