The following is a guest post from Zach Lowy of Breaking the Lines; be sure to follow Zach on social media to read more of his work!
You would be hard-pressed to find a more experienced coaching professional in North America than Glenn Crooks. Crooks was born and raised in Basking Ridge, N.J., earned a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communication, then returned to the Garden State and began a career in sports broadcasting. He later transitioned to coaching, taking over the girls’ soccer team at his alma mater, Ridge High School, where he led the Red Devils to two state championships and a 140-39-8 record in ten years. In 1992, he founded the women’s soccer team at St. Peter’s University and achieved a record of 26 wins, 21 draws and 4 losses (0.549).
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He left as the winningest coach in program history and built the women’s program at Long Island University in Brooklyn before taking the helm at Rutgers. Crooks built the Scarlet Knights into an all-conquering powerhouse during his 13 years at the helm, leading the team to 13 consecutive BIG EAST championships, seven NCAA tournament bids, and developing promising young stars like Carli Lloyd. Additionally, he coached at the regional level with the Olympic Development Program (ODP) staff in Eastern New York and New Jersey, leading six teams to the ODP Regional Championship and three teams to the ODP National Championship.
Today, Crooks splits his time between traveling the country broadcasting live New York City FC games and hosting the SiriusXMFC Channel 157 radio show Coach Academy, which focuses on the education and development of coaches and players and features guests from the professional and youth ranks. As a result, Crooks constantly monitors the soccer scene in the United States and Europe and actively studies top executives in the game, from Luis Enrique to Vincent Kompany to Gian Piero Gasperini.
“The thing that stands out the most about Gasperini is his man-to-man approach, which is an old concept. I remember seeing Jerry Yeagley’s Indiana teams man-to-man all over the floor, and even if they didn’t win the national championship every year, they were definitely going to compete for it. There’s the division concept, but that’s Gasperini and him The thing that stands out for me is the man-marking. The high press has become a standard now and they use high pressure and man-marking, which is a risk, but no one likes guys in shorts and I think that’s part of the intention of Gasperini’s style.”
While many teams have moved to zonal marking, Gasperini has always stuck to his man-marking tactics throughout his coaching career. Gasperini joined Atalanta in 2016 after spells at Crotone, Genoa, Inter Milan and Palermo, where he elevated the team from an average Italian team to a perennial European powerhouse, eventually leading them to the 2024 Europa League title. A year later, Gasperini traded Bergamo to the Italian capital and took charge of Roma. Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that gamble has paid off. Roma is fifth in the Serie A standings with 39 points, level with Napoli and Juventus, one point behind Milan and four points behind league leader Inter Milan.
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Gasperini led Roma to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since the 2018/19 season, a feat he achieved thanks to an aggressive man-marking approach based on pulling the trigger and well-coordinated movement off the ball. In a 3-4-1-2 formation, Roma will look to crowd their opponents to one side of the pitch and as soon as the ball reaches their desired target, usually a defender who is a bit uncomfortable on the ball, they will immediately block him. It’s this tenacious pressing and keen understanding of when to jump that makes Roma a force to be reckoned with, with each centre-back following their man closely and even running across the pitch as the opposition forwards rotate.
Not only does this pressing intensity force opponents into careless long balls, it also results in them paying a high price in the final third. Roma can punish opponents with tight marking and quick counter-attacks, with every player well-positioned to make key interventions. They stayed in sync, constantly closing the gap between each other to ensure no gaps were left for their opponents, and for the most part, they were able to maintain this intensity for much of the game. It is this sense of urgency that makes Roma the best defensive team in Serie A, conceding only 12 goals in 20 games. It’s no surprise that Roma won more possessions in midfield (441) than any other team in Italy.
Gasperini has already created his first masterpiece in Atalanta – now, can he do the same in Roma?
