THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

Why, 'cos the boys will be really tired from Sunday? Probably. Maybe if we're losing Totti can make it rain again.

With Napoli getting whipped by Atlanta (and resting key players) they'll likely be well up for it, I suppose. At least we'll have the second-leg to come back. And sure why is there a second-leg at all?

[Italiamia]

Why is there a Coppa Italia is the better question. I think we should just play our younger guys, even from the Primavera. I'm sick to death of the Coppa Italia.

[RomaShield27]

Would you rather we focussed all our efforts on winning lo scudetto?

Giovanni, check this film preview out: http://www.rivistastudio.com/in-breve/z ... o-geremei/

[DCGweez]

Once we get the silver star i don't care one way or the other about the Coppa. As long as we can say we got the Silver Star before the cheats i'll be happy.

[RomaShield27]

I think we've seen a change in mentality with how the Coppa is viewed in Italia this season, and that is likely to continue. Attendances have risen (60,000 for Rube, 50,000 tonight (with bad weather too) – and not just with Roma, Napoli at home too) and we've seen teams rest players for league games to save them for the Coppa. There's bigger prize money, better marketing, a European spot on offer, and most importantly, a chance of glory and winning some honours in a domestic scene which is, as much as we may not like it, being dominated by Moggi.. I mean Juventus. The Coppa is good, and a silver star this season would be very nice indeed.

[RomaShield27]

Ufficiale: (4-3-3) De Sanctis; Maicon, Benatia, Castan, Torosidis, Nainggolan, De Rossi, Strootman; Ljajic, Totti, Gervinho

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Mehdi Benatia -- how France lost the best of Generation '87: http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcuni ... 15?cc=5739

[red]

Three excellent goals, but I can't say I thought a lot of Roma's general performance.

For large chunks of the game I thought they played in a fairly nothingy sort of fashion. They were often ten yards too deep to allow their (vastly superior) midfield to impose itself on Napoli's and really dominate the game, but were also playing ten yards higher up the pitch than a team typically would that was just looking to defend and play on the break.

There were also issues caused by Gervinho and Ljalic not working back well on the flanks (I understand the desire to keep Gervinho high up, but that means the guy on the other side needs to do more). It meant that Roma's full-backs were getting dragged forward and that then created space in the channels for Higuain to drift into and pull a central defender out of position (or the centre-half didn't go and Higuain got space) and Roma could easily have conceded more than the one goal they did concede from Higuain crosses from the channels.

Still, those aren't huge issues in the overall scheme of things.

There's so much wrong with Napoli that I wouldn't even know where to start.

[DCGweez]

Agreed Red, one of Roma's poorest performances of the campaign. We seemed to have little in the way of ideas and 4 of the 5 goals in the game came from "individual brilliance".

That was also Benatia's worst game of the season i think. I'm simply not sure what he was thinking on the Higuian goal. Toro almost made the very same mistake early in the game.

MDS wasn't exactly spectacular either.

The only positive i can take from the game is that we played poorly and won against what is ostensibly the 3rd best team in the league.

[DavidP]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9kXxFgQdI

does he say that he has known about mehdi for a while now since france is a small place? there was a lot of talk of alderweireld and lovren that went totally quiet right after rudi came in. was this almost entirely spalletti 2.0's decision, as were, quite obviously, a couple of other buys? or was it sabatini's? whoever it was made one hell of a call. this guy is such a complete defender and such a dedicated professional that i seriously can't think of a more wisely spent 10m+ fee this summer. god damn this is my third post about him but who's gonna blame me.

[DavidP]

what's he saying about jedvaj in the beginning?

[Italiamia]

I'm surprised Edzo wasn't all over this: http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/notizie/s ... --sow.html

[red]

[RomaShield27]

Considering I was planning on being in the Curva Sud for the second of those games, v Inter, I'm not to happy about it. But surely we'll appeal and it'll be reduced, hopefully just closed for the Samp game.

The whole 'territorial discrimination' thing is a farce, though, as most fan bases agree. Nothing wrong with slagging where your opponent is from. All the fans sang against the Neapolitans was "lavali lavali col fuoco o Vesuvio lavali col fuoco" (wash them with fire), not much in that really.

[RomaShield27]

Also, can anyone tell me – Colly, you may be able to find out – are you able to buy tickets for the Curva Sud? Someone on twitter told me earlier the public can't buy tickets for the Curva Sud as they were all sold out at the start of the season, but that is just season tickets, wouldn't it be? As in all the allocation of season tickets for the Curva were sold but there's still a certain amount for public sale? Or is it all?

[RomaShield27]

Roma's Rudi Garcia Unimpressed With Lazio Coach Edy Reja Ahead Of Derby
/ Saturday, 08 February 2014 13:38 / Anthony Wright

Roma coach Rudi Garcia has called into question the wisdom of some of Edy Reja's comments ahead of the Rome derby on Sunday after the Lazio boss followed up his words about hoping a Roma player got injured last week in the cup by stating he would also take a draw in the stracittadina.

