THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[San Paolo]

Di Marzio: "I can confirm Bojan is a Roma player & will be presented by the new company on the 4th of July."

[DavidP]

Okay, so what's the deal with Bojan? I haven't seen him play much - can he play as a winger (in a 4-3-3) or just as a prima punta or second striker?

[maro]

Sabatini denied that yesterday evening, gregoire. fonz, very good points on chivu. i think i was wrong about him - or certainly the way he's conducted himself since going to sphincter has really surprised me. perhaps it's just that the sphincter influence is too strong and can corrupt even the best of souls. mana is the maori word; now, as it happens, i would say totti unquestionably has it and chivu doesn't. totti has grown into it, i think. it's in part what i was trying to suggest with my comment on his words of support for abidal, though that was lost amidst the responses which quite missed the point.

on mexes, he has passion and spirit, but i think he's still a kid inside. can you imagine samuel crying on the bench? can you imagine samuel giving away the cheap, passion-fueled red cards Mexes has over the years? part of what makes him so lovable is this childish rawness to him. he's got passion. he loves the club. he's lived and died with its ups and downs. emerdason never had that rawness for us and so was always incomparably less likeable. he was hard as fucking nails, though. and samuel has the same steel. let me give one more example - from the biography of joe stanley, a great All Black, one of my favourite players as a kid. One of his school teachers told a story about a game when he was 15 or 16. One of the opponents took a cheap shot at Joe - a punch or a late tackle or something like that. Instead of having a go back at the other kid - throwing a punch and getting sent off - he bided his time. Later in the game, though, he put up a kick which the other kid had to catch, just as Joe S arrived to smash the living daylights out of the kid who was carried off. All completely legal. Samuel would have done this. Mexes would have thrown a punch straight away and got sent off. That's the difference between balls of steel and 'passion'.

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

Baldini alla Roma, arriva l'ok della Federazione inglese
Sabato 18 Giugno 2011 09:34

La riunione romana di ieri, in cui si è definito gran parte dell'organigramma della nuova Roma, ha rotto gli indugi sul futuro di Franco Baldini: nonostante le smentite di rito ("Non posso parlare, sono ancora il General Manager dell'Inghilterra") è formalmente partita la sua seconda avventura nello staff giallorosso. L'ultimo tassello, in ordine cronologico, è il via libera dato dalla Federazione inglese, intenzionata a concedere a Baldini lo spazio necessario per dedicarsi alla squadra capitolina: secondo la stampa inglese, per lui è stato previsto un incarico "part-time" al fianco di Fabio Capello, una soluzione che piloti la nazionale dei tre leoni fino alla qualificazione agli Europei del 2012, un obiettivo alla portata ma non ancora raggiunto. "Sono sicuro che Franco Baldini si concentrerà pienamente sulla squadra e sull'importante qualificazione" ha detto il responsabile della comunicazione della Federazione, Adrian Bevington "una volta ottenuta vedremo". Lel prossime gare vedranno l'Inghilterra fronteggiare a settembre la Bulgaria e il Galles, mentre ad ottobre ci sarà l'epilogo contro il Montenegro di Mirko Vucinic: il doppio ruolo, insomma, permetterà a Baldini di seguire attentamente lo svolgersi dell'estate giallorossa, prima di organizzare il rush finale della nazionale di Fabio Capello.


This puts a rather different complexion on the situation - rightly or wrongly.

[maro]

Bojan's the kind of quick, busy player who, on paper, might look like he'd complement Totti well, Davit. He was a phenomenon with Barca's youth set-up - breaking pretty much every record he could coming through the age groups. He's quick, technically good, works hard, runs in behind, finishes well. Compared to someone like Vooch, he'd be more willing to attack space and run off the ball and make runs in behind to stretch the play. He also is clearly pretty familiar with a 4-3-3. The worries would be that he's not quite managed to break into the Barca first team as he was expected to - and has been overtaken by Pedro, for instance - and that he's more of a prima punta (though a small one) than a wing-forward. That is why he attacks space well; whether he can do that from wide-right or wide-left remains to be seen. Then there's also the history of Spanish players flopping completely in Serie A. In lots of ways he seems a good fit to me, but there would have to be a few question-marks over him at the same time.

[RomaShield27]

Good story about the rugby player taking revenge. Its a familiar tale that many tough players do in all codes of sports. The desire for revenge can be a great motivator. It reminds me of Roy Keane and Alf Inge-Haaland. Even though Keane waited four years to get revenge and the incident itself was a lot more cynical and a lot more brutal, there is still something fierce about the determination to get his own back. Samuel would have done something similar. Mexes is tough but he is different in that regard alright. He is more passionate and emotional and responsive. It is a question of character, really – hot-blooded v cold-blooded.

