THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I

[Italiamia]

[Totally FRANK]

I saw the game yesterday and i am going to say no different from you guys....Roma deserved a victory, not a draw and it was a clear penalty......

You were at your attacking best after rooney scored.....But IMO roma were looking too much for the perfect final pass.....much like arsenal did last season....Totti had some shots on goal and it would have been nice if others especially guily had done the same....He was always looking to pass it to totti or someone else...by doing so they lost the ball in the man utd box...May be it would been better to take more shots on goal.....To be fair except may be vidic everyone sucks in man utd's defense...

I hate rooney to the core so it was really pathetic to see score the winner.....

[Jamoldo]

Hey Dino, of course we're going to complain about the penalty, but we've also been ranting for the last five pages (and in the last few weeks) about the chances we've spurned to score against the likes of Juve, Fiorentina, and now Utd.

Thanks for taking the time to read though.

[Jamoldo]

Also if it makes anyone feel better, Chivu got sent off with 25 minutes remaining in last night's Inter - PSV match.

[p_maldini_3]

shrek also admitted that roma deserved more than a loss.. good sportsmanship on his part.

[Italiamia]

"United played out the closing minutes with 10 men after Ronaldo was elbowed in the face by Mirko Esposito and received four stiches." Foxsports.com.

So much for attention to detail. I told you he will be off to the plastic surgeon this morning. The asshole deserved more, but I'll take the four stiches. Good show Mirko.

[aba_bab]

hahahah...

Fine Ita.. you have a witness... i'll let you have espo... but im not bugding on Cici and Maniche.

Btw Ita.. you mentioned it was your bday soon.. i have a very nice present for you, gimme a few days and i'll upload it

[Italiamia]

I'll be waiting aba, you know where to find me. For those of you who want to know where to send the wine and cigars, please PM me for the shipping details.

Thank you and good night.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

Would this formation that Spalletti uses work better if Totti took the middle spot of the three players behind the striker and say, for example, a Julio Cruz type striker played up front? I was thinking the same thing during the Inter game that had Totti been able to have a player who could hold up the ball and lay it off to him, the way Roma attacks would be twice as lethal. However I'm confused as to what Perrotta's role is in that position?? Is he supposed to drop back and help DDR and Aqua and/or is he supposed to stay up front and help Totti, Mancini and Giuly?

[Jamoldo]

Stankovic, it's my understanding that Perrotta is supposed to do EVERYTHING, which is what makes him undroppable. You saw the guy going ahead of Totti more than once and making attacking runs, and then chasing back to help Cicinho/Max or patrolling the middle of the park. While Totti in the deeper role (and I think Vuci can be a fine striker if he gets some playing time) will generate more attack, it will leave a lot lacking in the defensive department with regards to coverage, speed, power etc. Of course sometimes you're going to need that...

[Lombardiamia]

Aquilani will have to stop for 2 months!!

Aquilani peggiora: due mesi di stop

Fonte: Ansa
Per Alberto Aquilani si profilano almeno due mesi di stop. Nell'infortunio subito ieri contro il Manchester il centrocampista giallorosso si e' prodotto una lesione muscolare di secondo grado, ha spiegato il medico della Roma, Mario Brozzi, poco prima dell'imbarco della squadra sull'aereo di ritorno per l'Italia. ''Alberto sta meglio di ieri, gli stiamo facendo un trattamento particolare'' ha spiegato il medico. Appena arrivato a Roma Aquilani sara' sottoposto a un'ecografia per verificare l'entita' dell'infortunio. ''Non e' lo stesso infortunio dell'anno scorso - ha concluso il medico - credo sia una ricaduta di un vecchio problema''. Della comitiva giallorossa l'unico che non e' partito e' Daniele De Rossi, rimasto in Inghilterra per girare uno spot.

