THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

[DavidP]

[forzaitalia]

Seen some speculation that Torosidis may come in at LB for Cole. I wouldn't do that personally; he's alright is Torosidis but Cole is not only better, but was part of a defence that beat City twice last season and has regular experience of the latter stages of the CL as well as playing against City.

With Maicon the only other defender with proper CL experience (if it's Manolas and Yanga-Mbiwa at CB) I wouldn't mind having Cole on the other side.

[DCGweez]

Manolas isn't bigger or stronger than Benatia. He's definitely has pace on him though. He missed on a cross the other day but his elevation was amazing. He skied above everyone. He's been very solid. We'll know a lot more about him by this time next week.

[RomaShield27]

I think so far this season Torosidis has shown he is a better option at left-back than Cole, given his current form. But you're right, FI, I would go with Cole v City given his past experience in England and also in high-profile CL games. He'll be abused like fook but he can handle it.

On Manolas, he has made a superb start to his Roma career, and made us forget about Benatia, but its still too early to pass proper judgement on him, and not even after our next two games. His start has been even more impressive when you consider he has been the 'leader', the most solid of our back four, in the absence of Castan. Manolas is the newbie, a promising youngster who I'm sure RG thought would grow into the role and learn from Castan and form a partnership, yet he's already shown he's more reliable than Mbiwa and possibly even Astori.

Get a load of this, pure hilarity from 101greatgoals.com, predicted line-up v City:



http://www.101greatgoals.com/betting/li ... e-preview/

(NB: they've since fixed it since been slandered)

[Italiamia]

[DCGweez]

Benatia looks much taller to me. Porbably a good 2 inches. I could be wrong though.

I agree though, screw Benatia.

[RomaShield27]

I think its still too early to say we lost nothing on the field in switching Benatia for Manolas. Benatia may be a prick and have left in disgrace, but he was the best centre-half in Italy last season, if not Europe. For all that Manolas is a quality player, and for all that the defensive set-up of the team offers to the centre-backs so that defenders can shine, he's still young and in a new league, and losing Benatia does weaken the team. Make no mistake, it had to be done, of course, and Manolas may go on to be the best centre-half in the world, but there's no denying if Benatia had of stayed we'd be more sound defensively and more experienced right now.

[Lupa]

Have you seen Benatia's most recent comments? No respect. He was good, but he is the epitome of cheering for laundry. He showed his true colours, and they weren't giallorossi.

[maro]

"there's no denying if Benatia had of stayed we'd be more sound defensively and more experienced right now"? mmm. You tend to be certain of some quite interesting things, threadmund.

[DCGweez]

I think if this team had Benatia it would be more sound defensively. Manolas+Benatia > Manolas+MbayeWakaWaka


That said i'm happy with how it turned out for Benatia

[Lupa]

[DCGweez]

Saw that. Thank goodness. He's been on fire this season so far.

[RomaShield27]

No De Sanctis, which is a blow. Skorupski has shown to be an able deputy, lots of faith in him, but not an ideal game to step into, lots of pressure etc.

MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-2): Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Demichelis, Clichy, Navas, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, Silva, Aguero, Dzeko
A disp: Caballero, Sagna, Kolarov, Milner, Lampard, Jovetic, Mangala
All: Manuel Pellegrini

ROMA (4-3-3): Skoruspki; Maicon, Manolas, Yanga-Mbiwa, Cole; Keita, Pjanic, Nainggolan; Florenzi, Totti, Gervinho.
A disp: Curci, Somma, Torosidis, Paredes, Ljajic, Iturbe, Destro.
All: Rudi Garcia

[p_maldini_3]

[RomaShield27]

[Italiamia]

My respectful twit to Benatia:

@Primo_Levi: @MedhiBenatia Sei un stronzo, Benatia; perchè racconti sempre palle? Vaffanculo, scimunito. Forza Roma! BOYS ROMA ULTRAS 1972.
________________

I'm still waiting for his response.

[DCGweez]

http://www.espnfc.com/uefa-champions-le ... on-tuesday

[maro]

http://www.forzaroma.info/2014/10/01/pj ... ons/376619

[maro]

I should start charging if I'm going to be writing these guys' stories for them ahead of time.