THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

Well now, this settles the argument once and for all, I'm sure we'll all agree.

http://www.forzaroma.info/2013/02/05/ro ... ndo/192364
http://www.football-italia.net/30406/se ... cked-zeman

“I don’t think the statistics justify Zeman’s sacking. I don’t know the internal goings on, but history says Zeman should always be protected and supported to the end. I certainly wouldn’t have fired him.

“I would’ve stuck with Montella last season rather than hiring Luis Enrique, as a project made of young players should have continued with him. My father always said a Coach should be supported to the end.”

“You wash your dirty laundry behind closed doors. A Coach must always be protected when dealing with the squad.

Of course, its easy to say all these things with hindsight, isn't it Rosella. She is right about the last part, though.

[RomaShield27]

Aurelio Andreazzoli: I Know What Must Be Done At Roma
/ 05 Feb 2013 Anthony Wright

Roma coach Aurelio Andreazzoli held his first interview on Tuesday since taking the job, where he outlined his plans for how he intends to work in the coming months.

Though he has no experience in management, he has worked under a number of coaches at Roma and hopes to use this experience to help bring the players together and point the club in the right direction again.

"I realise very well what needs to be done and where I am. I know the responsibility I have in taking charge of this work, but the ideas I have in mind are so large that we cannot waste time worrying", Andreazzoli began in his interview with Roma Channel.

"Maybe I'm unaware, but I'm truly enjoying this moment - it's more a pleasure than a concern, above all because the club have shown enthusiasm and faith to me. [Walter] Sabatini made me stop thinking about the idea of leaving Roma; I'd had another offer [as assistant coach of Fiorentina] - so when I returned to Rome [in 2011] to talk with Sabatini, we got to know each other and I liked him immediately, and from thereon I accepted my assignment.

"I've always studied situations, I've taken part in everything but I was sheltered [in the background], and suddenly I've been called on to do this. As my friend Luciano [Spalletti] also said, being a step behind gives you the ideal chance to look at things while not having the burden of being a coach.

"But when I was called, I didn't need to think about it too much. Over time I've gained ideas, and it's time to put these ideas together. [It's also an advantage] to know the atmosphere of Trigoria. I live happily here 24 hours a day. I've slept here for eight years.

"I know exactly what to do, how to do it and who to do it with. I don't want to share what my objectives are just now, but I know who I want to achieve them with. I know I will have a club that will support me and so I'm not nervous. We're organising ourselves in the best way in order to plan our future - I'll plan as if I'm still coach of Roma in three years time.

"I want to keep working for this club, either in the role I've always had until now [as technical coach] or as the top man, but I'm not letting this distract me right now - we need to start getting results quickly so that we have more energy to give out on the pitch.

"I want to prepare a base that the club will be able to use in an appropriate way, with me or someone else. I want to use all the energies inside the walls of Trigoria, which is a lot. There are many good people, it's easy to find support, from the management to the people who open the gates and the stewards. I want to make Trigoria a good working environment - it mustn't be a place of work but of pleasure, because we're doing a job that thousands of people would love to do.

"We have to be positive towards the players, because even if a steward gives me 0.2% of the help to do what I have in mind, it will help the team in the long run and I want the team to have an advantage. Everything that we'll do will serve to give the team an advantage. Who doesn't do this is out, without exception.

"We're working hard at the moment, we're lowering the tone - I want the enthusiasm that has sometimes been lacking and all the work we'll do will be pointing in this direction.

"I'll use this week to have some individual chats [with the players] because while I don't want to impose anything on them, I want them to understand what my philosophy will be. When they know what I want to do, they can debate with me straight away or say nothing more. But only I will make the decisions and I'll follow my own path.

"I've told [Francesco Totti] that he's like the Colosseum. He will have an incredible importance, but I'll need him to be the Colosseum. He'll be the first to give me a hand, as will [Rodrigo] Taddei and others. I'll impose few rules, but they'll be hard ones and they'll help me.

"There will also be some exclusions, and I hope that they accept it badly, not willingly. It will be the most difficult moment for me, excluding someone from the 11 starters, but it will be good to see even those who aren't in the team cheer their team-mates on. It will be good to see them give their energy for those who are playing at that time.

"We must help each other and find a common feeling, the desire to work together, to rediscover success with enthusiasm and to forget the pain of defeat. The fans will give us support, I'm convinced of that.