[maro]

The talk is that the little eagle is likely to be out for at least two months. What a terrible blow, both for Roma and for Aquilani himself. I wonder if Pizza spiked his cereal or something. That is a really, really big blow, but lets hope the rest of the squad lifts to cover for his absence - here's looking at you, Pizza, Simone, Brighi, Barusso.

dib-dab, I'm not for a moment leaping to conclusions about Cicinho; heaven knows that would be stupid and the boy needs a chance to settle into the team. I'm simply saying that he's started more poorly than I expected him to and if you go back and watch yesterday's game again you'll see he makes a string of defensive decision-making errors. He just looked to me to be playing scared which isn't all that surprising, really. He just makes a series of small but not insignificant defensive mistakes for which on another day we might be more sternly punished. He has huge margins for improvement; it's just that he does need to improve hugely.

As for Perrotta, who was it who called him the glue last night? It's the perfect description: he's the glue which holds the team together or else the oil which makes its more spectacular mechanisms run smoothly. He contributes with his movement and his work-rate almost playing like a pendulum swinging either side of Totti, up and down the pitch. You take him out and the rest of the team feels the strain. Still, this pendulum's got to finish better than he has been. Playing with Totti behind a true striker would radically change the shape of our game since one of its principles is that when Totti comes deep defences don't quite know how to man-up: does a centre-back come with him and thereby leave a hole at the back or does he let Totti go and give him time on the ball to do his stuff? If Totti plays as a trequartista it's much simpler for defences because he becomes the man of the holding midfielder and he will find himself with less space and freedom. So much of our game is based around the fluid movement of players from the trequartista line and it's precisely Totti's dropping deep which creates the space into which the trequartisti can move. Playing Totti behind Cruz or Vucinic or Eto'o or Drogba or anyone would radically change the way the whole team works.

[RomaShield27]

Gods cuss it, terrible news on Aquilani.

Well gents, some good posting on the game. I think the most important thing to remember at this stage is that this game, this defeat, is really not all that important to our season, regardless of what we deserved or how we feel. We must (and should) beat ManUre at home, and what will be crucial, which Maro already pointed out, will be the two meetings with Sporting Lisbon. If we win our home games and get a couple of results in our remaining away fixtures, we can still finish top of that group if we beat ManUre by more than 1-0. And, in front of our own fans, I'm confident we can.

I am very happy with the performance last night. We outplayed them at periods, defended well, had more shots on goal, had a clear peno not awarded, and had some terrific individual performances. Of course, the fact that we got nothing from this game is very disappointing. It is clear to everyone that we deserved a point. And I think I am also feeling something like relief and contentment for the media and post-match reaction to the scoreline. Some part of me was expecting to see a 'easy win for United' attitude, so it was good to see various pundits, match reports, and even ManUre players themselves admitting we deserved at least a draw. Another interesting sidenote – in relation to those controversial and downright dumb comments by Gramme Souness which got us all quite rightly riled up the last CL matchday – the brilliant Souness was back doing the punditry, but for RTÉ for this game. I think it was the first time I have ever heard someone like him (who has these ridiculous views) praising Totti, because that is what he did. If I remember correctly, his words were something like: "I have criticised him in the past, saying that he is a lazy and flashy player, but tonight, I have been very impressed with him and he is their biggest threat." Does he mean he turned into this great player in the two weeks since he last 'watched' him play...? Or was it perhaps that he was talking out of his arse back then and is completely uneducated and clueless to comment on him like he did at all? Or perhaps did he receive that death threat I sent him after all?

Back to the game, no doubt we deserved a point, but I am delighted with the attitude and performance from the entire team. We played very well but it just wasn't our night. We had more shots on goal than them yet couldn't take one. And a fecking stone-wall peno not given – there can be no debating whatsoever – it was a clear peno and the ref bottled it, and who knows, if we scored then we could of gotten all three points.

