THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

Whats that headline mean?

The LitM turns 26 today. Another year passes in the life of a Roma legend in the making. Many more to come. All hail the LitM:





(This was his birthday party, even Luciano turned up: )
http://www.daylife.com/photo/07Tk7yn1vR ... KO+VUCINIC

(This was Julio Baptista's birthday party: )
http://www.daylife.com/photo/092O1Dn7qJ ... o+baptista

[maro]

It means, literally, "Don't lead the dog about the threshing floor / farmyard." Or, "don't beat about the bush."

[maro]

This, I think, was actually how Vooch celebrated:

He did say, after all, that being coached by Ranieri was like being back at the first day of school.

[maro]

This is the game the big kids played all the time with poor little bullied Mirko:

[RomaShield27]

But at least they do play with Mirko – no one plays with Maro's favourite Simone crybaby Perrotta, they just leave him to do what he does best:

[maro]

Was that the best you could do? In fact it looks like it's some kind of strange coke-snorting race. Simone's clearly finished snorting his line and just out of shot someone - Mirko, perhaps, or one of the young guys, maybe - is more slowly working his way up his. Simone, evidently, is taking the hit.

[edge_xeno]

Here is Ranieri enjoying the party by giving it some chicken dance:

[maro]

lol! Top-drawer, edge.

[Carlo Romano]

I'm not surprised to see nothing on the game itself with CSKA Sofia. I didn't even watch (though I did keep an eye on the scoreline) because if we couldn't beat a side like that then we don't deserve to progress in the EL.

I've been watching Italy's Under 20 side in the Youth World Cup in Egypt, not just because it's Italy but because two of Roma's primavere are regular starters, Della Penna and Crescenzi. We don't get much chance to see them and I must say I am particularly impressed with Crescenzi, a very good future senior right back in the making. Della Penna too, is a good scrapper in midfield.

I'm not seeing any posts anywhere on our forum about this tournament, possibly because we know it's not taken as seriously as the U-21's and in addition, not everyone has sent their best side.

For those of you who may not know, Italia drew 0-0 with Paraguay, beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-1, and lost 4-2 to a very good young Egyptian side in Cairo earlier tonight. We progress to the next stage as one of the best third place sides...

[SPqR]

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

Its a fair enough point about Menez. He's never going to fit into a Ranieri side on technical quality and ability on the ball alone, he does need to improve his tracking back and overall workrate if he is going to play on the wing, especially considering Ranieri is focussed and improving the defence, and Menez at present on the wing in front of Cassetti or Riise is not going to provide a lot of support. Lets hope he can adapt and improve that part of his game and we see more of him. By all accounts he was good when he came on (downloading the match now, its in the thread).

[maro]

Carlo, there was a bit of chat about the game in the Shoutbox last night. At the moment I'm struggling to get a stream for any games in the evening because our internet is being a pain in the proverbial. I caught a few jumpy snippets in the first half, including enough to see both goals. I don't know quite why they were so stretched at the back on the first one - when Motta had the ball the two centrebacks were miles apart from one another and left 2 on 2 with Vooch and Okaka; still, I thought it was a classical illustration of what happens when you have two strikers who are prepared to attack space. It opened everything up and made it a very simple goal, really, for all that it was great to see Okaka score. I thought Perrotta's goal was sweet too. I quite like the idea of a 4-4-2 with Perrotta down the left because he'll play narrow and leave space for Riise to get down the channel. It's also a role that Menez might be able to slip into if he gets everything else sorted, though I suspect Brighi will play a bit there too. So long as you have a true winger playing down the right the balance of the side will be okay. The only problem is that quite clearly Aquilani's more suited to the 4-4-2 than Pizarro is.

I wonder if we'll see some more of Guberti? I'd like to see Cerci given plenty more chances down the right and Guberti, presumably, can play down there too. Either of them gives us a bit more natural width and allows us to stretch things a bit more than Taddei does. Guberti down the left and Taddei down the right might be okay; Taddei down the right and Perrotta down the left I'm less sure of. Brighi down the right and Perrotta down the left I'm absolutely sure of - inguardabile.

[vtec]

i don't know, do you?

[ASR1927]

Did Okaka get the cold shoulder from the Curva? I got the impression from his reaction he was disapointed with their reaction to his goal celebration. On Romanews there is something about Okaka playing down a racist response from them. It's hard to tell from google translator. I hope not. I would be really disapointed about that if true. I am so glad Raineri is showing reat faith in him.

[maro]

[ASR1927]

[RomaShield27]

[romawi]