THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[romawi]

Yes, forza Roma.

[Bagg10]

[Lupa]

Or discuss 'conigli' here.

[RomaShield27]

Looking Back At the Rubicon
Let's not feign shock, let alone surprise. On some level we must have known that this, now, was a bridge too far. It's not a day of jubilee, but this has happened because the circumstances are forcing it, and that's that.

In Spalletti's resignation, he shoulders perhaps an unfair amount of blame for the state of the club. The club failed to deliver on any of the (available, attainable) near dozen players he had jotted down on a list in the beginning of summer, and he has gotten virtually nothing of what he'd wanted.

The backup goalkeeper we've known to be needed only came in the final hours, and he's injured for as long as Doni is, making it window dressing and little more. For the defense came Burdisso, and that's about everything moderately positive one can say about Roma's market. In midfield he saw Aquilani move away, and no one but a wing player from serie B come in. It was always a vain dream that Roma would be able to buy a really good attacker, but I don't imagine it was anything but frustrating for Spalletti to see every single one of those dreams fade into the skies, even as the dreams grew less prestige full and more reasonable with every passing week. It started one year ago with Mutu, continued this summer with the likes of Negredo, Pavluychenko, Shevchenko and Toni. That it ended with a primavera player being the only attacking reinforcement this club managed to bring in is an insult. I don't blame Spalletti if he took it as one.

The players already in the club have tuned out, too. They're not running anymore, they're not making the sacrifices they once did to make this team click. I think that is in large part because Spalletti is failing to reach them any longer. And whichever side in this you take (lazy prime donne or coach on suicide watch), the club has to operate in the world of pragmatism. It's easier to change the coach than it is to force a large turnover of the entire squad, or to change ownership and management, even if those alternatives had been better if feasible. So it had to be done. We can rue the circumstances that made it so, but not lament the fact that Spalletti is now gone. He wasn't fired, he resigned and relinquished four million euro in net wages over the coming two years - he obviously wouldn't have done that if he didn't feel as if the tank was running on empty and he genuinely had nothing more to give in this job.

Spalletti is a coach blessed with a vision that at a time was entirely his own, and at the same time taken apart by his own insistence on forcing that vision. He had half of Europe's coaching elite wooing him and name dropping his style of football as the future of football. Not impressive, not solid, none of these ordinary praises. The future of football. Anyone who can take a team of Cassettis, Tonettos and Perrottas within half an hour of winning lo scudetto, and knock out Real Madrid in their own house is obviously a very gifted tactician. But he's also the coach who ran into a big red wall at Old Trafford, and after he got up he ran right back into it. Seven times over. There are more examples, but ultimately it comes down to what was visible in his post game press conference on Sunday, where he spent some time blaming the loss on back heel attempts by his players: he's lost the dressing room. The mentality issues that have always been there had gone too far, and the team no longer responded to him, they stopped giving their all for a futuristic idea, and that's when it came crashing down.

It's seems now that Ranieri is taking over for the remainder of the season. He's a coach that once famously said that as a Roman and romanista, you can't call yourself a coach until you've coached Roma. I don't know what to expect from him now, but for a more pragmatic attitude towards choosing line ups. It's only fair that after five years of pushing the boundaries of player positions and roles, after four years of Totti the roaming attacker and playmaker rolled into one, after four years of Simone Perrotta the trequartista, after Mirko Vucinic the left wing, a situation in which a coach plays the players in their actual positions can be seen as revolutionary. Let that be Spalletti's legacy; that he challenged our notions of how to play football, and made us dream again for a little while.

http://blogistuta.blogspot.ie/2009/09/l ... bicon.html


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Teams of the Decade #5: Roma, 2007
March 5, 2010 /



Some great inventions were the result of years of design and graft, eventually producing something roughly approximating the design brief. Others, like Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, were an happened upon by complete accident. In that sense, Luciano Spalletti is modern football’s Alexander Fleming, and the 4-6-0 was his great discovery that he never intended on inventing.

An injury crisis upfront was the reason Roma were forced into this highly unconventional shape – a modified version of their standard 4-2-3-1 system – since their attack had no focal point, with no fit player in the squad capable of holding the ball up. The only solution was to play Francesco Totti upfront, but rather than remaining upfront alone and waiting for service, Totti effectively played his usual trequartista role, moving into the gap between opposition defence and midfield and receiving the ball to feet. Perhaps 4-6-0 is an exaggeration, but it was certainly 4-5-1-0.

