THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

That is onehelluva naff video.

[Italiamia]

I do not know the man, Edzo. From the way it sounds, he will be promoting Roma throughout the football playing world. Marketing the brand as that was a priority for this new ownership. I stopped watching after the question about the focus on international players. I do not have the patience to wait for the translation for our non-Italian speaking ownership to respond. At least Italo Zanzi had a prepared statement in Italian. He may not speak it any fluency, but I thought that was well done and a nice touch.

[DCGweez]

Collie my boy. What's the latest on our prepubescent central defense? Them boys gonna play on the weekend?

[AS Collie]

Well I read in the CdS that Marquinhos is actually ok. DDR's been down with some stomach bug, Castan is out and Romagnoli I dunno, so I suppose someone will have to play. Maybe there's a 15-year-old somewhere at Trigoria waitin for his start.

[Italiamia]

Come on guys, Zeman does not give a damn about defense but it seems that is the only way De Rossi will get a start:


http://www.repubblica.it/sport/calcio/s ... -49105132/

[DCGweez]

Thanks boys.

Monty gets another crack at us in the Coppa

http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/notizie/c ... 20679.html

[DCGweez]

Ozzy banned three games and would only be available should we make it to the final.

[AS Collie]

Interesting stuff from J Wilson of the guardian on the Zenit ultras' open letter to their president, and how it relates to racial tensions in football.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... pen-letter

[RomaShield27]

[Lupa]

[RomaShield27]

Yeh Lupa, today at 20:45 CET. I'm going to record and watch later as I'll be out on a 12 pubs of Xmas session. Tis that time of year boy. Their expecting for the game tonight, should be a great atmosphere. Colly won't be there though, the pussy.

Some good interviews in todays papers with Osvaldo: http://www.forzaroma.info/2012/12/22/os ... ssi/178636
and Marquinhos: http://www.forzaroma.info/2012/12/22/pi ... tta/178627

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Marquinhos looks all set to start, which is good. We're gonna need him at his best against El Shar. DDR back in midfield, hopefully – I think its fair to say if he doesn't start tonight then there's real problems.

Le probabili formazioni dei quotidiani:

IL MESSAGGERO: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Pjanic, De Rossi, Florenzi; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti

LA GAZZETTA DELLO SPORT: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Pjanic, De Rossi, Florenzi; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti

IL CORRIERE DELLO SPORT: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Bradley, De Rossi, Florenzi; Pjanic, Osvaldo, Totti

IL TEMPO: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Pjanic, De Rossi, Bradley; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti

IL ROMANISTA: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Pjanic, De Rossi, Florenzi; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti

IL CORRIERE DELLA SERA: Goicoechea; Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Bradley, De Rossi, Florenzi; Pjanic, Osvaldo, Totti

LA REPUBBLICA: Goicoechea, Piris, Marquinhos, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Pjanic, De Rossi, Bradley; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti

[maro]

ZEMAN 8,5: Il capolavoro del boemo: la sua Roma umilia il Milan e fa brillare gli occhi dei 50 mila dell’Olimpico. Per fortuna i Maya non avevano ragione o ci saremmo persi un capolavoro non solo tattico, ma anche di nervi e personalità parzialmente rovinata dall’arbitro Rocchi.

The masterpiece of Maro: Maro's Roma - if only Zeman did the coaching but left the selecting to the great Mantuan - humiliate Bilan and cause collective tumescence to the 50 gazillion packed into the Olimpico.

[Lupa]

[AS Collie]

Could be wrong, but I'd say that's translated. It reads that way anyway. But good to see him get some spotlight in the US.

Also: what a fucking game!

[Lupa]

As the writer made a point of praising Daniele's english, I assumed the interview was in English, although perhaps 'polished' a bit.

Anyway, yesterday's game was a nice Christmas present/year end present or whatever.

Too bad Marcos will now miss at least one game (surely they won't ban him for more than that given the weird call?). This is Italy, however, so who knows. That was a good lineup yesterday. I'd like to see more of that.

[RomaShield27]

What a game indeed, just finished watching it there (and will do again), smashing performance. Milan are shite (Yepes and Mexes were laughable) but so what, we were bleedin great so we were. I thought at one stage we were going to completely smash them five or six nil, but I should know better that we'd give up a few goals. Marquinhos' red was very harsh alright, although Goicoechea – who had a super game up until that spill for Pazzini's dive of a peno – was lucky to stay on I suppose since it should have technically been a red.

[red]

Roma were pretty good for an hour, but Milan made it easy for them.

Aside from the laughable defending in the box, Milan just didn't offer any sort of resistance in midfield.

Nocerino spent most of his time running beyond the play, so it was mostly just Ambrosini and Montolivo in midfield for Milan.

Those two aren't anything like mobile enough to contain Roma.

Milan's CBs also made life harder for the midfield by dropping really deep to mark Osvaldo, instead of holding some sort of line. That meant there was a really big space for Ambrosini and Montolivo to cover, so they were bound to get slaughtered.

Pity neither Roma nor Lazio were able to go on and give Milan the thrashings they've deserved this season. Both have been in a position to dish out a thrashing to them, but both alowed Milan to recover in a way that masked the extent to which they were out-played in the games.

[red]

Also, I really have to question the intelligence of the the players of any team that fails to break Roma's suicidally high defensive line with some regularity.

[AS Collie]

[maro]

You can get away with a high line if you press the ball properly too, no?