On the individual performances, I think Totti played very well and showed his class, linking up with players and just being a constant threat to them. He really should of scored when he received from Giuly (but you take things for granted – his first touch in that play was simply amazing), and did quiet a little toward the end, but still a very good display. De Rossi battled hard in midfield, but but more importantly he controlled the midfield for us, and done a brilliant job in setting up plays from deep. I don't know why Mancini is getting a lot of slack for his performance. I think he done quite well, and I was delighted with his workrate and the effort he put in (I suppose he knew he had to defend and work hard in this game otherwise Spaller's would of hauled him off big style), and he also had that paddy cnut O'Shea in his pocket the entire game, and my only criticism of Mancini would be that he didn't take him on enough. Seriously, Mancini was all over O'Shea and there were several times Ferdinand had to come across and bail him out. We really should of took more advantage of that situation. But the undoubted man-of-the-match (from our side anyway, and feckit, probably overall, as well), had to be Philippe-the-fucking-Monster-maniac-Mexes. Rock solid, always in the right place, unbeatable in the air, and just a monster, strong as fuck. Of course, you could say that perhaps he should of been closer to that Irish kid Rooney for the goal, but as a defender, you can stick real close to your man or stand a little off and then prepare to close him down, but it was just a bit of magic from Wooney and a top-class finish. On that finish, there was nothing Curci could of done, and Curci impressed me throughout. I was fearfull for him because he was being thrown in at the deep end, but done very well, looked composed and confident throughout. He still needs to develop but a great debut for him this season.

And a a friend of mine was giving me stick as there were a lot of empty seats in the away section of OT (only 700 Roma fans). I spun him some yarn about how a lot of fans were advised not to travel, and a lot of the Ultra's weren't allowed go, that kind of thing – not sure if its necessarily true, like, but anyone have any other idea's on why there wasn't much travelling support? Still, I told my friend to clear the fucking wax from ears, because maybe then he would be able to hear that even with only 700 Roma fans there, we still managed to out-sing the ManUre fans for most of the game.

By the way, thanks for all the words of condolence, much appreciated.

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

Shieldypoo, I'm not really much of a one for watching delayed games when I already know the course of the game. It's a bit strange, I suppose, but I devour all of the reports I can find which takes a bit of the sting out of watching the game.

I guess you know the history of the double-spacing thung? I gather it's a hang-over from typewriters when it helped highlight sentence divisions. And so it remains a pretty common practice in academic writing. Certainly it's the way I was taught to write formally when I was doing my Masters at home; together with placing footnotes, wherever possible, at the end of sentences or, at the very least, at the end of clauses, it's supposed to make navigating a text easier for a reader. Last year, though, I had to do the same thing as you - I had to take them all out of an article for a publisher who sternly told us all that it was unnecessary and outmoded. As a medievalist I'd always thought outmoded was a compliment, but I gather not. I do it after all full-stops and colons in all my writing. Indeed, it's so instinctive now that the harder task would be refraining from doing it. Presumably those articles you get are the work of someone similarly trained back in the mists of time.

And speaking of mists of time, Avvocato, I think you only think I'm so chary of revealing my age because I didn't fill in that birthday slot over on soccerpils or xtreme in its first incarnation - an omission I quickly corrected after you'd told me off for it. And I only left it blank in the first place because I'm profoundly nervous about identity theft - you guys wouldn't believe how easy it is for people to pass themselves off as a mad antipodean medievalist Romanista. It goes on all over the shop. I am, then, indeed 'only' 32, which perhaps also makes the fact that I only just got married a little less surprising, though given that we've been together for nearly 10 years I guess one can hardly blame the Avvocato for his impatience.

[vtec]

i'm pretty sure that double spaces are the mle standard, shield.

[RomaShield27]

Marypoo, yes, I know there is a history behind the double-spacing spaces in the spaces of your spaced-out spacy writing. I didn't realise it was a hang-over from typewriters, exactly, but much the same thing applies to Microsoft Word, which most articles would be constructed in, and done so as highlight sentence divisions, as a normal one space often isn't perfectly visable. And believe me, we have had our share of editors and journalists in here who insisted that the double-spacing was standard and fully acceptable in publishing, but I asked one lad in particular to find me a modern book or publication with double-spacing, but he could not. It is become standard now for all editors to edit double-spaces, and if any get through to the design stage, I can simply do a find and replace in Quark 7 and get rid of them all at once.

Sorry 'tec, 'MLE standard'...?

[maro]

Isn't Quark like that soft cheese? You guys have some kinky work-practices over in Eire.

[RomaShield27]

Eire...? I suppose Quark is soft cheese, yes, but it is also a global software company. You know, QuarkXPress? We use InDesign as well which is actually a much better programme.