Martina Rosucci is a 28-year-old Italian international player who used to play for Torino and Brescia before joining Juventus in 2017.
The Italian was first known as a central midfielder especially when she played at Brescia, however, when she moved to Juventus, and after a great display of her shooting, dribbling and passing skills, she was employed in a more advanced position on the pitch as a playmaker just behind the team’s forward.
In this tactical analysis, Rosucci’s role, positioning, and main characteristics will be examined along with how she fits Juventus’ tactics. Therefore, you will find a meticulous analysis of all the abovementioned points in this scout report.
Juventus’ pillar
Since joining the team in 2017, Rosucci has been a great addition to Juventus in terms of quality, goalscoring, assists and overall performance. This article will focus on the player’s contribution in the 2019/2020 season and will consider Rosucci’s position this year.
When looking at Rosucci’s heatmap of this season, it is clear that she was employed as a link between midfielders and attacking players, and in Juventus’ case, she is actually the link between the two defensive midfielders, the two wingers and the team’s forward. Therefore, as it is shown in the heatmap, Rosucci occupies all the space between midfield and attack as she is given the freedom to move left and right to help create numerical superiority and provide the team’s forward with key passes when possible.
Part of her job is also to aim for the goal when the occasion comes, knowing that Rosucci is considered one of the best Italian shooting technicians.
Therefore, it is possible to say that Rosucci is a very important player for Juventus. A good argument to support this statement is that Juventus’ 4-2-3-1 is not as effective as when Rosucci plays in that role since she is a very dynamic player who knows how to play and position herself in the half-spaces and create the danger from nowhere either by her accurate passes or by individual efforts such as dribbling and shooting.
Individual skills
As mentioned above, Rosucci is one of the rare players in Italy who combines pace, dribbling, shooting, vision and physical strength. These characteristics make of her a unique trequartista capable of playing in the best European leagues. During this season, Rosucci has been able to confirm her talent by putting some great performances on the pitch, scoring five goals in 16 Serie A Women games, which is a good number considering her position. One major trait of Rosucci is her physical strength and ability to score unexpected goals by using her body to cover the ball and prevent defenders from stealing it from her.
In the game against Inter, she took the position of a striker and put her body in front of the opposition defender to receive the ball without being disturbed. As a result, the defender pulled her down but she was still able to kick the ball twice and finally score an important goal. You can see in this picture how she used her physical strength and determination to reach her target despite the defensive attempts to block the action.
Another very important characteristic of Rosucci is her accurate shooting skill. Many times this season she aimed for long-shots from outside the penalty area whenever she was pressured or had no free teammate, providing her team with goals created by a solo effort.
Like in this match against Roma where she tried to eliminate her direct opponent and instantly surprised the goalkeeper with a tricky long-shot.
In this game against Inter, Rosucci has also aimed for a difficult shot that requires solid shooting techniques since she included interesting movement to fool the goalkeeper and change the direction.
Attacking movement
What further confirms the talent of Rosucci is her attacking movement and positioning inside the penalty area. Since she took the role of a striker and became a false nine on many occasions to support the team’s forwards, it has helped the team secure many crucial goals like the one against Milan.
At the start of this action Rosucci was far behind the two Milan centre-backs, and once the ball was crossed from defence to the team’s left-winger, Rosucci made a fast sprint to reach and leave the two defenders behind her. She did this so she could be in a perfect position to receive a cross and make the mission harder for defenders who will have to mark two forwards instead of one, which led to some confusion and to an own goal by Rosucci’s direct marker.
A similar situation happened in a match against Orobica, when Rosucci scored twice. Her second goal was scored after running behind the opponent’s defensive line to place herself in a perfect position. She was right in front of the target before she received a cross and turned it into a beautiful volley goal at a time when the opponents were busy marking the team’s forward and were not aware of the threat that may come from behind.
That’s why it is worth saying that the defensive marking was poor during this action, as it is shown below, since the marker did not follow Rosucci and left her all the time in the world to receive the ball and score.
Defensive and pressing movement
Rosucci plays another important role when Juventus are out of possession. In fact, she is responsible for pressing high on opponent’s pivots to stop or slow down the build-up play of the opposition. That’s why we can see her close out pivots even when the ball is not with them at times since the two wingers press on full-backs and the forward tries to disturb the two centre-backs.
Juventus adopt this pressing system so often and even against big teams like Barcelona, with Rosucci being a very important factor in making this pressing useful given that she marks the other team’s defensive playmaker or regista.
Even though Rosucci does not always join the defence in closing down opponents, she often helps in pressuring pivots in the opposition’s own third and also in midfield as she also helps closing down opponents on the flanks in support to the two wingers.
For example, in their match against Milan in the picture below. The Rossoneri were struggling to keep ball possession since Rosucci marked Refiloe Jane, Milan’s defensive midfielder, and she reduced their options of progressing their attack while at the same time, she was ready to receive the ball and start an attacking action for Juventus.
Conclusion
Martina Rosucci is one of Italy’s best attacking midfielders and even though she achieved a lot with Brescia and Juventus, she is still capable of doing more on the international level if she keeps the same form and improves her skills even more. What also makes Rosucci a special player is also the rarity of players who can really interpret the role of a trequartista. And being able to excel in this position enables her to be a target of some of the biggest women teams in the world.
Moreover, with some crucial international fixtures coming in the next few years, ranging from the European Championship to the World Cup, Rosucci can contribute in making Italy step up to be one of the elite national teams and reach advanced positions in the final standings of these competitions.
