THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I

[Zoff82]

[marco]

i get the feeling that vuci has actually adapted to his wide position quite well. so well that he looks wayyyy more threatening cutting in from the left than he does when he plays his so-called natural striker position. he had a very good game today, probably best roma player today despite a quiet start. his dribbling skills are actually very good for a 'target' man as we saw in his repeated attempts at taking on defenders by himself. outside of his assist to cicinho, he also had a great ball through to totti that unfortunately francesco couldnt finish

[marco]

it was also nice to see totti making progress. i thought he looked his best so far since returning from his injury layoff. he's still got a lot of ground to make up in order to return to the form we all know he is capable of.

[oily]

[g.smiley]

[SPqR]

[Italiamia]

[SPqR]

[pocari_fenrir]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Bagg10]

[maro]

I very much doubt Cicinho would have started against Inter on Wednesday anyway, apart from anything else because their team is so big and so much of their play is based on power and strength. Both Cassetti and Panucci will be much better options under the diagonal balls against any of the Inter strikers. I only got to see the second half yesterday, so only got to see Vooch on fire, though I gather he was quiet for the first 45 mins. Although dibdib will take it as an opportunity to mock me further, I was convinced that he can make it in that position during the friendly at Upton Park. He clearly has the pace and the technical quality to play in that wider position. I'm sure Spags took him off only because he wanted to tighten things up at that point - the game was much too open, with Fiorentina also looking dangerous on the break. Vooch was on fire against Ujfalusi, but Papa Wago was also enjoying loads of space down that flank. Of course we'd rather Spags kept pushing forward and it finished 4-2, but when you're a goal up you want to tighten things up rather than leave them as loose and open as they were.

With Taddei clearly struggling, though, I'd love to see Spags have another look at 4-3-3, with Mancini back on the right, Vooch down the left, and then any three of DDR, Aquilani, Pizza, and Perrotta in the middle. I think we could keep the ball much better playing like that - with both Pizza and Aquilani on the pitch it'd be a bit more like Milan with Pirlo and Seedorf together. It'd make for a bit more technical composure while still carrying a real threat up front. And Vooch on the left would mean we also had someone to get on the end of crosses from Mancini playing down the right.

I also thought Max had a very good second half yesterday; Aquilani started the half really well and had a big role way back in the build-up to the goal, though he did fade again a little bit; Giuly is in excellent form and Totti seems to be coming back into things at last. An excellent result, anyway, and great to see Cicinho get the goal and the way the whole team and BC celebrated it with the little fella.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

I remember Vooch doing quite the number on us down the left in the SupperCoppa. Actually, come to think of it, I remember complaining after watching cross after cross come into the box from unmanned Roma players on the flanks. Could be the way to go this time around.

Also, if I recall correctly, Roma beat us at the San Siro in last years second game, second leg of the Coppa and the SuperCoppa this season so if that's anything to go by, it will actually be in your favour. I don't remember a boring Inter-Roma match so let's hope for a bit of decent play.

2-2 for me with Vieira being sent off before half time.

[RomaShield27]

Coming back to the game yesterday, it was a very strange decision to sub Vucinic at that time. A goal was surely coming from either the feet of Vucinic himself or as a result of a move created by him. As said, he was all over Ufalusi and Fiorentina couldn't handle him at all. His movement and control was excellent and every time he got the ball he looked dangerous. I can understand if Spalletti was worried that we were perhaps allowing Fiorentina too much space on our left-flank, as we have a striker playing on the wing, but surely the risk of not making that switch for another 10 or 15 minutes could of resulted in us going two up, and game over. Alternatively, if that switch simply had to be made and Cassetti had to be introduced, then why not take Totti of instead? Who would of been more effective upfront with 25 minutes left? A somewhat unfit and sluggish-looking Totti (although he had glimpses of TottiGod) or a high-on-fire eager-to-impress maniac-motherfuckin' LitM? Seems obvious to me anyway. Vucinic was not only on sparkling form but he would of offered much more in terms of an outlet upfront on his own. It seems to me as if Spalletti is far too afraid of change and not willing to take Totti off at all.

Maro that 4-3-3 set up you mentioned is intriguing. I could certainly see it working. All it would take is to have Perrotta drop back a little to form a three-man midfield wall, and then you could introduce Vucinic out wide on the left without losing too much balance. Vucinic-Mancini-Totti is quite an exciting looking forward-line. Vucinic is well suited to playing on the left when he's on this sort of form because he's not really playing as a winger at all, merely a forward player who starts of on the left and comes inside, combining with Mancini/Totti and running at goal. He wouldn't have to chase back as much compared to say Taddei in our current set up because we'd have a third man in the centre of midfield. Yeah, I like it.

And without trying to sound too optimistic incase the Fonz pops out from nowhere and proceeds to beat me, we win in the San Siro on Wednesday and we're only six points behind Inter, and they still have to play Napoli (a), Palermo, Genoa (a), Lazie (a), Fiorentina, Milan (a), Parma (a). We may be lacking in depth and confidence compared to them, but impossible it is fecking not.

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[pocari_fenrir]

[Lombardiamia]

[maro]

[stefano]

[vtec]