And this created an entirely new problem for opposing defences (because their centre-backs were suddenly left without anyone to mark) and opposing midfielders (who found Roma effectively playing four players in the centre of midfield, and yet still using two wingers). It was almost impossible for Roma not to dominate possession, and with the midfielders flying forward to exploit the space left by Totti, the Roma side almost played exclusively on the counter-attack, regardless of where the side won the ball.

The system worked so well that even when Roma’s fit forwards returned, Totti continued to be deployed as the furthest forward central player, with Mirko Vucinic – a striker in any other team in the world – converted to an outside left to ensure a goal threat from the wings. But whilst Totti is perhaps not natural a ’striker’ per se, that does not mean he is not comfortable operating there. His 26 goals in 2006/07 were enough to win him the European Golden Boot, and his position on the all-time Serie A goalscoring table proves what a fine finisher he is.

Initially Daniele De Rossi was given the ‘holding’ role in midfield, although later on it became David Pizarro charged with this task, whilst Mancini ocassionally operated on the left, with Rodrigo Taddei coming in on the right.

Roma perhaps lacked the quality across the pitch to make it work consistently, and it’s fair to say that the system was a sporadic success rather than a consistent one. The astonishing 6-2 Coppa Italia Final defeat of Inter (who won the league by 22 points that season) demonstrated its ability to completely outwit opposing managers (and flat-footed centre-backs) but the crushing 1-7 defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League demonstrated the danger of the system self-destructing.

Oddly enough, it was the first leg of that tie that demonstrated how effective the system was, and was heavily drawn upon by Sir tender Alex Ferguson for United’s shape the next campaign. Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown were baffled about who they were supposed to be picking up, as a system with four or five Roma midfielders constantly running at the opposition defence was genuinely a revelation in tactical terms. Quite why it failed so spectacularly in the second leg remains unclear.

But the system will go onto be the most influential system of the decade. That the shape was adopted and improved upon by the side who won the Champions League the next two seasons (Manchester United and Barcelona) illustrates the potential in the 4-6-0, and it could well dominate football for the next ten years.

Roma’s 4-6-0 was at its best in that 6-2 against Inter. In fairness, none of the goals really show the system in operation that well, but you don’t win 6-2 in a Cup Final every season.

[maro]

One of the punters on the Roman radio yesterday summed it up very well, I think - Spags did some terrific stuff for us but he did leave under a considerable cloud. I'm not sure anyone ever quite got to the bottom of that; I think gio pinned much of it on his betrayal of DDR and Totti and others in that secret meeting with Chelski in Paris. If Totti and DDR are pleased to have him back, he's certainly got a chance, but Spags is a bit of a sulker when things don't go his way. Carateraccio, as one of the other punters put it.

Still, Rudi should have been gone a year ago. I remember so vividly one of the games in the late-winter, early-Spring last year when it was crystal clear that the side had no gioco, no tactical schemes, no collective movement. His first 10 games brought him so much credit, but in the end his football was figured out pretty quickly and he hasn't changed at all. Pace and width up front, technical quality in the middle of the pitch, a deep defensive line if you can't win the ball quickly high up the pitch. All of that is sound enough stuff, but it's not the most subtle or mysterious stuff.

And, revealingly, two of the first names with whom Spags has been associated are both Italian - http://www.forzaroma.info/rassegna-stam ... -e-santon/
We shall see, but it is rather suggestive.

[romawi]

Reading some of the old posts reminded me of just how messy things got before Spalletti finally resigned. I'm guessing some of the players probably did feel betrayed by that secret meeting, but I remember him also feeling let down when Totti and De Rossi went and met with Rosella without him knowing. I'm sure DDR would love to have him back, but it'll be interesting to see where Totti stands. I remember Spalletti saying he felt a bit disappointed that Totti didn't speak out more during the difficult times.

Agreed about Rudi. He should've been gone a long time ago, but management stuck with him and I can understand why. Hopefully Sabatini's gone after this as well.

[maro]

Spags is back: http://www.forzaroma.info/news-as-roma/ ... o-la-roma/
If he brings even half a new idea with him that will be an improvement on Rudi. We desperately need him to do well if only to fend off those horrific rumours of Conte's coming at the end of the season.

[Italiamia]

Sabatini must go as well. I've been consistent in my opinion of him and he has done nothing to change my mind. He does not know how to build a team. I remember the meeting between Totti, De Rossi and Rosella. We all need to remember that those two players are Roman and they always will be loyal to the club regardless of the coach. Secondly, neither player is a deep thinker. Rosella was holding on by a thread and she pumped a lot of propaganda into their heads courtesy of Pippo Mara. Rosella lied to them about the health of the club and Spalletti. She also played to their loyalty and emotions. Without them, Roma would be less valuable and Spalletti was just another salmon swimming against the current to spawn while looking for a huge pay day somewhere else.

