THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[AS Collie]

[forzaitalia]

Is Roma Fanatic no longer a member on here? His post about DDR above ^^ was pretty ridiculous.

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

Difesa in emergenza con la Juve. De Rossi a fianco di Heinze
– Giovedì 08 Dicembre 2011 10:06

(La Repubblica - F.Ferrazza) - I guai non vengono mai da soli, soprattutto quando di mezzo c’è la Roma. E così, tra le mille difficoltà di una squadra che fatica da morire a trovare il suo giusto passo, esplode l’emergenza in difesa.

Che, neanche a dirlo, si trascina dietro una consequenziale emergenza in attacco. Juan è squalificato, come dimenticare la sciagurata espulsione rimediata a Firenze, Kjaer è infortunato e ieri si è bloccato anche Cassetti, considerato da Luis Enrique come un centrale, per i soliti guai muscolari. Per mancanza di altri giocatori, è toccato a De Rossi schierarsi accanto ad Heinze, unico superstite di un reparto falcidiato. Ma un eventuale spostamento di Daniele sulla linea difensiva, costringerebbe il tecnico spagnolo, già protagonista di scelte discusse, a reinventarsi il centrocampo.

Con Gago squalificato, davanti alla difesa potrebbe sistemare Greco o Viviani, che bene sta facendo in Primavera, con Pjanic e una terza maglia da assegnare a uno tra Perrotta e Pizarro. Ma il cileno continua ad allenarsi a singhiozzo e sembra difficile pensare che possa giocare contro una Juventus che corre come una forsennata. Almeno in attacco il tridente probabile è di tutto rispetto: Totti, Lamela, Osvaldo (Bojan è squalificato), con Borriello che dovrebbe tornare almeno nella lista dei convocati. Intanto oggi l’allenamento tornerà a svolgersi di mattina, dopo due settimane di sedute pomeridiane: Luis Enrique, dopo il confronto di martedì, fa un passo verso i giocatori

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Cassetti no a doubt for Monday with a muscle worry. Guessing that midfield trio will be made up of Pjanic and Greco/Viviani and Perrotta/Pizza. But Pizza still hasn't resumed full training so is doubtful to start.

[romawi]

If Mascherano can play CB, then surely DDR can as well.

[RomaShield27]

Of course, defending has always been DDR's strongest point, so he'll be well capable. A lot better than Mascherano, even. His reading and anticipation is second to none. The only thing he may need a shout from Stek or Heinze or whoever is to remember to keep marking his man, to keep him close, and not to wander off up the pitch too much. I'll be fairly close to the pitch, too – presumably from the Curva Nord – so I can keep an eye on him shout at him in case he wanders too much.

[stefano]

Yeah, I'm sure he'll be all over some unintelligible nonsense shouted in Irish from the Curva Nord.

[Lupa]

lol. I'll be listening for it on TV.

[RomaShield27]

Now thats just silly, Stef. If I were shouting at him in english, it may well be unintelligible nonsense, but in Irish, Daniele will hear, and go forth inspired to stop those Rubentus cnuts.

[red]

[AS Collie]

[Lupa]

Paolo Bandini's match preview for Monday's game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... -a-rivalry

I agree with you guys that taking De Rossi out of our midfield takes the steel away, and our defense is likely to be under pressure a lot. Any mad scientists out there who could clone him by Monday so he could play both places?

[maro]

Surely the point, though, is that if someone's going to come in from the primavera it's got to be Viviani (who perhaps should have been in the first-team all season anyway). DDR at the back and Viviani at the bottom of the midfield is likely to be a better compromise than another kid at CB (or Rosi, as is being mooted on ForzaRoma today) and DDR in front of him, apart from anything else simply because of the quality Viviani can bring to that position. It would be a great test for him and nice to see another Roman on the pitch.

[ASR1927]

[loazzi]

I've been really hoping we get to see Viviani on the field against Juve. If he does well, maybe he stays (given some of the offloading scheduled to happen in January).

[Italiamia]

gio, 08 dic 16:14:26 2011

La Roma rende noto di aver raggiunto l'accordo con il Nacional Montevideo e con la federcalcio uruguaiana per il pagamento dell'indennita' per il 18enne Nicolas Lopez. Il contratto del trequartista uruguaiano sara' perfezionato all'apertura della prossima finestra di mercato.

[Lupa]

Brutte notizie per Luis Enrique in vista della partita di lunedì sera contro la Juventus: Marco Cassetti oggi ha provato a scendere in campo per vedere come stava la sua caviglia però, poco dopo essere entrato in campo per svolgere la seduta di allenamento, è stato costretto a lasciare il campo. Evidentemente sente ancora fastidio al tendine e a questo punto può considerarsi quasi certa la sua assenza nella sfida di dopodomani. Si andrà verso la linea difensiva che è stata provata per tutta la settimana con De Rossi e Heinze al centro, Rosi a destra e ballottaggio Taddei-Josè Angel per la fascia sinistra. Simplicio oggi non si è allenato. Il brasiliano è uscito acciaccato dopo l’allenamento di ieri e nei prossimi giorni si valuteranno le sue condizioni. A centrocampo quindi il vice De Rossi lo potrebbe fare Viviani, con Perrotta e Pjanic ai suoi fianchi. Per quanto riguarda l’attacco, non dovrebbero esserci dubbi sui tre che giocheranno davanti: saranno Totti, Osvaldo e Lamela. Il capitano agirà nella posizione di trequartista in appoggio alla coppia Osvaldo-Lamela. L’unica buona notizia che arriva dall’infermeria per Luis Enrique è quella relativa a Gago: l’argentino si è rivisto in campo per svolgere un breve lavoro differenziato (gradoni). Lavoro differenziato anche Pizarro, Kjaer e Borini oggi.

http://www.romanews.eu/2011/12/10/allen ... -in-campo/

So,
Stekelenberg
Rosi- De Rossi - Heinze - Taddei/Angel
Perrotta - Viviani - Pjanic
Lamela - Totti - Osvaldo

[Lupa]

It all started with some hasty scribbling on the back of a napkin at Estadio Olimpico in Rome.

