Team Focus: Juventus & Roma Passing The Time

While Italian football is often looked down upon by many fans of teams from other leagues, criticised for its cautious approach and slow, methodical build-up play, many clubs in Serie A are changing in ways that make that sweeping generalization less relevant than ever. From Udinese's thrillingly direct approach under Francesco Guidolin, to Walter Mazzarri instilling a swift counter-attacking ethos in his Napoli side, the Calcio landscape is changing rapidly. That both finished last season in the league's top four spots - and in doing so earned a Champions League Playoff berth - says much about the benefits of adopting a positive and proactive ideology in a country still associated with Catenaccio.

Two more coaches intent on making a mockery of the old stereotype are Juve's Antonio Conte and Luis Enrique, installed as the figurehead of the new-look Roma under the new American-led ownership of the capital club. Both demand their teams press the opposition - albeit in starkly different ways - and each is working hard to enforce a change in culture within the very mindset of the players under their charge.

Each man has lauded the value of possession, of retaining the ball through smart passing, sharp movement and an ingrained system of interplay between the players as they rotate through different positions and phases of the game. For Juventus, led by their former captain, it has been almost a case of going back to the future as Conte's Bianconeri are very similar to the hugely successful sides of the mid 1990's he himself was a key figure in. With the Giallorossi it is an even greater upheaval as the Spaniard brings a style rarely seen anywhere on the peninsula, while still retaining the very traits that make Roma such a unique club.

What they do have in common however is the sheer volume of passing their respective teams register every time they set foot on the pitch. The two clubs trail only Milan in terms of outright possession with the Rossoneri logging 60.8% compared to 60% for Juve and Roma with 58.6%. Milan also rank second in pass completion, their 85.1% narrowly trailing Roma (85.2) and slightly ahead of Juve's 84%.

Each side also has two players in the top ten of that same statistic where Gabriel Heinze, Simone Perotta, Leo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli all feature prominently, while in terms of number of completed passes Andrea Pirlo leads the league with 1116, narrowly followed by Daniele De Rossi on 1099. Giorgio Chiellini and Miralem Pjanic also make the top ten while Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Francesco Totti are in the 25 highest places.

One area where the sides do differ however is the distribution from the goalkeeping position. Gigi Buffon is Serie A's most accomplished passer among his peers, his 85.1% putting him in 32nd place in the entire league and showing how reliable an outlet he is for his team-mates. That many of these are extremely short balls to either Bonucci or Pirlo is very important to the style demanded by Conte and plays a key role in the build-up play for the Bianconeri.

Interesting to note is that in terms of long balls the Juve number one is as low as 70th in Serie A with sixteen other goalkeepers attempting more than his 90 passes over that distance and no other regular starter has tried fewer. Perhaps more surprising is that of those above him, Roma's Maarten Stekelenburg is third highest with 177, although the Dutchman is quite accurate, completing a league high 5.9 per game. That seems to show a clear directive from Luis Enrique that he looks long often and while his average - currently 70.2% - is markedly lower than Buffon's, it is still the second best among shot-stoppers.

That demand for shorter passing is evident throughout a Juventus side which attempts fewer long balls than all but three teams while Roma are fifth in Serie A. Antonio Conte and Luis Enrique have much work to do but their sides have already adopted the styles asked of them, having the patience and belief in a passing game that has seen both teams improve drastically from last season. Where it eventually takes them remains to be seen but may help to finally rid Serie A of those long held misconceptions.