THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

If he wants to leave then send his Montenegrin ass to rubentus so he can suck it up in Torino. I am sick of this fucking shit with Vucinic and his agent. I'll take an Italian with some upside any day of the week. If Vuc is worth so damn much, then why not make a scambio, Quags and Marchisio for him.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

The first piece was blowing smoke out of Borriello's arse; the second was Sabre blowing smoke out of Bogan's.

[maro]

This is an abbreviated version of Sabre's comments:
Lo vede più centravanti o punta esterna?
"Luis Enrique in questi giorni di preparazione sta dimostrando di non usare gli attaccanti esterni, ma accentrati. Sicuramente, gli sarà concessa quella libertà d'azione tra le linee, dove ama giocare di più. In questo ricorda un po' Inzaghi".

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

Bojan - it's from the interview I posted on the previous page.

If we lose Vooch and Menez we'll already have signed Lamela and Bogan. If we play a wide front 3, then Taddei's been an option there for years. If we play a narrow front 3, Simone's been an option there for years. As has Brighi.

[maro]

How much would we get for Vooch anyway? At this stage I think I'd probably settle for a cup of coffee and a rusty nail.

[vtec]

i wouldn' accept no rusty nail without gettin' no tetanus shot to go with that, so if yer negotiatin's any good, youda get yerself one of those as well

[maro]

Vucinic: sì allo United. E la Juve?

Alessandro Lucci, agente di Mirko Vucinic, è stato intervistato dal sito Lasignoraingiallorosso.it sul futuro del suo assistito: “L’incontro con i dirigenti del Manchester Utd è avvenuto ieri, non oggi. In ogni caso è stata solo una proficua chiacchierata, nella quale non sono state avanzate offerte né ci sono intese di massima. Il giocatore comunque piace molto al club inglese ma per vedere Vucinic con la maglia dei Red Devils c’è ancora da lavorare”.

ore 15.53 Si è appena concluso il vertice tra i dirigenti del Manchester United e gli agenti dell'attaccante montenegrino Mirko Vucinic. I Red Devils avrebbero accelerato sul giocatore della Roma dopo essersi convinti a cedere Dimitar Berbatov. Il meeting avrebbe avuto esito positivo. Se gli inglesi troveranno l'accordo con i giallorossi, allora Vucinic approderebbe in Premiershit. Alla finestra resta la Juventus, che valuta Vucinic come importante alternativa a Giuseppe Rossi.

[forzaitalia]

Taddei hasn't been too bad over the years, but I don't want to see him starting, really. I'd rather keep hold of Vucinic too as long as he gets his head down and gives 100%, RomaShield hit the nail on the head a few posts up.

[maro]

Seriously, though, if the club's bought Lamela and Bojan because they think they're better options than Vooch and Menez, then what's the problem?

[RomaShield27]

How about Lamela being a midfielder for one? And I don't see how either Taddei or Perrotta come into the equation as we're talking about a 4-3-3 were the last 3 are forward players, not attacking-midfielders.

[maro]

What was Menez?

[maro]

And the distinction you're proposing between a forward and an attacking midfielder is self-evidently a pretty silly one. Or, at least, if it's not I'm going to need you to explain it to me.

[maro]

Roma, UFFICIALE: Fiorenzi ceduto al Crotone
19:20 del 26 luglio

L'F.C.Crotone comunica di avere acquisito le prestazioni di Alessandro Florenzi. Il ventenne centrocampista arriva in prestito dall'A.S.Roma, con diritto di opzione per l'acquisizione in compartecipazione da parte del Crotone. Il neo rossoblu raggiungerà i nuovi compagni questa sera.


Let's hope he reads some Pythagoras while he's there.

[RomaShield27]

What was Menez? Thats quite a good question, one which even himself may struggle to answer (speaking of his time at Roma). Menez was more of a wing-forward, I would think, even if we all can agree (except for David) that we'd have like to have seen more of him at trequartista. He plays on the wing for France and I wouldn't be surprised if he developed into a pure out-and-out winger at PSG.

I don't think the distinction between a forward and an attacking-midfielder is as intertwined as it has been in previous regimes, specifically Spalletti's, as it can be seen, so far, in Luis Enriques. From what I've gathered I think he has an idea to play three more natural forward players in front of three central-midfielders. How those three forwards line-up is another thing, in that we may see the two perceived 'wide forwards' play more centrally and so leaving us more narrow through the middle (according to Sabatini), but that remains to be seen for certain.

[RomaShield27]

– Updated: July 26, 2011, 1:38 PM ET

[romawi]

Anyone have a take on how the team looked today? I saw a little bit of the match but then lost my connection and couldn't get back online to catch the rest of the game. From the little I saw, we were playing vary narrow with the front three and a lot of the width came from the fullbacks. Did this change in the second half with Vucinic and Bojan or did we play pretty much the same way?

[DavidP]

Bojan didn't even play, I think.

[maro]

I only saw the first game, Chewna, as I think you know. I've been trying to get my head around the formation - it's like the Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1, really, I suppose, except that the front three interchange positions more readily and the prima punta isn't really responsible for making runs in behind. My understanding of conventional wisdom is that you try to make the pitch big when you go forward by playing with width across the front and trying to put depth on the attack. So, for me, the conventional 4-3-3 would be with the wide players up front very wide. This is exactly not how we played in the first game - rather, as you say, we had the three front men all tucked in much of the time (and certainly not consistently taking up starting positions wide, playing from out-to-in). On the face of it this ought to make keeping the ball (possesso palla) easier in one way - because you now have more players close to the ball, able to involved in stitching things together. It makes the pitch small, though, so that you have to keep the ball in much tighter spaces. Some of this in the first game was very impressive, though actually Totti struggled technically, which tells you something.

1. Totti likes a game which exploits space - he wants to play the ball to runners moving into space, in a side that is always trying to stretch the play. That's not at all how we played today.

2. We make the pitch small; this will suit Greco, I think, almost more than any of our other midfielders.

3. There was a clear lack of responsibility for sitting in front of the back 4 today. I disregard the first two goals (with a proper defensive axis of first-choice holding midfielder and first-choice CBs neither of those is a goal), but the third goal looked more worrying tactically.

4. It felt to me that the pattern of play meant that to keep the ball we had to throw a number of extremely low-percentage, risky balls back into the middle. In fact these all came off (the first was an extraordinary one from Angel to Totti). I worry about this, though, and it seems to me a function of there not being real width higher up the pitch.

5. The fullbacks have to do enormous amounts of work and it looks like we're always likely to be vulnerable there on the break.

6. On the positive side of things, we have huge numbers in the middle of the pitch which ought, I think, to offer defensive cover when fullbacks get caught out and options when stitching things together in tiny, tight triangles.

These are just thoughts for myself, really - it's been a long time since I've seen something which struck me as so tactically alien, so new. It might be that the pitch was very narrow today anyway, but it did make things feel desperately tight and congested.