THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

[maro]

aba_bab[ Delete ] if by all round you mean for us and the opposition than i agree maro
romawi[ Delete ] i wouldn't be surprised if motta doesn't come back to us, but we definitely need a new rb this summer.
romawi[ Delete ] it's interesting to see what ranieri does with the rb position in the next transfer window.
maro[ Delete ] Cassetti, dibbus, is the best all-round player of the three, without doubt.
maro[ Delete ] Agreed, Chewna. I think Cici could have made a mark for us if he'd been given a real run in that position. His lack of presence in the air was always going to be a problem, but had his coach been prepared to shape things to acommodate that, then we'd have seen a lot more from him.
aba_bab[ Delete ] cassetti on the other hand....
romawi[ Delete ] he's not better going forward, but defensively all three of our rb were below average.
aba_bab[ Delete ] yea.. i'd love to see motta become a more complete player to..
maro[ Delete ] I'd love to see Motta make it and he's got great potential, but in terms of what he brings all-round to that position I don't see he's better than Cici.
romawi[ Delete ] cicinho fits better in the 4-3-1-2 than cassetti or motta.
aba_bab[ Delete ] but in fact he was
maro[ Delete ] I think Motta gets given so much licence simply because he's young and he's Italian.
aba_bab[ Delete ] question now is.. what do we do when totti comes back into the frey
maro[ Delete ] Honestly, dibbus, I'd have let Motta go out on loan in January and kept Cici. I only pull your chain on Cici because you called him a "must buy" which, strictly, he wasn't.
aba_bab[ Delete ] i recall that maro
romawi[ Delete ] yeah i remember that.
maro[ Delete ] I'm not joking, Chewna. Remember a couple of months ago when I suggested Ranieri needed to try out Menez when Pizza wasn't in the line-up - as a playmaker through the middle.
romawi[ Delete ] i always thought the 4-3-1-2 was our best formation, and that goes back towards the end of last season.
aba_bab[ Delete ] and where would cici fit into your plans professor?
romawi[ Delete ] i don't know if you're joking or not, maro, but i'm surprised ranieri hasn't done that more.
maro[ Delete ] I'd just tell Ranieri to play 4-3-1-2 with the players he's got, never 4-2-3-1, and to play Menez through the middle and never out wide. That'd have us another 8 points at this stage, I reckon.
romawi[ Delete ] he should've let messi take it.
tonykart[ Delete ] This is so sad. So sad.
romawi[ Delete ] hahaha ibra has to take the penalty to finally score.
aba_bab[ Delete ] Well thats easy to do maro.. Ranieri is simply underacheiving with these players
aba_bab[ Delete ] well.. your CV is simply bustling.. i think juve will be looking for a ocahc this summer
maro[ Delete ] Well, I reckon I could coach this Roma team better than Ranieri is.
tonykart[ Delete ] I will get back into it in a few years.. i am 25 and already coached 1 team to a state champ
aba_bab[ Delete ] you soon to be scudetto winner
aba_bab[ Delete ] so why not take up coaching
tonykart[ Delete ] I would have picked better players and been more organized
tonykart[ Delete ] yes I could.
aba_bab[ Delete ] you mean you can take the team to the scudetto tk? becoz under ranieri they finished 2cd
tonykart[ Delete ] We are completely unorganized and have no idea where to move and what to do. When your best player is Poulsen that is frightening.
aba_bab[ Delete ] omg.. seriously.. enough is enough.. i thinmk this is the 6th game in a row where mazzarri has said "we should have won we should have won'... true as it may be.. its really getting annoying
tonykart[ Delete ] I am 100% sure that I can coach this team way better than Ranieri, Ferrara and Zaccheroni combined.

