Lowdown on Ivan Juric as he nears Roma manager role

It seems as if Ivan Juric is set to become the new Roma manager, replacing Daniele de Rossi. The move has taken off quite quickly and is on the verge of conclusion, as the Croatian is set to sign an initial one-year deal with the option of an extension, if the club qualify for the Champions League.

It is a rather interesting move from Roma, who had a lot of the higher-ups fall out with De Rossi quickly towards the end of the summer transfer window. The club is in a period where the ownership is making decisions that involve the on-pitch affairs and for that, a manager of the politician ilk would be needed.

Juric, on the other, isn’t quite a politician manager. He’s a tactician who is incredibly honest and upfront about his opinions and ideas. With Gian Piero Gasperini his mentor, Juric had rather well-documented clashes with the Torino management and Roma would not want that from their boss. After all, De Rossi himself wasn’t in favour of a late of decisions made over the summer.

It is quite clear the club has figures who probably aren’t all on the same page and a situation like that can be difficult, especially when they have a very honest tactician as manager.

That aside, Juric has shown his tactical nous during his time at Torino and Verona. He is a key reason for why Verona are still in Serie A, having helped them overperform during promotion and moulding the likes of Federico Dimarco, Sofyan Amrabat and even Amir Rrahmani in a backline that shone in a man-marking setup. His teams are structured and press high up the pitch, and Juric is very quick to put his ideas across, having transformed Torino’s identity crisis within weeks of his arrival.

Verona and Torino were defensive machines, if anything. That happened despite them being a high-pressing unit and it was due to Juric that the likes of Alessandro Buongiono, Bremer, Wilfried Singo, Rrahmani and Marash Kumbulla emerged as defenders for big clubs. Their dynamism fit his style perfectly and it shows that Juric wants players who can cover a lot of distance, as he made sure that Amrabat got a big move to Fiorentina after the season he had at Verona.

There certainly are tactical positives for Roma fans, but it remains to be seen if they have a backline which has those dynamic defenders, having signed Mario Hermoso and Mats Hummels. Gianluca Mancini isn’t the most dynamic centre-back and while Evan Ndicka is, Juric always relies on structure than individuals. He isn’t afraid to drop players, if their workrates or work-ethic go down.

More than that, Roma’s window was a very exciting one and was built in a specific image for De Rossi to construct. Juric might not be as accomodating with those players as the Italian was, just because they aren’t his type of players. This could lead to bigger problems at the club and in the squad.

It is the sort of honesty which is very similar to Gasperini, but do Roma have the structure in place to support a manager and personality like Juric? Probably not. And that will be interesting to see, as the weeks go by.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN