THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[DonSimon]

Barcelona's youth system wasn't up to much until Cruyff decided to apply the Ajax model at the club, and it took a long time to bear fruit. But recently they beat Real Madrid 5-0 and of the 14 players who appeared (all three subs were used) 11 players and the manager were products of the youth system. If it takes foreign intervention to bring about something similar with Roma's youth system, I'm all for it. One would hope that Luis Enrique will use his experience with developing younger players' potential to try and bring some of our Primavera up to Serie A level. One would imagine that DiBenedetto isn't keen to part with money the way that Premiershit clubs have been doing lately, so hopefully he will encourage Luis Enrique to do that. Perhaps Sabatini's presence as "South American specialist" is more cause for concern than the ownership or the manager.

[AlCapone]

[ASR1927]

Interesting article on L.E. from La Gazzetta dello Sport:

All the secrets of Luis Enrique "This is my associative football"

Roma's new coach obtained excellent results with Barcelona B, where both the players and the fans enjoyed themselves. His style of play is based on pressing, keeping possession, passing, controlling the match, scoring goals and entertaining.


BARCELONA, 8 June 2011 - The man chosen to bring Roma success again is eight months older than Guardiola and seven years older than Villas Boas. We mention this because they are models to follow: young coaches without much experience, but with an attractive, attacking style of play.

PROGRESSION — Roma are aiming to launch another of these new wave coaches, hoping that Luis Enrique's career develops in the same way. So far there have no hiccups. When ‘Lucho’ replaced Guardiola as the coach of the Barça B team in 2008, he had a few problems initially in the Segunda B division (equivalent to the Italian third division). Then he took the Blaugrana ‘filial’ into the Segunda division after a 14 year absence and this season he achieved two records: third place (the Barça B team had previously never come higher than sixth) and the number of goals scored - 85, the same as Betis, a new record for the division. “What more could I have asked for from these lads? We can't get promoted, we can't take part in the playoffs, so it would have been difficult to motivate them to achieve anything more and so the best idea was to go away”. This is what Luis Enrique stated 10 days ago. He chose Roma after being tempted to take the Atletico Madrid job.



HIS ASSOCIATIVE FOOTBALL — We watched the last few matches of Barça B and we can tell you that what we saw was truly spectacular. Even with young, inexperienced and naturally unrefined players, Luis Enrique's team played in the same way as Guardiola's Barça: pressing, keeping possession, passing, controlling the match, scoring goals and entertaining. He calls it ‘associative football’: a kind of real communism in which the ball is shared equally among all the players and they try not to let their capitalist opponents ever see the ball. “I'm convinced that this model can be exported and that it is not a question of it being part of the Barça DNA. Footballers like to play good football. They can, of course, adapt to other styles, but if their coach has a positive approach, why wouldn't they go along with him?”. Lucho also said after their match against Salamanca, which they won 5-1 and sent their opponents into the third division, that Barça had had nothing to play for other than to entertain their fans at the Mini Estadi, the small stadium across from the Camp Nou.

FRICTION WITH PEP — So this is the coach. But what about the man? He is reserved, closed and faithful to his ideas, his principles and his friends. That is why he asked Roma to allow him to bring five collaborators with him. They include Ivan De la Peña, who has just finished his playing career and has no experience coaching, but he is a close friend of ‘Lucho’, perhaps his best friend together with Carles Puyol. Pep Guardiola speaks highly of Luis Enrique, which says a lot given the friction between the two of them this year. ‘Lucho’ is a winner, like Pep. ‘Lucho’ has a strong character, like Pep. ‘Lucho’ has his own ideas, like Pep. And when Guardiola took the best players of Barça B to complete his squad, the Asturian was not happy and let this be known. Because Fontas, Muniesa, Thiago, Nolito, Montoya and the others were essential players in his team, while they were only there to make up the numbers in the first-team squad. Nothing serious, for heaven's sake, but it gives you an idea of how the new Roma coach thinks. Like Pep, he does not give interviews. And when he was coaching Barça B, he never said anything before a match, only afterwards: “This is a practice I found here, something introduced by Guardiola. If I have to change, I will do. But don't expect me to be very talkative with the press. You can forget that”. Let's see how he handles the pressure at Roma.

Filippo Maria Ricci© all rights reserved - unauthorized reproduction forbidden

[Italiamia]

[maro]

Sure. You weren't the one I was taking the piss out of, of course. If the side turns into a Sphincter without a Roman or an Italian identity that will be an enormous loss for almost all of us and it may well happen. As Lavazza says, though, there are some good signs that it might not. I suspect deep down inside threadddzzo hopes it does happen so he can insist it's an inevitable product of foreign ownership.

[maro]

And Mexes chose to leave in a way Samuel did not - though you'd never think it from what the Mexes apologists around the place say.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

Ufficiale è arrivata la firma: Luis Enrique è il nuovo allenatore della Roma
– Mercoledì 08 Giugno 2011 19:36

La firma di Luis Enrique è appena arrivata a Roma via fax, questo è quanto riporta SkySport. E' quindi ufficiale, Luis Enrique è il nuovo allenatore della Roma. Il contratto sarà di due anni più un'opzione per il tezo a 1,6 milioni a stagione. Confermati sul contratto anche i quattro componenti più uno itinerante, che resterà a Barcellona, del suo staff.

LA CONFERMA DELL'ANSA
Adesso è ufficiale: lo spagnolo Luis Enrique è il nuovo allenatore della Roma. Nel tardo pomeriggio sono infatti arrivate nella capitale, via fax, le firme sul contratto del tecnico asturiano e del suo staff.

[Italiamia]

[San Paolo]

Roma could be ready to move for Bojan, who has reacted with anger after being offered to Udinese as part of a transfer.

The young Spanish striker is adamant he wants to fight for his place at Camp Nou, after coming through the youth ranks at Barcelona.

But the 20-year-old has admitted his anger after being reportedly offered to Udinese as part of a possible deal for Alexis Sanchez.

"I feel angry at the situation I am in," Bojan told Rac1.

"I will do everything possible to continue playing for Barcelona.

"Nobody told me that I would be just a player to be exchanged. Nobody likes to be a part of that situation, especially not me."

But Bojan, who has been strongly linked with a move to England, is now being talked about as a Roma target with Barcelona's reserve coach Luis Enrqiue ready to take charge of the Eternal City club.

Rumours of a move for Bojan emerged after Enrique confirmed he would look at his former club.

"I'll look to work with the best players, those who I will find in Rome and those who I'll be able to bring with me from Barcelona," he stated.

[forzaitalia]

Has Bojan actually progressed since his breakthrough? He only seems to come on as sub, or when he starts it's in CL group games when they've already qualified etc. Obviously a talented player, but not sure if he'll be ending up here if he wants to fight to stay at Barca.

[red]

Ah, you call all look forward to months of being linked with every Barca reject going.

And I think Bojan is mediocre, and it will show just as soon as he leaves Barca.

[San Paolo]

i bet he tries to get Montoya in.

[AlCapone]

[AlCapone]

Luis Enrique says the interview with Sky is false.

http://luisenrique21.com/WordPress/

[ASR1927]

Well it seems our Primavera have beaten Genoa's Primavera 2-0 to get to the final!
Goals scored by Antei and Montini. Let's hope our new Mister and new owners take notice.



ROMA (4-2-3-1): Pigliacelli; Sabelli, Antei, Mladen, Frascatore; Viviani, Florenzi (c); Caprari (83′ Orchi), Ciciretti (74′ Piscitella), Dieme; Montini. A disp.: Proietti Gaffi, Barba, Verre, Politano, Leonardi. All.: De Rossi.

Forza Roma!

http://www.romanews.eu/2011/06/08/prima ... -pre-gara/

[maro]

Surely they're not more infantile than us? That would be devastating. Some of us have been cultivating our silliness over years of hard work.

[RomaShield27]

[forzaitalia]

Carlo Zampa what a legend.