THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

No probs, Gio. Nice avatar, and if it helps, I understand (and share?) your pain. Are you watching the match tonight?

[RomaShield27]

Hi Parsholt, hows it going? You gonna get to watch the match tonight? Or wait for a download? Introduce yourself to the lads, they won't bite (most of the time, anyway).

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

Getting drunk sounds good to me. Hopefully its not a case of drowning our sorrows after another defeat tonight, though.

Novara-Roma, formazione | line up:

Stekelenburg, Rosi, Burdisso, Cassetti, Taddei, Greco, Gago, De Rossi, Pjanic, Osvaldo, Lamela

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

Yeah i agree, any pressure he felt so far will be nothing compared to if we suffer another defeat tonight.

Whoa, Taddei is at left-back. I didn't even notice that until i seen Angel's name on the subs list. And Cassetti ahead of Heinze:

Novara-Roma, a disposizione | substitutes: Curci, Heinze, J. Angel, Perrotta, Simplicio, Bojan, Borriello

[RomaShield27]

No one on earth could have predicted this line-up. Cassetti at centre-half, Taddei at left-back, and Lamela up top (if that is where they play). LE is setting himself up for a blasting if we lose tonight.

[loazzi]

For Italiamia, 5 Italians and 3 Romans in the starting 11 (and that's with Totti injured).

[SPqR]

It seems like the way to break down these teams that park the bus on the 18 is a bit of incisive passing and some over the top chips as we observed on Bojan's goal today. We've put a few in like that this year...I'd be happy if we basically abandoned wing-play and employed this type of strategy on these types of teams.

[forzaitalia]

Had a busy day so wasn't able to see the game - Sunday games are preferable to Saturday night ones!

Glad we won though, in difficult conditions. Nice to see Osvaldo and Bojan add to their goal tallies. Would prefer the Lecce game to be next week so we can get some momentum to push on.

[RomaShield27]

We had people call over so only really seen the game in stops and starts – gonna watch in again now, available for download in the .

Good result aright, but I can't help but wondering how different things could have been if they scored that one-on-one chance when it was still 0-0...

[Lupa]

Pagelle

NOVARA-ROMA, LE PAGELLE DEI QUOTIDIANI – Queste le pagelle del match del ‘Silvio Piola’ di Novara riportate dai principali quotidiani nazionali:

IL MESSAGGERO

ROMA (4-3-3): Stekelenburg 7; Rosi 6,5 (34’ st Josè Angel sv), Cassetti 5,5, Burdisso 6, Taddei 6; De Rossi 6,5, Gago 7, Greco 5,5 (16’ st Bojan 7,5); Pjanic 7 (43’ st Perrotta sv); Lamela 6, Osvaldo 7. Allenatore: Luis Enrique 6,5.

IL ROMANISTA

ROMA (4-3-1-2): Stekelenburg 7,5; Rosi 6,5 (33’st José Angel sv), Cassetti 5, Burdisso 6, Taddei 6+; De Rossi 7-, Gago 7,5, Greco 6 (15’st Bojan ; Lamela 7; Pjanic 7,5 (41’st Perrotta sv), Osvaldo 7. All: Luis Enrique 7-

IL CORRIERE DELLO SPORT

ROMA (4-3-1-2): Stekelenburg 7; Rosi 6.5 (34′st Angel sv), Cassetti 5, Burdisso 6.5, Taddei 6; De Rossi 6.5, Gago 6.5, Greco 6.5 (17′st Bojan 7; Pjanic 6.5 (42′st Perrotta sv); Lamela 6, Osvaldo 6.5. All.: Luis Enrique 6.5

LA GAZZETTA SPORTIVA

ROMA (4-3-1-2): Stekelenburg 6.5; Rosi 6 (34′st Angel sv), Cassetti 5, Burdisso 6, Taddei 6; De Rossi 6.5, Gago 6, Greco 5 (11′st Bojan 7); Pjanic 6.5 (42′st Perrotta sv); Lamela 6, Osvaldo 6.5. All.: Luis Enrique 6.5

IL TEMPO

ROMA (4-3-1-2): Stekelenburg 7; Rosi 6.5 (34′st Angel sv), Burdisso 6, Cassetti 5, Taddei 6; Greco 6.5 (16′st Bojan 7), Gago 7, De Rossi 6.5; Pjanic 6.5 (42′st Perrotta sv); Lamela 7, Osvaldo 6.5. All.: Luis Enrique 7

http://www.romanews.eu/2011/11/06/novar ... uotidiani/

[DCGweez]

Thanks Lupa. For me Gago was the best man on the pitch yesterday and I had serious "misgivings" (read blasted Saba) for his inclusion in this team.

