Tactics Talk with Manuela Giugliano
The AS Roma and Italy midfielder discusses going from defence to attack, being released by key signings, admiring Rose Lavelle and facing Barcelona
AS Roma and Italy midfielder Manuela Giugliano has quickly become one of the ultimate ‘can do it all’ midfielders in Europe.
The 26-year-old is entering her peak years and doing so in peak form, helping Roma to the Serie A title last year and despite missing out on progression from the Champions League group stage this season, Giugliano’s form has taken another step forward once again this season.
During her team’s title-winning campaign last season, Giugliano scored six Serie A goals and created three more, two tallies she has already surpassed this season with several months to go.
Her goals and assists in Europe – four apiece – sees her listed alongside the likes of Aitana Bonmatí, Caroline Graham Hansen and co, but in a domestic league and national team which isn’t yet garnering the attention of some of its rivals in the women’s game, Giugliano has remained somewhat of an unknown gem to many outside Italy.
She is though mastering what is almost a new trade. For much of her career, Giugliano has been a deep-lying defensive midfielder, and largely remains so for the Azzurre, but for Roma – as her goal tally may suggest – she has become much more of an attacking threat, playing as a number 10 in head coach Alessandro Spugna’s system.
“How I see myself on the pitch right now, I find myself in a ‘weird’ position if you allow me to say so,” Giugliano laughs. “Because now I have more freedom to wander around the pitch. I am playing a different position in midfield this year, I am going further forward, as opposed to a playmaker who has to be more static sitting in front of the defence.”
She’s clearly enjoying it, and admits so herself. As a pure striker of the ball and a quality set-piece threat to go with it, Giugliano did initially play as a more attacking midfielder when she was level, but when she joined Brescia in 2017 before AC Milan purchased the club’s licence, Giugliano played more as the defensive player she holds down as a number six for her national team.
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Moving around clubs every season, Giugliano picked up very little consistency, but is now in her fifth season with La Giallorosse, and thriving in her new role.
“I enjoy it and like it very much because I play much closer to the opposition goal and it’s easier for me playing as an offensive midfielder,” she says. “I feel I can be more creative. My first steps in football I started off as an offensive midfielder playing behind the strikers.
“At Brescia, I had a coach who put me in front of the defence because I could handle the ball and from that moment I always played in that position, but the last 18 months I have played in this new ‘role’ and I enjoy it very much because I get to be more creative and score more goals.”
One big element of Spugna’s masterplan in continuing to develop his Roma side, but also allow Giugliano to thrive, was the signing of defensive-minded midfield players such as Japan’s Saki Kumagai and Austria’s Laura Feiersinger in the summer, two moves the midfielder describes as “calculated” in allowing her the freedom to be the team’s number 10.
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