THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[vtec]

[maro]

[ASR1927]

Nice piece on LE by James Horncastle.

Paying homage to Catalonian Luis Enrique

Updated Aug 8, 2011 7:20 AM ET

Even before the satirical film An American in Rome was released in 1954 with the legendary comic actor Alberto Sordi japing around Trastevere wearing a baseball cap in the style of Joe Di Maggio threatening to destroy macaroni, Italians have held a curious fascination with the strength, opulence and freedom of the United States.

Naturally it wasn’t a big surprise then that there were great expectations surrounding Thomas Di Benedetto when the businessman from Boston agreed to buy Roma this summer.

Americans, so the stereotype goes, are loud and brash. But not Di Benedetto. His measured and sedate demeanor suggests a greater familiarity with balance sheets than the sports pages despite a deep-rooted affection for baseball and a son who plays in Italy.

As one columnist noted, there have been few stars and stripes since his arrival in the Eternal City, more a Homage to Catalonia with the appointment of Barcelona B coach Luis Enrique catching the locals, who were expecting Carlo Ancelotti, completely unawares.

“There is a lot of apprehension,” wrote Sergio Rizzo in an editorial for Il Corriere dello Sport. “Hopes and fears mix. There is great anxiety. The question marks are many, perhaps too many, but that’s what the club wanted. Roma have taken an innovative path with unpredictable choices, often giving the impression that they want to surprise everyone at all costs. The choice of Luis Enrique is a gamble not a bet.”

Afraid of the new and threatened by the unknown, Roma supporters were sceptical. What had led their club to take such a leftfield decision? Why would Di Benedetto go all in with his first move at the helm rather than play safe and hand the reins to a more established name? Enrique had only recently announced that he was leaving the first coaching position of his career with Barcelona B, the reserve side of the Champions League winners.

In three seasons he had earned promotion to la Segunda, Spain’s second division, then finished third, a place meriting participation in the play-offs, which Barcelona B weren’t allowed to dispute in case of another promotion this time to la Primera.

The cynics among the Italian media put an asterisk against these achievements. What could be easier than working with the graduates of la Masia, they said, and how was Enrique’s experience or perceived lack thereof any different to his predecessor Vincenzo Montella? Didn’t the Aeroplanino play for Roma? Wasn’t he a member of the last team to win the Scudetto in the club’s history? Didn’t he then coach Roma's Giovanissimi [the Under-14 to 15 age group] to 21 victories from 21 games? Couldn’t we consider him to be Roma’s Pep Guardiola?

All of which was to miss the point.

“The reason why we chose Enrique is symbolic,” explained Roma’s director of sport Walter Sabatini. “He represents discontinuity. Enrique represents an idea of football that we would like to follow, which imposes itself today through Spain and Barcelona, a kind of football, which is a little baroque but very effective. Enrique constitutes an absolute novelty, a courageous and provocative decision that I would make again.”

Foolhardy or not, it’s to Roma’s immense credit that they are attempting to change the prevailing culture in Serie A where results are still said to come before everything else.

“I was looking for someone outside of Italian football. Uncontaminated,” their general manager Franco Baldini told La Repubblica. “I liked his boldness, both toward the game and in his character. He is very motivated. His aim is to score goals. We also found ourselves talking about books: Paulo Coelho’s The Pilgramage. He is not one of my favourite writers but I can’t stop reading books, especially when I travel.”

Asked if this is a new philosophy, Baldini, a staunch critic of Italian football who - disillusioned with the game - left Roma in 2005 vowing never to come back and then followed Fabio Capello to Spain and England, snapped in response: “No for heaven’s sake. I’m not bringing a revolution just common sense and pragmatism. In other countries these things have already been done, so why not in Italy?”

To give an example, Roma’s youth side, the Scudetto-winning Primavera, will train beside the first team on the same schedule and with the same system [based loosely around a 4-3-3] to promote the understanding among the players of the Cantera Romana that making the jump to becoming a regular with the club in Serie A isn’t impossible.

An indication of how Enrique wants Roma to play from top to bottom can be gleaned by taking a quick glance at Barcelona B’s statistics last season.

According to Opta, the top scorers averaged 65.9% possession and made 546 passes per match – that’s more than anyone else in la Segunda, and also more than Real Madrid in la Primera. Even when taken with a pinch of salt – accounting for differences in quality between divisions and the varying styles of play in Spain and Italy – they remain eye catching.