Stecklenburg had his first impactful game in the shirt for my money. Every other game he's made the saves he should and didn't save the tough ones.

How someone can give Cassetti a 5.5 when in the first half i was about to insist on another Calciopoli investigation because it looked as if he was trying get tossed.

Pjanic finished strong but played uninspired footy for 70 minutes and frankly looked as if he really dislikes Italian football. I'm still waiting for him to make an incisive pass that stays on the ground. Everything is chipped. Still he actually put a shot on target without kicking it over the crossbar so perhaps there is hope.

Bojan changed the match. As Lucho said, he clearly doesn't like sitting the bench and came on and gave the team the cutting edge. He played with an attitude that is often lacking in the team since Totti's injury.

[RomaShield27]

Agreed that Gago played well. I thought it was rather odd for LE to switch positions between himself and DDR, though. Not that either looked out of place, but DDR has been in such terrific form in that defensive-midfielder role that you would think there is no need to change anything there. I haven't seen any new pieces or read about it, but i wonder if the thinking behind it is that DDR is a better footballer – better technically on the ball – so its better to have him as right mezz'ala and Gago in the deeper role. Its also good to have tried out a 'back-up' for DDR if he is ever absent. Still, I'd much rather see DDR back in that defensive role, he's simply just too good there to play anywhere else.

I also thought Rosi had a fine game which was great to see, and hopefully now he can confirm himself as our first-choice right-back and lay rest to ideas that we need a new signing there. Like I've said a while back, I think left-back is more of a concern, even if Taddei did well there. Taddei certainly started dodgy and lost the ball a good bit (which is understandable, playing in an unfamiliar role), but he grew into it and showed great grit and determination and got stuck into it, and looked a lot more defensively sound that Angel. It was still fairly evident, though, that Taddei wasn't comfortable playing there as he has no left foot, but he done well enough.

I thought it was quite an average performance overall, one which could have been a lot different had Novara been a little more clinical in front of goal. There were improvements, though, we played some nice 'possesso paella' at times and strung some nice moves together, but the problem is doing it for 90 minutes, as LE wants, and being more consistent in our play. Hard to do that, though, of course, when there are so many changes for every game, but a win is a win, so we can't really argue.

[RomaShield27]

Gago e De Rossi, coppia d'acciaio
– Lunedì 07 Novembre 2011 08:47

(Corriere della Sera-L.Valdiserri) La parata di Stekelenburg su Meggiorini nel secondo tempo, quando la partita era ancora sullo 0-0, e il gol di Bojan, pochi minuti più tardi, che ha sbloccato il risultato. Questo, giustamente, è quello che è rimasto negli occhi di tutti se parliamo di Novara-Roma. E poi il gol di Osvaldo, il quinto in dieci partite, che aiuta a rimpiangere sempre di meno chi se ne è andato (Vucinic) o i soldi spesi per l'oriundo (18 milioni di euro). Dal punto di vista tattico, però, l'indicazione più importante che esce dallo stadio «Piola» è un'altra: l'intercambiabilità di Gago e De Rossi nel ruolo di centrocampista davanti alla difesa, un ruolo chiave per chi gioca con il 4-3-3 o con un modulo da esso derivato (4-3-1-2). L'argentino, per la prima volta da quando veste la maglia della Roma, ci ha giocato per un'ora. Fino a quando, cioè, Luis Enrique aveva schierato Pjanic dietro a Osvaldo e Lamela nel ruolo di trequartista. Poi - entrato Bojan al posto di Greco, sistemata la squadra con un vero tridente di attaccanti e scalato Pjanic sulla linea dei mediani - è stato De Rossi a riprendere il suo posto abituale.