Joseph Tacopina, the high-profile, soccer-mad New York criminal defense lawyer, was taking in a soccer game seven years ago involving the team that has been a lifelong obsession — A.S. Roma.

“The scoreboard didn’t work; I wanted to buy my children some jerseys, but there were none on sale; and it was dirty,” he said. “I started writing notes to myself on a napkin that had been around a flatbread sandwich. Why not find a group to buy it?”

And so began an off-field odyssey that has included some of the biggest names and most accomplished and wealthy players in global finance, like George Soros and the Boston-based businessmen Thomas DiBenedetto and James J. Pallotta.

In August, the new ownership group completed the purchase of 60 percent of a club valued at about $400 million, according to published reports. DiBenedetto and his partners are only the latest American moneymen to buy into soccer, a group that includes Malcolm Glazer (Manchester United) and Randy Lerner (Aston Villa) in England.

On the field, Associazione Sportivo Roma (the Giallorossi, the yellow-reds) remains an intriguing work in progress as it prepares for Monday’s game against visiting Juventus, currently the second-place team in Italy’s top professional league, Serie A. After a strong start, Roma has lost three of its last five games and is in 11th place, trailing Juventus by 12 points and first-place Udinese by 13.

“We have to win to stay up in the table,” goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, 29, said in a telephone interview from Rome. He also plays for the Dutch national team and joined Roma this season on an $8 million transfer from Ajax. “The American investment group came and got a new manager, new players, and we’re happy with the progress. We want to play football the right way.”

The new owners embarked on a quick overhaul. With DiBenedetto as the chairman and Tacopina as the vice president, Roma hired Walter Sabatini as the director of football and Luis Enrique as the coach.

Enrique, a Spaniard who played for Real Madrid and Barcelona, was the coach of Barcelona’s reserve team last season. Enrique took along to Italy the 21-year-old striker Bojan Krkic; added the attacking midfielder Erik Lamela, 19, from River Plate of Argentina; the Bosnian midfielder Mira Pjanic, 21, from Lyon; and Fernando Gago, 25, of Argentina. The infusion of youth complements veterans like Francesco Totti, Cicinho, Simone Perrotta and Daniele De Rossi.

Over the past 15 to 20 years, all roads have no longer led to Serie A. It has lagged behind England’s Premiershit, Spain’s Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga, especially lacking a sophisticated approach to the game’s commercial side in a nation where teams made the majority of their income from television revenue.

As its teams underachieved and many of the top international players left for other leagues, Italian clubs ceded one of their automatic berths in the Champions League. Italy’s stadiums were aging, the clubs failed to grasp the need for effective marketing and few Serie A teams could be compared to global titans like Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The club’s new owners believe Roma is well positioned to emerge as the next big global brand in soccer. It is a club located at a unique intersection of global culture. The ownership’s idea is to increase revenue by investing in players who deliver results on the field that further increase revenue. Part of the plan is a proposal for a new stadium, tied to Italy’s intention to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, to replace the crumbling, fan-unfriendly Estadio Olimpico, where a running track keeps the fans far from the action and another team, Lazio, shares the facility.

“It’s our role to build up the team’s commercial business so it provides our football club the tools to compete consistently at the highest level while also developing a global media platform that allows our worldwide fan base to follow Roma in a highly engaged fashion,” said Pallotta — a part-owner of the Boston Celtics, the head of the Raptor Group and a top hedge-fund manager — in an e-mail. “The building blocks for success include enhancing the game-day experience for our fans — particularly making our existing stadium more family friendly — developing a deeply compelling digital presence, touring the team to the Americas and Asia so fans globally can experience the club first-hand, and ultimately building a new purpose-built stadium in Rome.”

DiBenedetto, an owner of the Boston Red Sox, was also part of the group that bought Liverfekkin'wankscum of the Premiershit, which could raise questions about a possible conflict with UEFA rules should Liverfekkin'wankscum and Roma find themselves playing in the same continental tournament in the future. It would be a nice problem to have.

The club’s management, with Sabatini and Enrique as the point men, has designs on changing the nature of Italian’s soccer’s reputation for a defensive style by transporting Barcelona’s ball-possession style to Rome. Within three years, the young core that often puts five players under 24 in the starting lineup could make Roma a top team in Italy and Europe. But it is the chance to transform the fan experience, which can be sorely lacking in Italy, that has energized the American investors.

As Tacopina shuttles between New York and Rome — from where his father, Cosmo Tacopina, who died at 94 last week, immigrated to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn — the club’s fans have embraced the architect of the entire deal, displaying a banner “Tacopina Uno di Noi, Grazie Joe,” which calls him “One of Us.”

For the club’s new players, like Stekelenburg, the prospect of building with a young team is exciting and potentially lucrative.

“I see a better future,” he said. “I feel young here, and maybe I never leave.”
A version of this article appeared in print on December 12, 2011, on page D8 of the New York edition with the headline: American Owners Look to Turn A.S. Roma Into a Global Soccer Brand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/sport ... ref=soccer

[ASR1927]

[AS Collie]