Francesco Tot’s career is remarkable for both its longevity and quality.
In 616 Serie A appearances for Roma since 1992/93, he has
so far scored 250 goals, second only to Silvio Piola in the league’s all-time list.
He has scored the most goals and played the most games for Roma in the club’s history
and is the youngest ever Serie A captain.
He has won the Scudetto, finished as a runner-up eight
times, and won the Coppa Italia twice and the Supercoppa Italiana twice.
He is loved by fans of the Giallorossi as a symbol of the club’s
recent successes and as a Roma fan turned player.
Tot has always been a primarily creative player, mostly wearing the number 10 jersey, but
this has manifested tactically in a variety of interesting ways under a series of managers.
Though Tot made his debut as a 16 year old towards the end of the 1992/93 season and
developed under Carlo Mazzone in the next two seasons, it was under Zdenek Zeman that
he really came to prominence, moving from a second striker role into a left-wing, left-
forward berth in Zeman’s 4-3-3.
Zeman’s teams are notorious for their attacking intensity and high pressing, and it was in
this period that Tot developed not just as a creator,
but physically, to cope with the demands of Zeman’s style.
The 4-3-3 played almost as a 2-5-3, with full-backs pushed very high, which
allowed Tot to drift inside and shoot or pass on his favoured right foot.
He also dropped deeper, a feature of his play that would come
to define him, linking attack and midfield with
a combination of passing ability and vision that made him the perfect playmaker or
trequartista . In 2000-01, Roma won their third Scudetto
under Fabio Capello, with Tot, by then the club
captain, instrumental.
Capello’s Roma lined up in 3-4-1-2 with Gabriel Batitusta and another
striker, either Vincenzo Montella, an out-and-out poacher, or Marco Delvecchio, more of a
defensive forward, playing ahead of Tot.
The central midfield of Emerson and Damiano Tomassi were tough, destructive players, and
width was provided by wing backs, Vincent Candela and Cafu, ahead of a back three.
This effectively created a 7 plus 3, one unit defensive and tasked with winning the ball
and, through the wing-backs, transitioning it forwards,
and one unit, prompted by Tot, tasked with scoring.
Tot was the link, dropping into space to collect the ball from wide or deep,
before linking with the forwards and either feeding the ball through or passing and moving
into space.
Tot’s creativity, behind strikers who could score or hold up the ball to play him in,
made Roma irresistible despite Capello’s functional
approach.
Tot’s next shift came in the 2005-07 era, which saw Luciano Spallet develop a 4-2-3-1
that became a 4-6-0 in 2006/07 when injuries forced
the Roma boss to play his creative playmaker up front, but unconventionally.
In a move that heralded various other European sides playing without an out-and-out striker,
Spallet deployed Tot between the lines in the
number 10 slot, but without a striker ahead of him, effectively as a false nine.
Again, Roma had two units, a defensive and an offensive,
but in this instance, it was a defensive five, a
back four plus a sitng midfielder, Daniele De Rossi, playing behind an offensive five,
with four nominal midfielders and Tot.​
Tot would drop into space and any of the midfielders would drive ahead of him, or cut
inside from wide, or Tot himself would be the side’s attacking focal point, but starting
from a more withdrawn position – the effect was
to create a rotating, fluid front five that could
attack from all directions and leave the opposition struggling to mark or arrange themselves
defensively.
The system did not always work, but when it did, it was Tot’s flexibility and skill
that allowed it to.
Tot also won 58 caps for Italy, scoring nine goals.
This international career saw Tot win the 2006 World Cup, playing in a 4-4-2 as a withdrawn
striker behind Luca Toni, with a midfield axis of Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso behind
him.
This allowed Italy to field two playmakers, one forward and one deep, with Gattuso’s
energy and screening carrying both.
Again, Tot’s movement, his ability to drift into space and find
time to pick a pass or carry the ball forward, supported by a hard-working midfielder, was
integral to Italian success in the tournament.
Francesco Tot’s career shows how a player can, over time and under different coaches,
learn to play what is effectively one role, that of the team’s primary creative force,
in different ways and within different systems.
Tot’s ability was harnessed in various ways by
Zeman, Capello, Spallet, and others, but his range of skills, his ability to score and
assist, has been the core of everything good that
Roma has done since the mid-1990s.
The King of Rome will be missed.