L'esperimento è riuscito: Gago ha dato regia quando serviva, De Rossi protezione alla difesa quando la squadra era più offensiva e sbilanciata. Non tutte le avversarie si chiamano Novara e presto arriveranno impegni più difficili, ma avere in «rosa» giocatori simili, capaci di coprire più ruoli e di permettere all'allenatore di cambiare in corsa, sono una fortuna da sfruttare il più possibile. Fernando Gago fu il giocatore più pagato quando Franco Baldini, all'epoca direttore sportivo del Real Madrid, decise di dare una rinfrescata alla carta d'identità delle «merengues». Gli altri due acquisti erano Higuain e Marcelo. Gago ha avuto problemi di infortuni e ha pagato un po' la tendenza del calcio moderno di mettere davanti alla difesa più un terzo stopper che un regista, ma è sempre stato un leader delle squadre in cui ha giocato, dal Boca Juniors alla nazionale argentina. È stato uno dei «ragazzi» di Pekerman, il c.t. che ha portato le giovanili dell'Albiceleste a vincere tutto quello che c'era da vincere.

Il centrocampo resta sempre il cuore di una squadra e Luis Enrique, in questi quattro mesi di Roma, ne ha provati tanti e non sempre convincenti. Quello con Gago, De Rossi e Pjanic sembra di gran lunga il più adatto a una squadra che, per sua natura, sarà sempre a rischio di subire un contropiede ma che, se vuole diventare grande, deve correre questo pericolo in nome di una superiore qualità offensiva. A che serve tenere il pallone (anche a Novara possesso palla al 64%) se poi non c'è abbastanza qualità per fare (calcisticamente) male all'avversario?

-----------------

Here's a piece from Corriere della Sera on the DDR/Gago switch. It gives quite high praise for Gago, which I have to say, I agree with. I shared Romawi's reservations (not quite so far as his absolute hate) about his arrival in the summer, but he has done well for himself and been a nice surprise so far (Romawi, what you think of him now?!).

As for the positional switch, it said "the experiment was successful", and highlights that it will serve us well in the future having different options to play in these key positions, and that Gago is suited to the defensive role and he's always been on-field leader (with Boca and ze Argies). It finishes by sayin that Gago, De Rossi and Pjanic (in that order) is probably our best midfield selection out of all the options LE has picked so far this season.

[arthurfonzarelli]

@maro: I think that with Pjanic, lamela and Totti all healthy, we can still play. We'd have Pjanic-Gago-DDR in the midfield and we'd have Lamela as a trequartista behind Totti and another striker. That's a definite possibility that works for everyone (except of course the guys left on the bench).

And on the Aquilani/fascist thing. It's ridiculous. I remember reading the article and it was one of those things where someone asked him about a Mussolini bust and the guy answered that he wasn't political at all but just got that as a present from his uncle. It kind of sounded like a group of kids playing video games in someone's basement and one kid finds some kind of nazi paraphernalia in the basement and screams out "Dude, what's this?" and the kid who's house they're playing just shrugs his shoulders while staring at the screen and keep on playing and goes "Ughh? I dunno. It's my brother's. He put it in here. Whatever."

[RomaShield27]

I disagree, I think Aquilani is a hardcore heil-Hitler saluting facist motherfucker. How else do explain him joining such despicable clubs as Liverfekkin'wankscum, Rubentus and Meelan? What next, being bought outright by Chelski (Combat 18), followed by a loan move to Madrid (), then a swansong at the end of his career with, dare I say it, Lazio? Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

New video on the , a promo vid from Roma Channel:



Seven players of the first team have been called up by their national teams:
Burdisso, De Rossi, Gago, Kjaer, Osvaldo, Pjanic, Stekelenburg

[AS Collie]

Aquilani admires Mussolini. He has said as much, so I don't think it's a stretch to call him a fascist, seeing as I call him all kinds of other names as well. Not exactly unusual in this part of the world, unfortunately. Did anyone read that Football, Fascism and Fandom: The UltraS of Italian Football? Looks interesting. I've read bits and bobs by the author in the past.

I wonder what odds you'd get on him playing for Lazio one day?

[RomaShield27]

Jeff (ASR1927) has read that and recommended it to me. Haven't got around to reading it yet, though. Jeff hasn't been around in a while but he said its good.

[maro]

Yeah, Fonz, that's the 'solution' I'd anticipate too. It's just that a number of 'experts' have said that Pjanic should play as trequartista as he did at Lyon and that Totti has now spent less time - so far as I've seen - as one of the front two than Lamela has.