THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I

[RomaShield27]

Totti targets Cluj role
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_ ... ep16a.html – Tuesday 16 September, 2008

Roma captain Francesco Totti is determined to feature against CFR Cluj this evening and admits he is puzzled by the Giallorossi's shaky start. Totti has been out of action since he limped off against Livorno towards the end of last season. Despite coming on as a substitute in the Italian Super Cup, Er Pupone's knee problem has prevented him from featuring in either of the Lupi's two Serie A matches, from which Luciano Spalletti's men picked up just one point.

“It's difficult to explain what's happening,â€

[maro]

Shield, have you seen the 'probable' formation calciomercato.com have up? Either they know something we don't or the guy who did it knows just about nothing at all.

[RomaShield27]

Cassetti at centre-half, lol? Are we in that bad of a state, or is Calciomercato? I would go with Cassetti at right-full ahead of Cici though, I think. Loria wasn't too bad against Palermo, in fairness, but hopefully we'll see Philippe come in there to clean house. And Menez may get the nod out wide, or else it looks like one of our wing-backs will have do a job further upfield.

[maro]

Personally, I thought Spags got it wrong along the trequartista line against Palermo. Probably he over-estimated how much running Rodrigo could give us. We were miles too stretched from back to front, as that piece in ilromanista suggested. We also suffered in those terms because the little eagle doesn't stitch together midfield and attack in quite the same way Simone does, so there were times in the second half were it looked like our guys were either attacking or defending, but that just about none were prepared to do both. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Max in there. I also thought that Loria and Panucci got exposed by the lack of compactness in the middle of the pitch. If you want to blame anyone for Miccoli's first goal, then personally I think the blame would fall on DDR because he was miles too far away from the back 4. Loria and Panucci are not lightning quick, and so Loria was always going to have to back away a little bit from Miccoli. Had he got really tight to him, I'm sure Miccoli would have knocked the ball behind him and done him for pace. Properly set up, then, you can look after a lack of pace in the back four by defending deep and then getting your holding player to close down the space you leave in front of your defence. That we didn't do this, though, is not really Loria's fault, to my mind.

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

Shield, I think you'll find Okaka played almost all of last season as a trequartista - not as a wide player, mind, but not as the striker. He talked about it halfway through the season as being part of his learning the ropes. And, yes, I know you weren't being too hard on Loria - I was agreeing with you, really, that he did all right all things considered.

In answer to Populusque's ideal team, it would just be bleeding nice to get a few fit bodies so we can start picking guys on form rather than on availability. I think I'd like to see Spags give Cicinho a good run of games behind Taddei. I quite like the balance those two should bring to the right. I think I'd also like to see the little eagle given a few games alongside DDR with Pizza warming the pies. And then Vooch on the left and Perrotta or Baptista behind Totti. If Totti doesn't start tonight and Vooch does, I'd like to see him on the left and the Beast through the middle. I think we look to have a much more natural balance that way. The goal against Palermo was also very interesting - Okaka made exactly the kind of run Vooch makes from out to in behind the right back. It helped that Palermo, defensively, were abysmal for the first 20 minutes (personally, I think we started well only because at that stage they were even worse than we proved to be), but it's a run that I see Vooch making more instinctively than the Beast will. With Menez, it's just about getting him integrated and getting some minutes into his legs. I'd be happy enough to see him and Taddei split the 90 over the next 2 matches and then we can see where we're at.

We also have to be a bit patient tonight, Shield, and not allow ourselves to get too stretched. I want to see us patiently playing our game for an hour, getting back into the groove of the way we're supposed to play. And then after an hour we can take stock - get Menez on to score his first goal once we're 4 to the good. Get Totti on because we're desperately in need of some genius to unlock a stubborn defence. etc. etc.

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

[romawi]

[RomaShield27]

[Italiamia]

[stefano]

[red]

[Frenchesco]

[g.smiley]

Im expecting nothing less that a 3-0 victory. End of story.

[edge_xeno]

Official line-up:

Doni, Cicinho, Cassetti, Panucci, Riise, De Rossi, Aquilani, Taddei, Baptista, Tonetto, Vucinic

Bench: Artur, Totti, Loria, Okaka, Montella, Brighi, Menez

Playing with 5 full backs??? interesting!!! Welcome to the Spalletti world!!!

[RomaShield27]

Me too Smiley.

DE ROSSI PARTE TITOLARE, TOTTI RESTA IN PANCHINA
http://romanews.eu – pubblicata martedì 16 settembre 2008

Stamane lo staff tecnico giallorosso ha verificato le condizioni di De Rossi, Mexes e Vucinic. Per il match di stasera contro i romeni del Cluj, Mexes resterà a casa, mentre è certo l'impiego del numero 16. Stesso discorso per il montenegrino. Mister Spalletti lo farà partire dall'inizio lasciando il capitano Francesco Totti in panchina a causa dei vari infortuni che ha subito in questo inizio di stagione. Assente anche Pizarro, colpito da un risentimento muscolare.

Probabile formazione: Doni; Panucci, Cassetti, Loria, Riise; De Rossi, Aquilani; Taddei, Baptista, Tonetto; Vucinic.

[RomaShield27]

Oh sugar Edge, your line-up has Cicinho in for Loria. Where is it from? Who will be in the centre of our defence so, Cassetti and Panucci?

[RomaShield27]

Working stream: http://www.justin.tv/cvsat

[giallo-rossi.ie]

That match against Palermo was a load of swinging mickey. This can't be any worse. Forza Roma!!