Its also a mental thing like Fonz said. Its something that most South American defenders have built into them. Players like Samuel, Ayala, Demichellis, Montero, Cordoba, even our own Burdisso; they all have a steeliness and toughness about them which distinguishes them and made them great defenders. I'm not so sure if there are many of that ilk left anymore.

On Bojan, I've always thought him to be a pure prima-punta than a wing-forward and so I'm not so sure if he'd be the right fit for us. He also hasn't really delivered on the great promise he shown a few years ago and may have looked better then he actually was playing in such a team. He may turn out to be a good signing, but I wouldn't be overly excited if he does come.

This is an interesting piece from . The club has hired Frederic Massara from Palermo to be 'chief observer of Rome', which is like chief scout. Bruno Conti will be ' Settore giovanile', head of the youth department. Although, if I'm getting this correctly, there will be a change in the structure as the youth department will only looking after teams from Givanissimi Nazionali (under-15s) and under, while the Allievi and Primavera sides will now be directly managed by the Director of Sport (Baldini) and the first-team coaches.

Sabbatini will be meeting Bruno today to discuss this, and there is also a new joint role proposed for Conti as 'Ambassador of Rome'. It will be a sort of figurehead role who can represent the club in different ways. It also adds that that the head of the youth sector had been originally proposed to Francesco Rocca, former Romanista and current Azzurri under-20 coach, and also – although Im not sure about this bit – that its uncertain what role Alberto De Rossi will fill.

Speaking of Burdisso, Ermes made a new vid of him:

[maro]

No, threddy, the bit about Rocca says that he was approached but said he'd come only on the condition that he got to coach the primavera. To which the reply was get the fuck out of here, because that's Papa De Rossi's role and no-one's going to fuck with that.

[maro]

I don't think you can be a true prima punta and get any playing time in the Barca front three, thredddy. Villa is a true prima-punta and has spent most of the season down the left, with Messi through the middle. Similarly, when Bojan's been on the pitch, he's not played as the true striker through the middle of a front three.

[maro]

One of the principles of Barca's play is that the wide right player (most often Pedro) is always looking to get in behind, in between his fullback and the centreback. This gives profondita', so gives options to the ball-players (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta), stretches play and so gives them space, and also tucks the fullback in to give Alves to run into. It's classic out-to-in wing-forward play (the kind Vooch can do very well, but almost invariably does only when the ball is at his feet). This is the role Bojan's done when he's played this season as much as he's played throuh the middle.

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

Yeah, there's a slight discontinuity there. The point, though, as I understand it from other pieces, is that De Rossi will still sit on the panchina - that is, the bench - and so will be the coach of the team. There is going to be a shift, though, towards the Barca pattern of having every team at the club play in the same way - with the same formation and, by and large, the same interpretation of that formation, so that moving up through these teams will be relatively seamless. And so in that sense Enrique is going to have more of a say in the running of the Primavera (hence De Rossi's comments after the Championship win that he was looking forward to learning new things from the new coach), but it will be De Rossi to whom it will fall to coach Enrique's model, as it were.

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

lol don't be a dick. Yeh that makes sense about the Primavera alright, and I think it could prove to be a good thing in helping to bring more of our young players through to the first team. I wasn't sure if it was going to involve Alberto De Rossi – and I wasn't sure if he was being ditched or being made take a back seat so to speak – but its good that he'll still be on the bench managing the team from day to day if thats the case. A lot of Barca's youngsters make the breakthrough at a young age and they're not afraid to throw them on at some stage during the season. Often we seen them have a couple of complete unknowns on their bench and or making an appearance but yet they're still ready for it because the set up of their youth teams is the same as the senior team, and so if we can implement something like this and if LE and his staff have more of a feel and understanding for the Primavera while still having ADR in charge it will hopefully work to our advantage.

[Italiamia]

I vote that we ban the word profondità from Tommaso's vocabulary.

[maro]

It's proof of the tactical poverty of English football that the English language has no real equivalent for words like profondita' and baricentro.

[Italiamia]

[maro]

Obsession? It's pretty much impossible to talk tactics of any kind without recourse to the principle. I could refrain from talking about football, if that's what you prefer.

[Italiamia]

[maro]

I should think you're mistaken. I can't imagine I use it in any other context. If a player wants to make a pass, he needs someone to whom he can pass it.