THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[DavidP]

gorgeous day so far.

[RomaShield27]

Just back from down the country, head is only bustin. Looking forward to the game tonight, don't think we'll win but hopefully we put in a good performance and try to build some consistency. Pity Borini can't start. I'd also probably start Bojan ahead of Lamela who's been rubbish lately.

LE PROBABILI FORMAZIONI:

JUVENTUS
Probabile formazione (3-5-2): 1 Buffon; 15 Barzagli, 19 Bonucci, 3 Chiellini; 26 Licthsteiner, 22 Vidal, 21 Pirlo, 8 Marchisio, 11 De Ceglie; 32 Matri, 14 Vucinic.

A disp.: 30 Storari, 4 Caceres, 7 Pepe, 24 Giaccherini, 10 The Waterboy, 18 Quagliarella, 23 Borriello.



Roma(4-3-1-2): 24 Stekelenburg; 87 Rosi, 44 Kjaer, 16 De Rossi, Taddei; 19 Gago, 15 Pjanic, 7 Marquinho; 10 Totti; 8 Lamela, 9 Osvaldo.

A disp.: 18 Curci, 5 Heinze, 3 Josè Angel, 30 Simplicio, 23 Greco, 14 Bojan, 31 Borini.



Arbitro: Bergonzi di Genova.
Assistenti: Niccolai e Di Liberatore.
Quarto uomo: Damato.

[RomaShield27]

WTF Totti on the bench? What the fuck is that about? Its not an injury concern is it?

LE FORMAZIONI UFFICIALI

JUVENTUS: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Pirlo, Marchisio, De Ceglie; Quagliarella, Vucinic.
A disposizione: Storari, Caceres, Pepe, Giaccherini, The Waterboy, Matri, Borriello.
All.: Conte

ROMA: Stekelenburg; Rosi, De Rossi, Kjaer, José Angel; Perrotta, Gago, Marquinho; Pjanic; Osvaldo, Borini
A disp.: Curci, Heinze, Greco, Taddei, Lamela, Bojan, Totti.
All.: Luis Enrique

[forzaitalia]

God knows. He'll be back in on Wednesday though I'm sure.

Why is every away game a shambles? 4-0 down in consecutive away games, not acceptable at all. It would have been 4 even if Steak hadn't got sent off (I would have liked to see the ref just give him a yellow here), we started disastrously (Pjanic for the first goal, explain yourself). And when Rube did get the fourth, they played within themselves after that. They could have had more if they wanted to.

Our home record is alright, so we'll probably get at least four points from Fiorentina and Napoli. But our away record is appalling.

[Italiamia]

I guess we will have to put that statue of Enrique on hold for a while.

[Bagg10]

Be patient Gio, it's a longterm project.

[red]

[romawi]

Granted I saw only the first 25-30 minutes of the game, but that was some of the worst football I've seen us play in a long time. Forget the result, I expected us to lose, but that direct approach, straight from the back to the forwards without keeping the ball on the ground was just unbearable to watch. LE's comments about it after the game made it even worse. I've said all season that results don't matter to me right now. I just want to see us play some good football, and we never even tried to do that today.

[Bagg10]

Sunday April 22 2012

Luis Enrique explains Totti snub
By Football Italia staff

Luis Enrique gave credit to Juventus and explained his decision to drop Francesco Totti, but acknowledged Roma’s “game was over after 10 minutes.”

The Giallorossi fell to a quick one-two from Arturo Vidal, then Andrea Pirlo scored the follow-up to a penalty after Maarten Stekelenburg’s dismissal for an eventual 4-0 defeat.

“After eight minutes we were 2-0 down with the only two chances. Juve are at a remarkable level this season, so the game was already over at that stage. When they went 3-0 up and we had a man down, it really was over,” he told Sky Sport Italia.

“There was a big difference between the teams tonight and we compliment the Serie A leaders for their victory.”