Anyway, at least we know what language the team will speak from here on out. Spalletti is Toscano so we all know some beautiful Italian will be spoken. Time to move more foreign players out of Rome and get back to some semblance of our identity.

[zafferano]

[maro]

A bit mean, sure, but from what I've seen over the past 12 months, perhaps not so far from the truth.

http://www.forzaroma.info/rassegna-stam ... mi-3-anni/

[p_maldini_3]

Start with the pharoah. Please.

[Lupa]

I don't know if Spalletti will revive the team's fortunes, but he's momentarily revived this thread. I just hope it doesn't all end in tears.

[Italiamia]

[romawi]

Should be interesting to see what Spalletti comes up with today. Would love to see a 4-2-3-1 with Florenzi playing the Perrotta role, but a lot of sites have us sticking with the 4-3-3 with the front three being Salah, Dzeko, and Florenzi. Either way, I hope we see some good football from Roma, regardless of the outcome.

[maro]

I guess the way Verona have been playing he couldn't get an easier settling-in. Presumably if we play well and win there will be much too much excitement and if we don't there will be the rhetoric of the task being tougher than some had thought and time being needed, etc. etc. I suppose what I'd most like to see is some sense of the players playing in relation to one another going forwards - which basically just means midfielders getting beyond Dzeko and the wide players and the fullbacks operating together to create space for each other. That's the sort of absolutely basic stuff that I just felt I hadn't seen from Garcia's side for the past 12 months. So much of his attacking 'tactics' seemed to rest on a single player making something happen on their own - which wasn't very effective and was horrible to watch. Gioco, schemi, prego.

[romawi]

Some both good and bad in yesterday's match, but that was expected when Spal's only had a few days to work with this squad. Too bad Dzeko couldn't finish any of his chances, but I thought it the overall play was an improvement over what we've been seeing for the past year or so. Spal's got a lot of work to do, and it's a shame that we didn't make the decision to bring him in during the winter break where he would've have a couple of weeks with the team. Juve should be another struggle, but as long as the quality of play continues to improve I'll be happy.

[maro]

I reckon even Rudi might have managed three points against Verona. We all know how Spags's Roma tended to do against those at the bottom of the table. Still, there were some signs of a certain style of play - Pjanic as regista in the 4-2-3-1 makes sense and takes a lot of the ball-playing burden off the back four; and the full-backs got forward pretty prominently. If Dzeko had finished his chances we'd be talking about a comfortable scoreline, I guess, though there was plenty to worry about particularly in the second half so that might just have papered over the cracks. I shall be interested to see how Florenzi ends up being used - we saw some of the familiar struggles when he has to play up front and has the ball at his feet. He and Niggernoolan technically must have question-marks hanging over them in those roles, for all of the other obvious qualities they bring. Now the painful part of getting smashed by an in-form Rube and then perhaps we can start to rebuild slowly from next week.

[Italiamia]

I agree, Tomasso. Spalletti always had issues with the Serie A bottom feeders which translated into second place finishes. Although, after the scudetto of 2001, Capello experienced similar issues. Whether it's drawing with Siena or Reggina, losing to Brescia and Perugia, pounding rubentus, then drawing with Ancona, Capello underachieved at Roma. In what should have been 3 consecutive scudetti with that core group, Roma fails by finishing second to rubentus and then Milan, all of which can be directly attributed to dropping points to marginal and poor teams. I always harped on those 13 draws in 2002-2003. When you lose the scudetto by a single point, those draws are just a killer. What could have been, but was not realised for whatever reason. The first decade of the century was a failure for Roma in my opinion. Yesterday was unacceptable. No doubt about that fact. But we cannot even intimate that Spalletti was a fault in any way.

[romawi]

[maro]

Do you remember when Spags expressed doubts about the little eagle in the Perrotta role - which seemed such an obvious fit given his greater technical qualities. He used the word 'resistenza' and, I think, was talking about his contributions with his back to goal, when the ball is played into feet in those areas and one has to hold the ball up and link up play. We tend to think of Simone's role as one breaking forward beyond Totti because those were the decisive moments, but I guess his role was much more consistently with his back to goal contributing to the build-up play. If he had doubts about the little eagle, I can only imagine what he'll make of the flower-gatherer. Attacking space from there he'd be superb, but I suspect we're more likely to see him giving Spags his fabled profondita' via 'cuts', runs from out-to-in from one or other of the wide positions.