Paolo Rossi is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific Italian forwards of all time. Although he lacked the intimidating physical presence of a typical out-and-out striker, Rossi was a quick, agile, prolific, and elegant centre-forward, with good technique, balance, extremely quick reactions, an accurate shot, and an eye for goal, which enabled him to anticipate defenders in the box for the ball. He made up for his lack of strength, physicality, and shooting power with his keen sense of opportunism, intelligence, positional sense, and sharp finishing skills with both of his feet as well as with his head, which allowed him to excel in the air and beat out larger opponents for the ball, in spite of his relatively short stature; he was not particularly adept at set pieces, however. Although Rossi was primarily known as a striker who mainly operated in the penalty area, he began his career as a right winger, and in his later career with Juventus, he was also deployed as a supporting forward, owing to the offensive attributes of the club's new signings in midfield, in particular Zbigniew Boniek and Michel Platini, where his role frequently involved holding up the ball or dragging opponents out of position to create space for his teammates' runs with his excellent attacking movement of the ball.