“When Roma got to know me, they got to know me as an offensive coach who likes to attack, who likes good football,” Enrique revealed. “The important thing is that the fans come to watch us, that they enjoy themselves. It’s a very attractive way of playing. We will play on the attack. I don’t consider football any other way. We are moving towards a complete change of ideas and identity.”

With the arrival of players like Bojan Krkic and José Angel from Barcelona and Sporting Gijon respectively, both of whom are Spain Under-21 internationals, as well as the signing of the highly regarded River Plate playmaker Erik Lamela, who it’s said turned down the opportunity to move to the Camp Nou at the age of 12, the talk of a Barça-Roma or Giallo-grana shows no sign of abating even if Enrique, a disciple of Louis van Gaal rather than Johan Cruyff, has already moved to play it down.

“Barcelona’s model is unique because certain things have always been in their DNA,” he said.

“We are building a model that is adapted to our squad. Moreover different systems exist. I haven’t come here to bring the Barcelona model, but something that is similar to it. The model that Barcelona have used has taken many years to realise. I am coming here to bring a model by association, which takes things from Barcelona, but isn’t equal to it, also because it all depends on the players that you have and from the qualities that they have.”

Roma’s players got their first chance to grow familiar with Enrique’s approach at pre-season training camp in Riscone di Brunico. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

“The system and the methods proposed by the mister are new, interesting and above all very stimulating,” Francesco Totti wrote on his blog.

“We are only at the beginning: day by day we’ll have the chance to enter into this new reality.”

Those spectators in Riscone di Brunico with an intimate knowledge of Barcelona’s techniques will have recognised the piggy-in-the-middle-like rondo to develop pressing and the torrello passing patterns.

An advocate of players interchanging positions, Enrique has had Daniele De Rossi play the first half of a friendly at centre-back, Rodrigo Taddei at full-back and Marco Borriello out wide in attack. His habit of frequently rotating goalkeepers at Barcelona B, is unlikely to persist following the 6m euros purchase of Maarten Stekelenburg from Ajax, a bargain when compared with the fees paid for Manuel Neuer and David de Gea this summer.

“It’s certainly a different methodology, a different approach to games with respect to the Italian championship,” noted Simone Perrotta. “In Italy we are used to being direct with a long ball straight from the defender to the attacker. Enrique is looking to be direct through a different method by going from one half of the pitch to the other as quickly as possible through possession and keeping the ball on the floor.”

Enrique’s staff, which includes the Little Buddha and former Lazio midfielder Ivan De La Peña, a fitness coach 10 years Totti’s junior, and the former Real Madrid basketball team’s psychologist, has been gradually implementing their boss’s ideas. Curious to observe Roma’s new methods, Arrigo Sacchi, the great iconoclast of Italian football, paid Enrique a visit. “I greeted him by saying: ‘Welcome to Hell’ because here it’s not easy to make inroads. We are afraid of new things when we really shouldn’t be.”

When placed in this context, Enrique, with his sunglasses and iPad, resembles Sacchi just as much as Guardiola. Milan gambled on him in 1987, believing that Italian clubs could lift major trophies without catenaccio and that if they were to go down in history, winning was not enough, they had to convince too.

Charged with emulating two coaches whose teams are regarded as the best of all-time, Enrique faces a daunting task that would deter many, but not him. As a player, he had the character to play for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, and proved to be a winner whatever the circumstances, playing in every position except goalkeeper and in central defence.

On such occasions as when Bobby Robson used him as a right-back for Barcelona against Oviedo in the first game of the 1996-7 campaign, he still found a way to do it for his team, scoring twice in a 4-1 win. Once he had hung up his boots in 2004, he spent a year surfing in Australia then registered for marathons in New York, Amsterdam and Florence, culminating in the Frankfurt Ironman – a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42km run – which he completed in 10 hours 19 minutes and 30 seconds.

As a coach, the easy thing to do of course following his success with Barcelona B would have been to patiently wait for the Guardiola era to end and then step into his shoes. But that’s simply not Enrique’s style. He constantly needs a challenge and Roma is perhaps his biggest yet. It’ll take patience, especially with a team that, after the departures of Philippe Mexès, Jérémy Ménez and Mirko Vucinic, is in full transition.

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, a cliché Di Benedetto is particularly fond of using, but with the Ironman from Asturias acting as foreman the foundations already look sturdy.