"Among us there are those who aren't in the limelight, who earn less but work hardest of all in silence. To them I would say that it's important to give your best. If I decided to be second in charge to Spalletti, I chose to give my utmost to Spalletti.

"Every one of my staff has their own points in which they excel. I want to use their most important resources to create a complete structure. At Trigoria there are important energies - we must exploit the enormous potential of the decisions that the club has made".

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

Thats right, walk off without answering the questions. Good old Italiamia. We both know its because you're answers will contradict everything you've been spouting about Zeman up until now, but that doesn't matter, your happy, just because the old man is finally gone, regardless of where it leaves this team right now.

[DCGweez]

I always thought that rather than discussing whether a coach should be fired, you should always talk about upgrading the position. Is Andreazolli an upgrade over Zeman? I don't know, perhaps there was discord in the locker room. If so, then I'm all for it. Tactically, I'm not sure that AA has the chops but a lot of times it's the players happiness that makes all the difference.

[AS Collie]

In the short term, I agree DC. But that's been Roma's problem for a long time. The grass is always greener. Until it isn't.

I think that managers like Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger have succeeded because they always came first. Sure, players were happy to win with them, but if they weren't, they were off, not the manager. Think it's probably the reason Guardiola left Barcelona too, because he didn't want his great relationship with everyone breaking down over time.

I know a lot of people questioned ZZ for leaving out DDR, for example, and pointed to his happiness or lack thereof. But would Man U fans be having that conversation? Or Inter fans during Mou's time there? I get the feeling they'd just accept whatever the boss said.

As far as DDR goes, I think Blogistuta put it quite well a while back, especially the bit about him sucking it up and doing his job.

http://blogistuta.com/2013/01/the-disap ... e-rossi-2/

[Italiamia]

[AS Collie]

[maro]

[DCGweez]

[AS Collie]

I can see where Maro's coming from Edzo, even if I'm a Zemanite myself.

There are fair points to be made on both sides of this discussion, but I don't think Stekelenburg is one of them. 18 months in Rome and he still can't communicate with his team mates? I've seen firsthand the WTF looks he gets sometimes from the defenders when he's shouting at them.

Zeman might not be a people person, but if he got a little pissed at an extremely well-paid professional not applying himself to improving a part of his skill-set that is extremely important to the satisfactory execution of his duties, then I say fair enough.

For the record, I'm a fan of Stek, or at least I was and might be again. I think he's a solid keeper. But he looked better under LE because Roma never attacked so quickly or with so many numbers, even if we still conceded a fair amount of goals (eg, when we lost 4-2 to Calgiari ...). We actually leaked goals last year, without ever looking so threatening, and that's a problem because right now our goal difference is actually better than how it last May.

--

DC, I never mentioned Totti!

I know what you mean about Man U and Barca, but the economic status of Arse has only come about thanks to long-term stability and shrewd management across the board. Obv, there's a lot more to running a club than just having a good manager, but not having to fork out for pay outs and new players every year sure helps the bank balance.

I agree with you about Zeman. That was always my hope, not least because I think he's the only manager around who could actually lose and still be adored by (a lot) of the romanisti.

[DavidP]

lol. collies signature is gold. +1

[RomaShield27]

[Italiamia]

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

Fair enough, Giovanni, they are all valid points. However, our management were willing to take a punt on him, and so I, like many others, gave him a chance and believed him, too. But now were are where we are and it seems that Zeman seems to be getting the brunt of the blame, as it were, while others are shirking away out of the limelight.

Peach of a goal this evening from Pjanic this evening:



http://www.forzaroma.info/2013/02/06/na ... rro/192565

Barba, Politano and Caprari played in Italy U20s 2-0 loss against Germany U20. Antei and Piscitella both unused substitutes.

Verre, Romagnoli, Verre, M.Ricci and Frediani played in Italy U19s 1-0 victory over Germany U19. Verre also got MotM.

[AS Collie]

[DCGweez]

Stek was paid handsomely to sit the bench and frankly had he been better then he would not have been benched. He is probably the worst buy of the new ownership era.

Sport is the ultimate meritocracy. If he sat, it's because he didn't perform. Not sure the Manager needs to explain his every move. He probably didn't explain to Nico Lopez, Marquinhos or anyone else.

Your boss doesn't owe you an explanation or thank you's/apologies. That's what they pay you for...