Eusebio Di Francesco appreciation thread

[rincon]

For anyone that watches or follows Serie A he is probably one of the best performing and most promising coaches in Italy. He has coached Sassuolo since 2012 (except for a couple of months in 2014). Took over Sassuolo in Serie B after Allegri had earned them promotion from Serie C1.

In his first season he won Serie B. Sassuolo was promoted for the first time ever to Serie A.

The first season in Serie A he got sacked during the winter as Squinzi was impatient but reappointed him in March. He managed to achieve safety and Sassuolo placed 17th with 34 points.

The second season in Serie A he improved by 15 points to come 12th with 49 points.

Last season (his third one) Sassuolo came 6th! with 61 points, 12 points better than the previous term. Beating AC Milan and Lazio.

Now the club which only managed to play in the first division 3 years ago is playing  the qualifiers for the EL. They beat Luzern 4-1 agg and now stand 3-0 over Red Star Belgrade after the first leg.

Di Francesco has done this with an almost all-italian squad and playing attacking football always, a unique combination in Serie A. His teams have been mostly youngsters or players from lower division when they started. Mostly unrecognizable names outside of Italy. With the more promising ones like Vrsaljko, Sansone, Zaza, and soon Berardi, leaving.

The hipster GOAT plays a very attacking 4-3-3 of roughly:

Consigli – Peluso, Acerbi, Cannavaro, Gazzola – Biondini, Magnanelli, Duncan – Sansone, Defrel, Berardi

The said that they wanted to improve every year by 10 points when they started in Serie A and they've exceeded that. With the objective being straight qualification for EL or CL playoffs (too unlikely) now.

We'll see how far he takes Sassuolo before he joins Juve in 2 years or so

[rincon]

His biggest achievement yet, to overturn Roma's choking mentality in Europe. Draw against Atleti and 6-3 agg vs Chelsea.

The hipster even has Roma with the strongest defense in Serie A so far.

[BarrileteCosmico]

This looks to be a prophetic thread ignored by GL at large. Rincon

[iftikhar]

His biggest achievement yet, to overturn Roma's choking mentality in Europe. Draw against Atleti and 6-3 agg vs Chelsea.

The hipster even has Roma with the strongest defense in Serie A so far.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Unique will now start fapping about him.

[rincon]

Only 4th time in Roma's history that they reach the QF.
Ateltico, Chelsea and Shaktar is great trail at this point too.

[zigra]

@rincon is a good lad. Smart. Learned a lot from me. Keep it up brother

[McLewis]

The jury is still largely out on him in Roma spaces imo. Many like him and think with proper funds behind him, can really make this team his and do super well. Others consider him an Italian Garcia though he's less rigid these days than he was during the middle of the winter.

I like him alot honestly and I think he's slowly undoing Roma's loser mentality, but I don't think his progress is going fast enough for the fickle Roman mob (the media).

[urbaNRoots]

Elite thread.

[RealGunner]

What a man.

[Luca]

justice for @rincon

[rincon]

[rincon]

It should be said too that the great hipster went for it and changed his system to something new tonight to beat Barca with it.

[McLewis]

I think he erased a lot of the negativity that was building up against him. He's done something no Roma coach, even our greatest, have done in this comp. That puts him in a space all his own when it comes to Roma coaches.

He showed courage and no shortage of balls to run with a 3-man backline and play 2 strikers against such a great team as Barca. This is why I like him and am relieved he's not showing the destructive tactical rigidity of his predecessors.

He's certainly won me over fully. He did that when we got past Shakhtar. Fully on the hypetrain.

[iftikhar]

Now he needs some decent fund to knock JJ off their perch.

[zenmaster]

I dont know much about this man , but Respect for what he is doing !

[urbaNRoots]

[Firenze]

clearly did 0 prep for this game tonight

[Doc]

A 3 man high back line against speedsters like Salah and Mane. A simple long ball dismantled everything and waited until 5-0 to switch to a back 4 and a reasonable line.

Yeah...

[S]

He's already overachieved with Roma anyway.....

[Luca]

What a genius

Let Pool get a hefty advantage so that he could show his hand

Even forced Klopp to substitute Salah

[rincon]

Prepping the tie for another 3-0 comeback

[Doc]

Di Francesco would have to tell us one day why he thought a back 3 with a high back line was his 1st thought vs this version of Liverpool.

[M99]

One of the fastest acting jinxes I've seen.

[Doc]

One of the fastest acting jinxes I've seen.

Is it? He still lost the 1st leg 5-2. Only rectified the issue after it was apparent that shit wasn't working after the 5th goal his side conceded.

[Luca]

Di Francesco would have to tell us one day why he thought a back 3 with a high back line was his 1st thought vs this version of Liverpool.

I'll tell you, he didn't want to show his hand too early

What a time

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