Totti and Erik Lamela were surprisingly on the bench at the Juventus Stadium.

“I did not see it as a risk. It’s too easy to talk about decisions afterwards. Juventus have great quality and physicality, so I thought it was best to adopt a more physical approach and reserve Totti for the next game.

“We must already look ahead to Wednesday with Fiorentina and then Napoli. Every time a defeat like this happens, of course we are worried.

“It was a game that I thought required more stamina and strength, so I believed this was the right line-up for the occasion. After those first eight minutes, it made no difference who was on the pitch. We had two trequartisti, Fabio Borini and Miralem Pjanic.

“I have played a few games in my career and know intensity is crucial. It’s true we are struggling to find that intensity and tonight Juve were more intense. I don’t think we are four goals different to Juve, but tonight that was the case.

“Of course I will continue the same way. We know there are some bad defeats, but we have done some good things too and are still close to third place. Naturally every setback is a problem, but each game is very difficult to predict in Serie A.

“We still have three home games, plus trips to Cesena and Verona. We certainly have to improve away, but are doing a good job at the Olimpico and we’re up there.”

Luis Enrique was also shown footage of the incident in the final minutes. Stephan Lichtsteiner mocked Lamela by waving four fingers – a gesture famously done by Totti against Juventus some years ago – and the Roma player responded by spitting on his shoulder.

“It is ugly for me to see a player who is winning 4-0 to do that at this level, while it is also ugly for Lamela to spit.”

http://www.football-italia.net/17987/lu ... totti-snub

[romaromaroma]

Under one of our most successful managers in our history we suffered defeats like this.Spalletti. 4 - 1 at home to juve, 4 - 0 to inter at home, 4 - 1 to inter at home, 3 - 0 to lazio, 7 - 1 to man.united, 3 - 0 to siena away, 3 - 0 to atalanta away, 4 - 2 to lazio..

At the begining of this year, my expectation was fight to europa league in transition phase.I think we met that expectation.
I think this squad is 55 - 65 point team.A 70 point plus team would be one near fighting for lo scudetto as scudetto is won by 80 - 85 points.

LE done decent job imo.And I am willing to be patient on him, before calling for his head so early in the project

[RomaShield27]

I don't think its fair to compare LE's first season in charge with that of Spalletti's. When Spalletti took over the club was a complete madhouse, with four managers in charge, a relegation threatened season and limited resources with no money for new players. LE has had to adapt to a new league and a new environment, fair enough, but compared to Spalletti, he has been pampered like a baby.

[RomaShield27]

I've been thinking about it – couldn't have possibly commented in any sense of even a halfway coherent manner during or after the game last night – and I genuinely think LE should go at this stage. Its not outrage, or backlash at the defeat, or any ill-feeling, but just my honest view of where we are at at the moment.

There are five games left in the season, but I can't really see anything changing in that time. Over the summer, no doubt a few players would be brought in, but without yet another massive overhaul with a large number of incoming players – not just defenders, but more technical midfielders then what we already have, full-backs, even forwards – I can't see us as a team being more able to understand and play LE's system. Plus its already been said by Sabatini that we'll be signing no more than three established players, which I can't see being enough to change things around. We've focussed on youth, which has been commendable, but even if we're to bring through more youth players next season, or give more opportunities to those like Viviani and Piscitella (or Caprari or Florenzi), realistically, how ready are they to play in this system when we have established senior players who are still unsure of what is required of them?

I appreciate LE's footballing philosophy and what he is trying to do with Roma, but quite simply it is not working, and now I'm seriously beginning to doubt if it is ever likely to. Here we are, almost at the end of the season, and there are still massively alarming problems. Not small things which can be ironed out, but basics. Most obvious of all is how defensively we remain a complete shambles in this system. We don't have the centre-backs to fit the system – there's no doubt the injuries to Burdisso and Juan have hindered us and played a big part in that, but yet we took no measures to strengthen the defence in the winter mercato, nor have given any indications that we need a to seriously look at it in the summer – and as we've seen time and time again we're far too fragile and vulnerable defending against the counter-attack or when put under any serious pressure. We have wing-backs who can't defend, and we have midfielders who don't or can't do enough to get back and help out. Its not something which can be turned around with time in my opinion, and LE has shown no willingness whatsoever to change the system or the formation in order to help out the defense and stop us from looking so weak at the back.

Another major issue has been consistency. Have we produced two impressive displays in-a-row all season? I don't mean results, but actual performances we're we played possesso paella and good passing football with end results? We've won important games and got results only to be followed by a complete hammering the next week, a complete turnaround on what we've seen and back to square one. We've been mentally weak, much too fragile and not showing enough resolve or character or grit when we are up against it and the game is in the melting pot.

I'm not sure if our management is willing to fire LE or even consider making a change (this without reading much news this morning, it will be interesting to see if there are any seeds of doubt creeping in now). They may want to show a united front and stick to the ideas of this 'new Roma' which does things differently and has a different view than your typical Italian club, and they may stress patience and talk about the project. That is fine of course, and also commendable in a game which is far too harsh and quick to make changes, but clearly is a problem if you don't believe the project is one which is likely to be achieved.

LE may turn out to be a fine manager. If fact, I'm pretty sure he will, and one day will go on to have great success more than likely as the eventual successor to Guardiola at Barcelona. This is his first job and he is still learning, but he has shown he is a very committed and studious professional who has his philosophy and leaves no stone unturned. However, at this time I don't think he is the right man for the job at Roma. Perhaps a club like Roma and Italian football in general is not ready for the fundamental changes he is trying to bring, but more likely the club and the players and even LE himself are not ready for the style of football he is trying to play. Too much, too soon.

[RomaShield27]

Viviani has been for the first time, a late addition to replace Luca Marrone, along with Antei, Florenzi and Crescenzi (Florenzi also scored again for Crotone at the weekend, his 11th goal of the season. Not bad for a central midfielder).

Sabatini has that if Lamela did spit on Pricksteiner, then he will be punished, and rightfully so, the little thick. Although Lamela himself said that he "simulated the act" and didn't actually spit, although i'm not sure about that. He's also likely to get a two game suspension. Stekelenburg is also suspended, obviously, and Bojan for one game (yellow cards).

Also that DDR had a "spat with some [Roma] fans after the game."

Luis Enrique's ahead of the Fiorentina game will be held tomorrow mornin at 11.30. Its sure to be an interesting one.

Also, we were talking about the Facebook thing a while back, here's an interview with Roma's Director of Digital Business, Shergul Arshad, on social media:

http://digital-football.com/byleague/se ... likes-roi/

[red]

[DCGweez]

Try not to post things in Italian here. But a good article for those who can read it.

http://www.ilpost.it/stefanonazzi/2012/ ... fosi-e-no/

[RomaShield27]

Three match ban for Lamela:

Giudice Sportivo, tre giornate a Lamela, Marassi due giornate a porte chiuse
/ Lunedì 23 Aprile 2012 16:18

Il Giudice Sportivo, Giampiero Tosel, ha inflitto 3 giornate di squalifica a Erik Lamela per lo sputo a Lichsteiner durante Juve-Roma. Gesto non visto dall'arbitro Gervasoni, ma ripreso dalle telecamere.

Il Genoa, per l'interruzione della partita di ieri con il Siena a causa dell'intemperanze dei Tifosi, è stato sanzionato con due giornate a porte chiuse.

http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_lib ... upId=10192

[DavidP]

grande coco.

[romawi]

[romawi]

[DCGweez]

I've gone from defending him to indifference.

He's a hard worker and a pro. I have yet to see him show anything near tactical genius or a type of "feel" that the great ones have.

I like his approach but I'd rather just have Baldini and Saba take that approach and find a tactician willing to finction within that framework.