[maro]

maro[ Delete ] Time for me to hit the sack. dibbus, do yourself a favour and trust me on this one if on nothing else. If Cicinho had Cassetti's football IQ he'd be twice the player. He doesn't and isn't. I like Cicinho and would be very happy were he to come back over the summer and be given a proper shot next season. His reading of the game and his decision-making and his sense of defensive responsibility, though, make him a weaker player than Cassetti.
aba_bab[ Delete ] alright boys... i need to get cracking on some CFA studying.. good weekend of soccer results.. very good actually.. Roma cut the gap to the top, inter still have milna breathing down their neck.. juve put on another embaressing show... viola make inroads to the race for the 4th CL spot.. Lazio just hovering above relgation.. i dont want them to go down.. it would be a shame to have the Rome derby missing from the calender

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

Indeed, its certainly where Mirko is at his most comfortable and most dangerous, and you can clearly see he loves playing off a big prima-punta like Toni and using him to aid and bring the most out of his own game. When he plays like this he is absolutely lethal (gay flowery viola boots or no) at running with the ball and beating his man (and others), and really its a shame it took us so long to fully set up the players around him for him to do this. It'll be very interesting to see how Totti's return will effect how Mirko plays in comparison to playing alongside Toni. I feel Toni's physical and direct style suits Mirko more but Totti will obviously come back in (at the expense or rotation, fitness wise, of Toni, I'd say) and so Mirko will have to make more forward runs and get the ball with his back to goal instead of at it when playing alongside Luca.

So just how, exactly, do we see us operating once we have a (hopefully) fully fit Francesco back in the fold, particularly with Mirko on such fine form, Luca being so effective, and Menez just having played his best ever game in a giallorossi shirt? Totti, when back to full fitness, is naturally a guaranteed starter, and Mirko has to be too in this form, while Toni has added what we needed up top, and Menez shown he is at his creative best in the centre behind a front two. So, fitness allowing – although its important to add that its unlikely we'd have all four fully fit and raring to go at the same time for many games – who would we drop, or more to point, who will Ranieri drop?

For me it has to be the rombo – a central trequartisa behind a front two made up of Vucinic and Totti or Toni. Totti and Toni both have their fitness issues so they could rotate, at least until Totti is fully fit once again. Then, Totti would claim a spot up top which would relegate Luca to the bench, or, and this is intriguing, could we see Totti drop back to trequartisa behind a front two? Improbable, but not impossible. Menez also has a strong claim for this spot now, but with Pizarro back in the midfield I don't think Ranieri will risk having both Pizza and Menez on the field at the same time, as both are lightweight, but it would add some creative force to this team having Pizza and Menez behind Mirko and Totti. Perrotta also will play here. Of course, this all depend if Ranieri will stick with a rombo and not revert to the 4-2-3-1, which he probably will the tinkering prick, but he shouldn't.

As I see it, these are the options we have when everyone is available (which, like I said, is unlikely to happen that often), but for the craic :

[maro]

There's no chance we see Totti behind the front two like that, nedzo - if all three start it'll be in some kind of lop-sided 4-4-2 with Vooch down the left. And I don't know that we'd ever see Menez and Pizza and Totti in the line-up together. It's not, for me, because Pizza an Menez are too 'light-weight' but because Menez is most comfortable in more of a play-making role through the middle. With either Pizza or Totti out he can help out in that way; with all three together we'd have too many chiefs and too few Indians, I think. If those three are together, it'll be with Menez down the left again. I think he can play there eventually; it's just that if he's going to get his confidence and ever get his feet properly under the table with us he's going to have to play some more games through the middle where he's most comfortable. Down either wing and he'll flit in and out of games. Through the middle, he can earn his place within the squad.

[ASR1927]

Totti drops back alot anyway doesn't he? He tends to play more of a false no. 9 sort of. Though I don't think he has the pace anymore to play as a treq. Could Vooc play on the left wing with Totti and Toni up front in a sort of 4-4-2? Menez was attacking alot on the right so could you play him right wing in that formation. They all tend to "cluster fuck" around the box as Chris puts it anyway.

[maro]

[maro]

[ASR1927]

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

[Carlo Romano]

Ranieri's press conference coming up in around a half hour or so. It's already on the Roma Ch but since most things on that eventually find their way on to the standard Sky Sport Italia channels I grudge the OTT UK asking price, around 5 times the Italian one!

Our mister has already said he will go with the tridente of Ménez-Toni-Vučinić against Inter and Totti will be in the selected squad...


I've edited my original text...in fact Ranieri will put out a more or less full strength side against Bologna with the above mentioned tridente. We have a central defence of Burdisso-Mexes as Juan has a one match ban.

I think Pizarro is the only doubt at this point.

[maro]

[RomaShield27]

[aba_bab]

[ASR1927]

[maro]