Luciano Spalletti

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Luciano Spalletti
Personal information
Full name	Luciano Spalletti
Date of birth	March 7, 1959 (age 47)
Place of birth	Certaldo, Italy
Position	Manager
Club information
Current club	AS Roma
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1985-1986 1986-1990 1990-1991 1991-1993	Entella Spezia Viareggio Empoli	? (?) 120 (7) 29 (1) 53 (3)
Teams managed
1994 1994-1995 1995-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2001 2001-2002 2002-2005 2005-	Empoli (caretaker) Empoli (youth team) Empoli Sampdoria Venezia Udinese Ancona Udinese AS Roma
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Luciano Spalletti (born 7 March 1959 in Certaldo, Florence) is an Italian football coach who has recently taken charge of A.S. Roma in Serie A.

A former football player for Serie C teams such as Empoli and Spezia, Spalletti's early career in management led him to struggling Empoli, leading the Tuscanian team on two consecutive promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A, but it was at Udinese where he really began to make an impact. In the 2004-2005 season, Spalletti guided the side to a sensational fourth-placed finish in Serie A, exceeding expectations and placing the side in the UEFA Champions League. Such success for a traditionally unexceptional side with limited resources attracted the attention of A.S. Roma. The capital side had come off a disappointing season, in which four different coaches had spells in charge of the club. Spalletti is the latest man to attempt to bring order to this chaotic side.

After an uninspiring first half of the 2005-2006 season, he changed the team's tactics to attacking rather than defensive. On 26 February 2006, Roma broke the Serie A record for consecutive wins (11) with a 2-0 victory over SS Lazio, but at the end of the season, Roma failed to reach the 4th place, therefore failing to qulify for the UEFA Champions League, he also took Roma into the Coppa Italia final against Inter but lost it. However, Roma qualify for this season 2006-2007 UEFA Champions League with Juventus being relagated and Fiorentina and AC Milan being deducted points for the 05/06 season causing Fiorentina to finish out of Champions League spots, but AC Milan ended up finishing 4th, behind Chievo Verona in 3rd, ROMA in 2nd leading them to play Inter Milan in the Super Coppa where Roma lost 4-3 After Extra Time.

His favourite formation is the 4-2-3-1 system, where he uses 4 defenders, 2 defensive midfielders, 2 wingers (both sides of the 3), 1 attacking midfielder (in Roma's case, that would be Totti), and 1 striker. This system proved effectivelly when he changed up his line-up in the mid season of 2005/06 for A.S Roma, who climbed the charts from 15th to 5th place by the end of the season. It's also shown effectively after the record breaking 11 win run A.S Roma had in 2005/2006.

A.S. Roma - Current Squad
1 Curci | 2 Panucci | 3 Martinez | 5 Mexès | 7 Pizarro | 8 Aquilani | 9 Montella | 10 Totti | 11 Taddei | 12 Pipolo | 13 Chivu | 14 Faty | 16 De Rossi | 18 Virga | 19 Defendi | 20 Perrotta | 21 Ferrari | 22 Tonetto | 23 Vučinić | 24 Zotti | 27 Julio Sergio | 28 Rosi | 30 Mancini | 32 Doni | 35 Okaka | 77 Cassetti | Coach Spalletti