THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

What do you reckon? I thought Vooch would enjoy Toni and Borriello more than he seemed to. The problem, I suspect, is simply that Totti's so damn good that even if, on paper, he makes life difficult for Vooch, in practice he makes everyone he plays with better. We know you've a Bogan man-crush developing, anyway.

[maro]

So Clichy to ManShitty is done and dusted. What does that mean for Kolarov (Boateng etc. etc.), I wonder. It will be interesting to see how he goes there. It's certainly less of a gamble than it would have been had he moved leagues to join us. I think it's an excellent addition for Shitty, but let's hope it doesn't prove too successful and Jose' Angel and Crescenzi can make us delighted that we didn't pick Clichy up.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[pocari_fenrir]

they could end up dealing Boateng to Bayern for some mad cow. Wayne Bridge would be most likely to leave.

on our end though, looks like we're gonna deal Riise back to EPL, release Antunes (i think we only loaned him to Lecce, but he's in the free agent pool with Loria now) and have Jose Angel and Crescenzi at LB. kinda wish we kept Antunes and Brosco

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Honestly, Fonz, I don't know. He might be, in fact. We're paying a fair whack on a young, unproven defender which suggests he has something about him. He must be technically good enough and physically quick and strong enough to justify the gamble - it's not the same thing as with Antunes, where we clearly took a wildly optimistic punt. This guy is supposed to be good; the odds are on our side, though we shall see. Fullback is a funny position for me - it's so much about how one clicks within the rest of the team. Tonetto, for instance, was an absolutely vital part of Spags's teams at their best, despite hardly looking like a world-beater on paper. The thing that struck me most about Max was his accuracy - I noticed this above all when I saw the preseason knock-about at West Ham. It was astonishingly obvious that he and Taddei were in a different league from the rest of the side in terms of their decision-making. Every time they had to make a movement, you could see that they had their heads up and were assessing whether the team-mate needed them to make a run forward or to hold to give an option short. It was quite impressive - and impressive in the way it distinguished them. So, accuracy and pace might be all that's needed and perhaps this kid already has that. Or perhaps Crescenzi does. Or perhaps Riise's ready for a sparkling 24 months. A fullback has to be defensively good enough that he doesn't get done every time one-on-one (poor Motta); he has to be defensively good enough not to make offside-trap mistakes five times a game (poor Motta; is this Rosi's problem?); and then it's all about pace, being technically good enough, being strong enough in the air not to be a liability against diagonal balls dropped on his head, and then decision-making, decision-making, decision-making with a large dose of team chemistry thrown in. This kid might have enough - I'm guessing he has the pace, that much is probably immediately evident and justifies the purchase.

[maro]

Oh, and work-rate - this is Riise's outstanding quality, of course, but I suspect it's also there with Crescenzi and with this Spanish kid: that's what's marked them out already as having serious promise. I'm still sure Rosi can be a top-class fullback too, though he hardly justified my faith last season.

[ASR1927]

[maro]

Yeah, it's a great example - because you see him make a run earlier in the move; he isn't picked out, but then he holds his run and holds his position so that he can go again when Aquilani plays him in.

[romawi]

One of my favorite goals from the Spalletti era. It strange to see how much we've changed since then, especially considering that we've pretty much kept the same core of players. We were consistently playing good football, and though we didn't always win, it was almost always enjoyable to watch. It's really a drastic difference from what we were under Ranieri, where at times it was difficult to watch this team play. Hopefully LE can get us back to playing some good football.

[romawi]

One of my favorites from Mirko.

[maro]

Tonetto's contribution for the first goal here might be an even better example - one only has to imagine where the hell he's come from to be in this position. And then Pizza's contribution for the second - only a portion of that is captured here, and not the second or two earlier when he dithered on the ball, refusing just to hoof it long, before finally being able to pick out the brilliant pass to Taddei. This, for me, is probably Pizza's highest moment in giallorosso and a perfect emblem of exactly what his kind of composure brings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_Xex30 ... re=related

[DavidP]

found this from a while ago... it was so good I couldn't help but quote it here...

"Spalletti is still my favourite coach of all time.

That Roma team was really a work of art... bipolar, yes, but fucking completely majestic when the players were 'on'. Just amazing how well everyone complimented each other. I remember sitting in class, so often, thinking about that formation and drooling over how awesome it was.

Perrotta couldn't hit the backside of a barn, but he worked his ass off for the team and made sweet, sweet runs that opened up space for his Tottiness.

Totti playing as a fake striker and turning the opposition defense into confused 5 year olds. ("who do I mark?! who do I mark?!"). He drops deep as Perrotta sprints forward and all hell breaks loose. The so called "clusterfuck" attack.

The Taddei-Cassetti partnership was something special. Defensive winger + overlapping fullback = match made in heaven. I still think that when they play together it raises their game by 50%. Taddei had a great understanding with Totti as well... you really can't buy understanding between players- doesn't matter how much money you spend.

Mr. Reliable: Max Tonetto... always coming up with the right cross at the right time. And the perfect foil for Mr. Spectacular, Amantino Mancini. Let's not forget that Mancini started his career as a left back... so on both sides of the pitch we had overlapping fullbacks and wingers who could cover for them.

DDR NOT playing on the left wing... who can forget that performance against Real Madrid? That man was born to tackle. And, again, the perfect foil for Pizarro who could do all the silly spin moves he dreamed of with DDR beside him.

And can't forget Crockett and Tubbs- still one of the best centre-back pairings in Europe when they feel like concentrating for 90+ minutes. Low corner to Mexes? Damn right.

Even Doni had his moments-- his decision making was utter garbage, but some of his reflex saves were unbelievable (Palermo game anyone??). And hey, what a find for seriously not a lot of money (I'm thinking $400 000??).

And converting Vuci into a pseudo left-winger (eventually) became another stroke of genius.

The set plays were always awesome as well- very inventive and clever... Remember that fake corner against Man U? What confidence we had back then... A hell of a lot better than Ranieri's Master Plan: have Totti blast it into the wall 100 times out of 100.

It's really too bad Baptista turned out to be such a flop... and not at all the type of player that Spalletti wanted. Also too bad that Giuly didn't want to stay; I would have kept him over Baptista any day. It would have been fun to see Spalletti get one or two of the players he actually wanted...

Oh well, back to reality"

[RomaShield27]

Jasus, these video's are making me all sentimental and shit. Yis cnuts, sniff sniff. Ah, the memories. Sure while we're at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiUhERUUaIs

Forza Spalletti.

[DavidP]

good stuff indeed...

can't forget the two madrid games either. the away one especially.

[RomaShield27]

This was rather nice, of course, particularly the last:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzlRcQrIBM

Beating Milan in 2008, you can see me in the crowd going bonkers at the winner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Supk_5I0E

And in Madrid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwlCuNcp4s

This one is Aba's favourite, check this bad boy out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfP75JHextM

[ASR1927]

[RomaShield27]

lol, quality, Jeff. I loved the way anytime the camera went to Spalletti after a goal he was just standing/sitting there, cool as fook, contemplating life. Except for that third one against Chelski, of course, but we were havin a hard time of it then.

[ASR1927]

[DavidP]