THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[DonSimon]

[RomaShield27]

Well, everyone seems to be happily going along with the promises that our new foreign owners have been making and that they will be true to their word, and early signs like the hiring of Sabatini and (presumably) Baldini to do most of the work in running the club would back that up, but I'd have my reservations, too, especially if (when) things are going to plan halfway into the season, say.

What stranieri at managerial level are you referring too? Zeman? Voller? Liedholm? All of them have had a history in calcio.

[DonSimon]

Boskov, Carlos Bianchi, Eriksson all started in Italy with Roma. Apart from Voeller your examples were the successful ones though!

[DonSimon]

Word on twitter is that Luis Enrique speaks fluent Italian.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[RomaShield27]

He learned all that from this huh:

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

too long, dnr. google summarise came up with this, though: "wez gonna finish somewhere between third and sixth again." Sound a fair reflection?

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Apparently threadddzo's personalised google summarise came up with "Vooch is in the team, must be good, promote fonz to admin at once." Weird.

[maro]

More seriously, I think Pizza goes as part of a 4-3-3, fonz. I think he can only really play at the bottom of the midfield three, but then he doesn't offer the defensive guarantees there that are really required. Neither he nor DDR quite have the characteristics to play as a mezz'ala - I suspect the 4-2-3-1 actually worked to accommodate the two of them together as much as to accommodate Simone and Francesco.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Pizza thrived at the base of a 4-3-1-2 under Ranieri last season, as I enjoyed pointing out to Chris though he did his best not to take the bait. As you say, he could cover the back four simply by being a body in front of them and the sitting role meant he didn't get caught out having to try to catch back up with play having been caught wrong side of the ball. This will work without being perfect - for example, from opposing goalkicks if the ball's landing in front of the back four, the centreback would always have to come to meet the ball rather than leaving that responsibility to the holding midfielder. DDR as the mezz'ala is the problem - because he lacks the yard of pace, I think, for that role. Perrotta has it, I think, in a way DDR and Brighi don't, and this has been one of the reasons he's been so surprisingly effective as a trequartista.

Carrick does the role for ManUre when he's in the side, but he has a different physique from Pizza, for all that he doesn't have much better defensive qualities. Fletcher also has the extra smidgeon of mobility DDR doesn't. In the 4-2-3-1 we came unstuck when we tried to make things happen (there was a really decisive moment in the build up to the third goal against Manure in the 7-1 when you could see Pizza get forward and my heart sank, we turned the ball over, bang 3-0 and game nearly over). Pizza can't play as a mezz'ala because he doesn't have the power to get beyond people. He wants the ball in front of players, so he can stitch things together. It's actually the Veron-at-Manure problem - Veron needed the ball off the back four to start play going again. He couldn't do the defensive duties in front of the back four, though - that was Keane's role. And so when Manure got the ball back Keane was the one in front of the back four and so Veron couldn't get his foot on the ball.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Only a perfect fit when we have the ball - a less than perfect fit when we don't. That, combined with DDR's struggles as a mezz'ala are the two most immediate problems. The third is that playing Pizza and Totti together, two guys who do almost all of their work with and behind the ball, desperately limits the tactical possibilities of the side and what's required of the other players.

[romawi]

So where does DDR fit best? In the 4-2-3-1, in the middle of the 4-3-3 like Busquets? Or does it not matter as long as he plays just in front of the back four?

[maro]

Aye. As the Buckets of a 4-3-3, as the more genuinely holding player in a 4-4-2, alongside another, slightly more technical DDR in a 4-2-3-1, as the holding player in a 4-1-4-1, as the spearhead in a 4-0-6.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[romawi]

I will say this, if Roma don't get either Sanchez or G.Rossi then this transfer window will have been a failure for me. I don't know anything about this Lamela guy, and I don't trust youtube clips. I also don't know anything about Luis Enrique nor do I know much about Deschamps to judge either of them.

[arthurfonzarelli]