THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

I miss Trastevere.

[maro]

Nostalgia's not what it used to be. Iturbe in and Florenzi onto the bench; Cole and Yanga-Mbiwa in and Romagnoli off to Samp; Rabiot in and Viviani off on loan; Skorupski in and Curci out; Emanuelson in and Cerci to Spain: gio will be muttering into his cornflakes.

[DCGweez]

Radja was exceptional. His first half was one of the better performances you're likely to see all year i'd bet. (His 2nd half was quite good as well.)

Pjanic seems to improve every year. In the limited times i saw him in France he seemed to use a lot of athletic ability along with hints of his technical prowess. I feel like under LE he became a very static player, under ZZ he was adrift and under Garcia he seems to be putting it all together. He was excellent in the WC and hopefully that experience helps him shine in the CL where we'll surely need him.

Ref Gervs playing through the middle: The lack of a CF was very evident in that game. At times you saw Fiorentina move very well at the back, able to deal with any threat we threw at them quite easily. For all the plaudits the team got for their first half performance we rarely tested the keeper.

Which leads to what i feel is the two biggest concern for this team going forward:

1. We must find a way to integrate Destro with or without Totti on the pitch. How many times in the past 14 months have we had balls roll right across the opponents goal with no one to meet it?

2. How will Garcia, who's received so much praise for instilling team spirit cope with minutes now that he has near 2 players at ever position. Last seasons starting 11 almost picked itself with a few exceptions at the forward position. Now quality players, who've starred at other teams must sit. This year will tell us a lot about what sort of manager Rudi will be.

[Lupa]

Do we need to integrate Destro? Isn't he on his way to join Mourinho?

For CL, we will need to have all of these guys, although I suspect (whinge, whinge) that our run there will be short lived, so you are right to worry about how Garcia will manage these guys. Will be interesting to see.

[DCGweez]

I think there will be lot's of minutes to be had. The question will be are they the minutes everyone wants...

[Italiamia]

https://vine.co/v/OBewhFb76It

[Italiamia]

[DavidP]

[Italiamia]

Destro's wife.

[p_maldini_3]

Great pair.

[Bagg10]

[DCGweez]

[maro]

Lupa, obviously Destro has stayed, so Moaninho's courtship has been kept at bay. My more general thought, though, after Saturday's game, was that the version of our 4-3-3 that Garcia ran against Fiorentina is going to suit Destro much more - with Totti dropping deep and the wide players playing narrower than they did last year. We shall see if that turns out to be a consistent development, but implicit in that is Totti+Destro rather than Totti-or-Destro, I think. And there was an interesting piece a week or so ago in forzaroma, dcg, about Destro and Ljajic, saying that Garcia likes them both a lot as players, but doesn't quite like them so much as members of a squad in which they're often not going to be titolari. It wasn't really presented as a direct criticism of the players - that they were sulky or pains in the arse; rather, it was just suggesting that neither thinks of himself as a sub and so is able to give his best coming off the bench, able to take that role as genuinely seriously as he should. The contrast with Florenzi is sharp, I think - when he comes off the bench he takes no time at all to settle and always brings some extra intensity and energy. That, I take it, was another way of approaching your point - that there's a real art in getting subs to arrive ready at once to make an impact. And Garcia is very aware of the problem - is there anything more wasteful than a sub who doesn't change a game, make an impact? - but also not entirely confident he's got the parts at his disposal to deal with it. Ljajic and Destro are terrific individual players, but are they the right cogs within this particular wheel?

[DCGweez]

So then, you're saying i don't have a case? Really it's forzaroma that should sue? Fine...

I see what you mean about then getting narrower (I always want to use "more narrow" there) and that should help Destro.

[DCGweez]

Davit, check out this article. I think you'll like the vid:

http://www.joe.ie/football/european-foo ... est-goals/

[DavidP]

that's a fine piece of journalism dcg, but the video isn't mine.

[DCGweez]

Ah, i just took the guys word for it where he mentioned you in the article. My fault.

A friend of mine sent that to me.

[DavidP]

no worries man, always nice to see. i deleted the totti video so they must have replaced it in the article but kept the text.

[Italiamia]

Anyone remember this kid:

@ManUtd: Buona fortuna to Italian midfielder Davide Petrucci as he leaves #mufc by mutual consent. He's joining CFR Cluj in Romania as a free agent.

[DCGweez]

I wonder if Cluj gave his dad a job.

Karma is a bitch and heard that she bites.