THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

[DavidP]

[RomaShield27]

Oh right, I see, nice one David. Justin? Doesn't ring a bell straight away, perhaps he had a different username?

Perrotta turns 34 today, tanti auguri to him. No doubt that'll give more ammo to his critics saying how he can't cut it now at 34, but he's still a lot left in him, workhorse that he is.

Couple of Ermes vids, first one on our disappointing defeat to Cagliari, second on recent encounters with Inter, good build up for tonight:

[AS Collie]

Lads, I'm back in Ireland for a few days (Edzo's still roller-blading): Anyone have any good streams for the match later?

From Sky Italia:

[forzaitalia]

Borini? Get Bojan in there. Still not too sure about Taddei at LB either, though there may not be any other choice.

[AS Collie]

[p_maldini_3]

borini looks like a hustler.

[RomaShield27]

I was thinking about heading out to watch it, Colly – I've met up with Jeff (ASR1927) in Murrays to watch Roma games in the past (the last one being last seasons 5-3 of this same fixture, ironically) – but not heading out for this one, was on the beer last night and tomorrow will be mental. Anyway, its on TV ya mad thing, both Setanta Ireland and ESPN. For streams I use Bet365.com, always great quality, though you need an account (also look ).

Borini's been going very well in training and has been in the running to start tonight all week. Bojan didn't impress against Cagliari, and still has a lot to do to adapt to the Italian game.

Latest are saying that Perrotta will start at right-full! Thats a bit mad. Bit of surprising move, but thats not to say he won't be able to play there. I don't think I've ever heard of him playing at full-back before, though. Also quite a blow to Rosi and Cassetti.

[AS Collie]

on the telly? Great stuff. I thought I could watch Sky Italia online through my account, but I can't, apparently.

Total Italian Football? Fookin hell. Ireland's not the desolate wasteland it was ten minutes ago.

[RomaShield27]

Serie A coverage has never been better. Choice of Setanta or ESPN for all of the big games, plus there's usually one of them showing anticipo and posticipo games, good commentary with commentators who actually realise there are good leagues outside the Premiershit and Liga, plus lots of highlight and goals shows like that Total Italian Football. All its need its James Richardson back presenting something and we'd be set.

[AS Collie]

"De Rossi playing the Busquets role for #Roma"

From James Horncastle on Twitter. I'd expect better from that guy.

[RomaShield27]

Join us in the Shitbox on the main page for in-game discussion, Dickface.

[forzaitalia]

You two are so friendly to each other aren't you?

[p_maldini_3]

they used to date.

[RomaShield27]

I work with the cnut, he only supports Roma cos I do.

[AS Collie]

Ed, you're the diet coke of Collie. Deal with it.

[RomaShield27]

Diet coke of Colly? Ultra gay. Don't choke on your nam bread, tubby.

Still can't get my head around Perrotta at right-full. He's doing well there, mind, but still an odd selection. Full backs clearly instructed not to get forward as much, which may explain it to some extent. Did anyone see any indication or read any reports of LE trying him there in training during the week?

Decent enough performance. Good at times, but you can still see that at other times the players are unsure of whats required of them in this system and we look a little static, with the front three not quite working that well together, and at certain times when Inter had huge amounts of space and free time on the ball going forward. DDR is so crucial to us in this role. He was in the box at the end of a cross at one stage and i almost spat my beer all over the TV shouting at him to get the fook back.

[forzaitalia]

De Rossi was very good today. Passing was accurate, and that block right at the end was f*cking colossal.

Good block by Kjaer too from Sneijder, although his casual back heel set him up in the first place. Osvaldo showed the odd flash but still has some convincing to do, hopefully he'll get better game by game.

Decent point on paper, although it was a drab game.

[Lupa]

So the new formation doesn't work against small teams or big ones? (I admit that today the setup looked different because of the different players at the back, but I wasn't impressed)

[DCGweez]

DDR MOTM-I hope he can still have children.

Kjaer-Great game, you see the difference between buying players with Serie A experience and not. Little tricks, read the game, got in front of J. Ceasar after crosses so that he couldn't get the ball out quickly.

Gago-You can see in his positioning that he'll be a good pickup for the season. I wasn't all that impressed with him but he was where he was supposed to be and showed himself when players needed an outlet. Something missing in other players so far this season

Lucho-I'm not really impressed with our backfield diamond of:

Totti
Burdisso Kjaer
DDR

Osvaldo-We need to see if we can't get out of that contract, claim temporary insanity for the smoking man or something. He's horrific.