[romawi]

Ranieri: "Totti in panchina perchè era pigro"
Lunedì 08 Agosto 2011 17:56


(Repubblica.it - M.Pinci) Sono passati sei mesi dal giorno del divorzio sportivo dalla sua città. Eppure, Claudio Ranieri sembra proprio non aver ancora digerito il boccone amaro mandato giù a Roma. E, soprattutto, non sembra aver dimenticato la frattura silenziosa con il vero simbolo della città e della squadra: Francesco Totti.
Facendo propria una sentenza di moda: "Era pigro".

RANIERI: "TOTTI IN PANCHINA PERCHE' PIGRO" - L'esclusione di San Siro contro il Milan, l'ingresso in campo a un minuto dalla fine a Genova con la Samp, sono solo alcune delle ferite nella carriera di Totti, sotto la gestione Ranieri. Proprio l'ex tecnico romanista, cavalcando la recente polemica tra il capitano e il neo dg romanista Franco Baldini, prova a motivare le esclusioni del numero dieci: "Gli attuali dirigenti lo hanno definito pigro, è un giudizio che condivido. A volte non si allenava con i dovuti ritmi da lunedì a sabato, per questo lo mandavo in panchina". Un attacco duro e gratuito, attraverso un'intervista rilasciata alla Gazzetta del Sud. Lontano, quindi, dagli echi della capitale.
NESSUNA REPLICA - A Roma, però, le parole di Ranieri sono arrivate forti e chiare, nonostante il tentativo dell'ex tecnico e commentatore Rai - inizierà il nuovo ruolo con la sfida di mercoledì tra gli Azzurri e la Spagna - di nasconderle tra qualche complimento ("è un bravissimo ragazzo, generoso e il giocatore più grande che abbia allenato: altrove avrebbe vinto parecchi palloni d'oro"). Le ha lette anche Totti, che però ha preferito non replicare, proprio come accaduto dopo l'intervista di Baldini a Repubblica. A lasciare perplesso il capitano, semmai, è che le stesse parole Ranieri non le avesse riservate a chi a volte gli era stato preferito, nonostante una vita fuori dal campo particolarmente attiva, al contrario di quella sul rettangolo verde.
ALLENAMENTI RUOLO PER RUOLO - Il tempo, però, ha restituito alle cose il giusto ordine. Così, quando stamattina la Roma è tornata in campo dopo una giornata di libertà, il capitano era al suo posto. Come sempre. Non nel pomeriggio, però. Da oggi, e per tutta la settimana, Luis Enrique ha studiato allenamenti ruolo per ruolo in cui dividere la numerosa rosa romanista. "Trabajo e Sudor" per tutti, in mattinata. Poi, nel pomeriggio, via libera al nuovo: ad aprire la sagra dell'allenamento differenziato per ruolo, sono stati i difensori. A loro, Luis Enrique chiede movimenti particolari, qualcosa di simile a quanto in Europa fa vedere il Barcellona: per gli esterni, lavoro di proiezione offensiva sulla verticale, ai centrali il compito di dare stabilità a una metà campo altrimenti esposta alle incursioni avversarie, in una squadra particolarmente sbilanciata in avanti. Una scelta, quella di dividere il gruppo, dovuta anche - chissà - al numero di giocatori a disposizione del tecnico. Concentrarsi su un reparto per non lasciare nessuno a guardare: chissà che la formula Luis Enrique non sia quella giusta - anche - per una pace tra Lega e Assocalciatori.

[romawi]

