Before Tuesday night, Eusebio Di Francesco played three at the back just twice in his history as Roma manager.
They needed to score at least three goals against Barcelona or they were out of the Champions League so, for the first time this season, they changed system and went for it. Rather than their normal 4-3-3, they adopted a wing back formation and threw an extra man up front to support Edin Dzeko and it worked wonders. Miracles.
The 3-5-2 idea brought about one of the most beautiful European nights in living memory but, somewhere in all the celebrations, the manager seemed to convince himself that he had stumbled upon some impenetrable potion known only to the Romans.
Of course, the actual reality is that three at the back worked in a game where one team arrived in Italy for casual formalities and another simply had no choice but to massacre everyone in sight to find any way out.
Three at the back worked against a 4-4-2. Against a Barcelona team who play central midfielders on the wing.
But this decision to come to Anfield with a similar backline was, frankly, bonkers. The decision to let it go and change nothing was even worse, if that was possible.
Right from the start, it was clear that this was going to be a case of three total and utter mismatches and that this was going to happen over and over and over again.
Basically, Di Francesco was asking three of his defenders to keep out three of the sharpest forwards on the entire planet who will inter-change, pull wide, run absolute riot on a shoestring if that’s all they were given to work with but Juan Jesus, Konstantinos Manolas and Federico Fazio were given the nod to do the job.
3 v 3
Mané, Firmino and Salah probably couldn’t believe their luck when they saw how the Roma defence was setting up.
Three men to trade blows with them, two wing backs totally useless to the defensive cause.
Firmino chance
It was obviously a recipe for disaster. So much so that one pass was all it would take to completely open them up, simply because of the imbalance of pace that was left up there.
Mané chance
The three at the back got depressingly exposed time after time and for that chance Mané blazed over, it was just reckless carry-on altogether.
Manolas, for God knows whatever reason, wants to get tight on a centre forward who drifts all over the pitch more than any centre forward does.
So, 10 yards into the Liverpool half, he gets done by Firmino and taken out of the game like a clown.
All that leaves is yet another footrace. Two players, one v one, and the pair of them burn the Roma defenders.
Look at the gap they open up in the space of just 40 little metres. With both of them starting behind the opposition too.
Salah’s second goal
Christ alive.
This is Roma’s backline. This is their entire defence against the sharpest front three on earth.
Once again, it just takes great control from Salah, one pass and that’s it. Firmino plays into the space behind and no-one can live with the Egyptian. An exquisite finish and the rest is history.
Firmino’s first goal
This play starts with Liverpool passing around their backline from left to right.
There are seconds and seconds passing before the ball comes to Alexender-Arnold and the Roma defence should be well set. The thing is, they are. It’s just they’re set in this ludicrous shape and one shift to the wing, a little point in behind and a hoof over the top and that’s all it takes to undo the Italian rearguard.
Honestly though.
Mané’s goal
The wing back pushes up on Alexander-Arnold, he flicks it ahead of the challenge and Salah genuinely looks like he can’t believe his luck.
Pace, pure skill, composure and he’s adding a second assist to his night’s work but a full 61 minutes into tormenting his old club, they’re still allowing him to roam free off the leash.
Pressing
Liverpool are frightening as it is with their full press and relentless pressure. They basically have three whippets up top and three middle-distance runners in the middle so it doesn’t let up.
It gets even easier when a team like Roma think that allowing Liverpool to press you man for man isn’t going to be an issue.
In an entire half of the field, it was three Roma defenders against that three.
And, by Jesus, they made hay.
The Roma manager said something afterwards about his players playing like they had never watched Liverpool before but you have to ask what the hell kind of footage was he watching in the build up to the semi-final.
Everything they did played right into Liverpool’s hands and, if they played that way 10 times, they’d be ripped to pieces 10 times without deviant.
This took great players to execute and a manager like Klopp who has developed this stunning pattern but, on Tuesday night, all it took was Roma being mind-bogglingly stupid and Liverpool just doing the inevitable.
Beating them for pace in the race the Italians wanted to instigate. Beating them for skill with the space they were offered. And beating Roma back out the gate with their tail between their legs for having the audacity to come to Anfield and think three centre backs would do the job.
