Sampdoria primarily work with a diamond formation in which Torreira acts as the base of the three man midfield. When you watch them play, you can see how much compactness is stressed with the high volume of short passing in their build up play, creating shapes within the pitch for passing outlets as they progress the ball in such a methodical manner that will eventually lead to shooting opportunities. It allows Sampdoria to create situations where the opposition are attracted so much by the passer and the player receiving the ball, that connections are formed on the pitch and a third teammate can be reached by a pass, referred as “the third man”.

Torreira is important in the build-up phases for Sampdoria. He’s the one that operates as the base, positioning himself in close proximity with the centerbacks. Because of his ability to be cool under pressure, he can either pass it off to a teammate nearby or play a long pass up to the likes of Fabio Quagliarella and Duván Zapata so they can hold up play and play short passes/layoffs for other teammates in higher positions.

What makes Sampdoria quite interesting in comparison to other teams is that under their manager Marco Giampaolo, their fullbacks in Ivan Strinic and Bartosz Bereszynski don’t start up in high positions when the buildup begins, rather they stay closer to a level position with the centerback combination of Matías Silvestre and Gianmarco Ferrari.

It’s an interesting trade-off in the sense that you’re theoretically giving up whatever advantage you might have from employing two extra players in advanced positions, and instead keeping a most solid base of 4 for moments where the opposition try and spring counter attacks. Most teams that play some form of a diamond formation in today’s game have their fullbacks bomb up and down the pitch to maintain some form of width to complement the central superiority. You can make an argument about how much it’s actually worked for Sampdoria. Their attacking numbers whether it be shots or expected goals are above average, yet they’re 7th last in shots conceded and in the bottom five in expected goals conceded.

When the ball is further up the pitch, Torreira maintains his importance as a viable outlet for his teammates. While off the ball, he’s quite clever in using body shifts to maneuver himself into openings on the pitch. When he feels like someone is about to close him down before receiving a pass, he’ll simply shift himself away from the marker before actually collecting the pass. It’s nothing overly major, but an illustration of the cleverness in his repertoire.

One of the things that I found most impressive with Lucas Torreira when looking at the video is the ease in which he hits long passes, and the variety to which he can hit it. This is born out in the data itself with Played Off The Park’s brilliant piece which tried to use statistical data and the use of z-score application in finding which players fit which archetype of midfielders. Torreira came out fairly well in relation to other players of his age group when it came to deeper midfielders, taking volume into account. Torreira is capable of attempting different kinds of long passes, whether it be while he’s got acres of space to settle down and pick out his target or being hurried by an opposition marker. It’s this kind of versatility that makes him an intriguing player.

It also helps that he’s flashed the ability to be able to get past players from deeper positions and carry the ball into further areas of the pitch, showing off that diversity to his game that clubs want in today’s game from midfielders. He’s not just press resistant off the ball, but he’s shown that he can be on the ball as well to some extent.

The same level of emphasis on compactness and the collective that goes into the attack applies as well on the defensive side. Sampdoria employ a counterpressing style when loss of possession occurs in the middle areas of the pitch. Because of how closely connected the players are when advancing the ball, it allows them to immediately hunt for the ball like a pack of hyenas to regain possession. It’s not full-proof as a strategy, just like any other strategy in football, as it can be taken advantage of if the opposition has enough individual talent to bypass the initial onslaught.

Watching Torreira attempt tackles during counterpressing moments, and just in general, can be quite the experience. He’ll have his moments where he mistimes his approach and get beat, setting off a chain of reaction that lead to opportunities the other way but when it does work, he’ll use his 5’4–5’5 height to nibble at the feet of taller opponents and wrestle possession away from them.

There’s a lot to like about Torreira’s game. There’ll be some who point out that his height for his position can lead to flaws in terms of aerial prowess, albeit there are numerous defensive midfielders with similar size who have compensated with other areas of strength. Perhaps the fairest critique of his play is that during possible transition scenarios, he slows down the pace a bit more than you would like and opts for safer passes towards teammates rather than try and connect on a home run pass, though perhaps that’s one of the trade-offs of playing within such a methodical structure. It’s fair to wonder whether in a different environment that more so embraces chaos and variance during transition play, he’s able to perform to the same level.