Ieri Baldini, oggi Ranieri. Chi sarà il prossimo?
Lunedì 08 Agosto 2011 17:54

(di Massimo Limiti) Prima era una moda usata in gran parte dell’Italia, ora sembra esserla diventata per chi a Roma dovrà arrivare o per chi se n’è andato da poco tempo.
Sparare su Francesco Totti regala titoli a nove colonne o un risveglio di memoria per chi ormai sulle prime pagine ci manca da diversi mesi. E così dopo le esternazioni di Franco Baldini, nelle quale il capitano veniva dipinto come un “pigro” ma dove il bersaglio vero era l’entourage di Totti, ecco oggi le parole di Claudio Ranieri, quel “romano e romanista” che in mezza pagina di giornale perde anche gli ultimi punti a suo favore ottenuti in una stagione meravigliosa che ci ha portati ad un passo dal tricolore. A Roma non è vietato parlare male di Totti, come qualcuno spesso ama dire, ma è vietato parlarne senza i giusti motivi.
Tralasciando l’errore di comunicazione commesso da Franco Baldini, per il quale ne seguiremo nei prossimi mesi i risvolti, concentrandoci sulle parole del tecnico di San Saba notiamo una ricerca a tutti i costi nel regalare il titolo al cronista. Come mai Ranieri non si chiede perché Totti ha definito “nuovi e stimolanti” i metodi di allenamento di Luis Enrique? Come mai nessun altro allenatore che ha avuto Totti (tranne forse Carlos Bianchi) la pensa diversamente da Ranieri? E soprattutto, come mai certe cose non le ha dette quando era l’allenatore della Roma.
Rispondere a Ranieri per Francesco Totti sarebbe come battere un rigore, e gli verrebbe fuori un cucchiaio dei suoi. Non lo ha fatto pubblicamente con Baldini e non lo farà nemmeno con Ranieri. La classe non è acqua, chi è romano e romanista lo dimostra nella vita e non a parole. Avanti il prossimo…

[maro]

Ranieri smentisce: "Mai detto che Totti è un pigro"
Lunedì 08 Agosto 2011 18:56

«Non ho mai detto che Totti è pigro». Claudio Ranieri, ex tecnico della Roma, smentisce quanto riportato da un quotidiano circa una sua considerazione sul capitano giallorosso.

La risposta dell'allenatore a una domanda è stata riportata in modo errato: Ranieri, in realtà, nell'intervista ha detto di non condividere il pensiero di chi sostiene che Totti sia pigro.

[romawi]

Lies, all lies!!!!

[maro]

Either way, I blame Totti. Had he not been such a lazy fuck Vooch and Mexes would still be at the club.

[aldair6]

Again it is just the one Roma player in the Italy squad, thats the same as Parma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Torino with Napoli, Palermo, Inter and Juve all having at least two in the squad
It is a worry considering once again we have not signed a Italian in this transfer window

[red]

[aldair6]

[red]

What Italian players should Roma have tried to sign this summer?

[romawi]

Other than G.Rossi and maybe Aquilani, I don't think there's another Italian player Roma should have tried to sign this summer. No one that's starting material anyway.

[romawi]

[SPqR]

What about Rossi, Aquilani and Cassani?

Also, I've read that we're interested in Fernando...I think he may be better than DDR.

[vtec]

so ambro-level?

[maro]

I've a feeling you may be revising your opinion of DDR by Christmas, -que. From what I can gather from all of the stories coming out of the club (here's today's version - only the latest in a long line of such pieces - http://www.forzaroma.info/rassegna-stam ... niele.html ), Luis Enrique is in no small part designing his midfield around De Rossi - back in his natural role, in front of the back four, with two players alongside him chosen almost entirely on the basis that they complement him, and with a style of lots of short passing which means DDR won't be pushed, as a regista, to his technical limits, reaching after (over)ambitious balls. This, for me, is a recipe for an outstanding season from DDR.

[ASR1927]

[maro]

That wages comment, whether it's completely accurate or not, also explains why a number of the 'potential' Italian signings aren't - it explains why Rube have been linked with Rossi and loaned Aquilani last year: both players would come only for wages well above our cap. This is one of the reasons we've been buying such young players, too - not just because they're enthusiastic and fit and works in progress but because their salaries are pretty much by definition low. It will be interesting to see what happens in three or four years time if those signings have been successful - do we offer a Lamela the rather phatter contract he'll be after then or will we have turned into a 'selling club'. 'moldy and I both think this is the biggest question-mark hanging over the club at the moment, though clearly it's also one we can't answer at this point.

Cassani, Criscito, Aquilani, Montolivo, Palombo, Cassano, Rossi, Quagliarella, Dessena, Poli: there are Italian options out there, I think. Many of those would be ruled out on salary and clearly there are other question-marks over most of them. Personally, if this season we see, say, Curci, Rosi, Greco, Viviani, Okaka, Caprari as part of the squad, along with Cassetti, Brighi, Perrotta, Borriello, Totti, DDR, I shall be happy enough - since it might herald the promise of better things to come.

[maro]

And alongside young players we can add players from the 'second-tier' of leagues - that is, players who've not yet made the move to a big money contract in Spain, England, or Italy.