THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I

[aba_bab]

Spags with some gracious words for Brighi, who should be said did have a fantastic game... Taddei looked to be coming back as well which is very reassuring...

[RomaShield27]

Good win today, just what we needed. Thats more like it boy. Was out all day missed the action but must see if its available for download.

[red]

I don't know how good, bad or indifferent you guys were tonight, but the performance was of secondary importance.

You just needed a win to get some confidence and try and string a few decent results together.

[marco]

i had to wait until now to catch the last 15 minutes of the game (recorded) since my mini de rossi had a game of his own this afternoon. he was inspired by that sweet goal aquilani scored and decided to replicate it three times today.

thank god the schedule has been on our side to help us through this rough patch. regardless of the modest opposition today, we showed our quality throughout the entire game and matched our superiority on paper with the play on the pitch....for the first time this season. aquilani was undoubtedly man of the match for me, brighi the 'unsung hero' (best game as a giallorosso) and taddei the most-improved. it was also good to see perrotta get on the scoresheet too. it would have been nicer if it came from the first attempt on goal he had (called offside) when totti played his trademark throughball between two defenders and into simone's path. glimpses of da good 'ole dayz between those two. if we can manage to get perrotta and frank totti back into form soon, i'm sure we will get to see more of that eye candy that we got to feast on a couple of seasons ago.

overall, the team worked very hard and, imo, its hard to pick out ANY roma player that played sub-par today. that is the most satisfying and reassuring aspect for me and, i imagine, for the team as well in terms of breaking out of this bad spell. it helps put faith back into the team system rather than resorting to a situation where the team becomes dependant on moments of brilliance from 1 or 2 players to secure results and get you out of the rut (which i find is the general tendancy when a team is trying to get out of a slump).

forza roma

[Jamoldo]

[aba_bab]

Noooo jammy.. nononono absolutely not... Riise did not put one decent cross in, misplaced sooo many passes, i did not see him beat a man the whole game.. we always ended up getting throwins whenever he would try getting past a man... he was rubbish.. he's playing in a wingback position... im not advocating he go gung ho and attack.. but at least show some sort of ability... i found him sooo poor...

[Jamoldo]

Aba, I guess we have different views. If you want to talk about misplacing passes last night, DDR, I feel was by far the most guilty. True about his poor crosses, but I thought he linked up well with midfield players and provided good width. He's a new player and has to settle in.

[aba_bab]

Yes DDR did misplace some passes, but the ones Riise did were much more straightforward ones... maybe i noticed his mistakes more often coz he sticks out on the pitch like a sore thumb...

[Jamoldo]

DDR did so in the middle of the pitch numerous times, but we are all biased towards the man (and rightfully so I think).. and yes Riise does stick out.

[maro]

Yeah, 'moldy, Riise was solid last night. He and Cassetti also helped the boys in the middle handle the aerial threat much more comfortably than Max and Cici would have been able to - something, I think, which it's too easy to over-look. DDR's passing is often a bit like that 'moldy. It's particularly evident when the Pizza's not playing and especially so when it's Brighi alongside him rather than either Pizza or the little eagle; he does give the ball away carelessly at times and he has a tendency to switch the ball from flank to flank via the moon on occasion. He did that twice again last night. Personally, I expect that from him which meant that it didn't really detract from my sense of his having a pretty dominant game.

Two things which struck me: first, didn't the whole team style feel completely different (and totally familiar) the moment Totti and Perrotta were on? I'm not saying it was better or worse, but it was like seeing an old friend again for the first time in a while. It's partly a question of tempo (Totti being much lazier up top than Vooch, even when he only has 15 minutes to play); it's also about his composure on the ball, slowing things down whereas Menez and Vooch always want to go forwards and take their man on; but it's also about that basic shape of a 'striker' who comes to meet the ball and leaves space behind him for others to run into. Of course, as glad says, we saw it with Perrotta's offside(?) shot against the post, but we also saw it with Riise's run late on. The whole mechanism of the team changed, because Totti creates time and space for others to get beyond him and I think he also gives others confidence to get caught on the wrong side of the ball because they know he's not going to give it away cheaply. On the other hand, had Vooch not been wrongly flagged offside and had nailed that clear run on goal that had opened up, we could be talking about the advantages which come with a striker who carries a real threat in behind.

And secondly, I loved the shot of Aquilani after he'd come off (and what a super goal that was). Just after he sits down you see an arm come over to shake his hand - I'm sure it must be Spags - and Aquilani looks up and you can see this kind of questioning, uncertain, hopeful kid's look in his eyes: did I do well? Is he saying I really did do well? It just looked to me like a kid who is desperately in need of some real support and confidence from his coach. And it was a fair enough look - having been at the heart of everything for 70 minutes, he gets pushed wide to allow Perrotta to play through the middle and hardly made an impact. More than that, after the previous two games I'm pretty sure he'll have taken a little bit of constructive criticism for his movement off the ball - and actually Brighi was important here today because he helped Aquilani in making those runs which stitch together the movement from midfield defence to trequartista attack. And so I got the sense he was looking up at Spags to get some confirmation that yes, he had done the little things right. It was a very revealing moment for me - Aquilani at his most unguarded.

[p_maldini_3]

[Bagg10]

[maro]

Actually, Mouldy-knee, that's not really what I meant at all. In fact, what I was trying to say is that you got an insight into how insecure Aquilani is. At times he carries himself as a bit of a cocky loud-mouth and I've generally wanted him and his dad to shut up and for him to do his talking on the pitch. There's been a sense that he's almost been demanding a half-guaranteed place in the starting line-up and I've wanted him to get his head down and prove to Spags that he's irreplaceable. Really, though, I get the sense that he's desperately hoping that Spags is going to tell him he really is the real deal. You often hear of players who need to feel appreciated or who need to know they've got the coach's total confidence to be able to go out and perform at their best. That always strikes me as a bit mentally weak, but I think it's exactly where Aquilani is at at the moment.

[p_maldini_3]

[Jamoldo]

[Italiamia]

[maro]

Felipe's a young Brazilian striker we picked up towards the end of last season. I believe he was at Fiorentina, showing a bit of promise, and then had a number of injury set-backs and we picked him up for nothing. He's totally unproven and I don't think too much is really expected of him, but then he's not costing us much.

[maro]

Or is it Filipe? Sorry.

[Italiamia]

[maro]