In his press conference on Saturday afternoon, Garcia said that he believes coaches have to be responsible in what they say to the media and questions what his opposite number says to his players in private.

"This is the same person who also said he would like to see a Romanista get injured... We shouldn't forget that we are also educators as well as coaches", he noted.

"If someone said these things in public, what does he say in the dressing room? That someone breaks a leg? That someone kills someone else? I would ask for two things in this game. Firstly that the referee is very attentive to all the tackles and challenges, I don't want anyone to get injured.

"Secondly that the two sets of fans support their teams, and nothing more. It's important that everything goes well in the stands. If he's happy to take a draw that's fine, we always play to win - what the opposition says is their responsibility".

Regarding the game itself, Garcia has respect for Lazio and warned that they have dangerous players who Roma will have to contain, but feels that his side will win as long as they put in the hard work on the pitch.

"We know how to play against a team who have four or five players in defence. Nothing chances for us [if Lazio change formation]. We need to find ways to give our opponents problems, as always. We also have to pay attention to some of Lazio's dangerous players, which is the case in every game.

"The great thing about football is that we never know what will happen in a game. I'm not thinking about a result, we just want to win and get the three points to move on in the league, because we're on a really interesting run at the moment and the team really wants to keep pushing on.

"We want to give everything on the pitch, we want to win and if we do it by playing our game then so much the better. The table says that we're second but our opponents will be difficult. We have quality to put on the pitch though and I have faith in this team - they know how to do everything and they know how to play against any type of opposition, whether they're pressing high or playing on the counter. We have all the keys, we just need to do the work on the pitch".

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PREVIEW: http://asroma.co.uk/news/match-previews ... lazio-roma

LAZIO-ROMA: I CONVOCATI: http://www.asroma.it/it/notizie/lazio-r ... convocati/

[DCGweez]

De Sanctis; Maicon, Benatia, Castan, Torosidis; De Rossi, Strootman, Pjanic; Gervinho, Totti, Florenzi.

Berisha; Konko, Biava, Dias, Radu; Gonzalez, Ledesma, Lulic; Candreva, Klose, Keita

[RomaShield27]

LE FORMAZIONI UFFICIALI

LAZIO: Berisha; Konko, Biava, Dias, Radu; Gonzalez, Ledesma, Lulic; Candreva, Klose, Keita.

A disp: Marchetti, Strakosha, Ciani, Cana, Cavanda, Pereirinha, Mauri, Onazi, Felipe Anderson, Crecco, Minala, Perea, Kakuta.

ROMA: De Sanctis, Maicon, Benatia, Castan, Torosidis; Pjanic, De Rossi, Strootman; Florenzi, Totti, Gervinho.

A disp.: Skorupski, Lobont, Toloi, Jedvaj, Romagnoli, Nainggolan, Bastos, Taddei, Ricci, Mazzitelli, Destro, Ljajic.

Arbitro: Orsato di Schio. Assistenti: Di Liberatore e Cariolato. IV uomo: Stefani. Assistenti di porta: Rocchi e Mazzoleni.

[RomaShield27]

[zafferano]

The difference RUBENTUS -ROMA is simple
Tevez score in a clear offside and the goal stand
Cervinho millimetric offsise not given
no counting e penaltys non given to verona

[RomaShield27]

Not a great performance from our boys at all yesterday. Like against Napoli, we seem to be missing a bit of a spark or that bit of an edge or determination to get us going. Against Napoli I thought it may be just down to saving the legs a little for the weekend and maybe not being 100% committed, but yesterday I thought we'd take the game yesterday by the scruff of the neck. But it never really happened.

Lazio were very negative, of course, with Reja setting everything about them out to counter us and stop us from playing. But thats wasn't too big a surprise, and it is to be expected from these small, provincial sides who just park the bus and look to frustrate (they had zero shots on target).

It was up to us to break them down, but we couldn't manage it. Totti didn't have his best game and Pjanic hasn't been expressing himself as freely in the last few games. As a result, the overall flow of the team suffered. We had our out balls with Gervinho down the left (who was given a ridiculous amount of space, a pity he couldn't do more with it) and Maicon on the right, but there was no real team unison or structure to our play and too often we failed to convert our attacks into goal-scoring chances. On another day Destro would have put that one chance away and we'd have (deservedly) snuck a 1-0, but the performance was still lacking from the boys.

In case you missed it, BOTH of Rube's goals were offside yesterday. Yes, both. I'm not one for easily believing in these conspiracy theories and stories of cheating/influence etc., but I'm beginning to doubt.

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/foto/c ... o+a+Verona

Nice new mural at a school on via Sibari / via Apulia, near where Totti was born: