THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

A lot to be proud of from the boys tonight. Ranieri had to be braver with the bench, but that's the only thing I'd fault. I shall leave the floor to the bleaters and whingers; I thought they showed a lot of character and were beaten by a very accomplished team.

[pocari_fenrir]

we didnt do too bad until after we conceded. good strike by Muller but at the same time i felt the team struggled to attack. we can never seem to find the right balance. in the second half, all the team wanted to do was defend. when we had possession, we'd get pressed right back into the box. when we do get out of the gate quickly, we end up sending the ball all the way up to Borriello or Totti alone. never any support from midfield, although i saw a few runs from Rosi. i kinda wish our team changed. these tactics and plays are too reminiscent of 4 seasons ago with relatively the same players. we've also sold off our much prided youth, it's all turned to shit now. maybe once Newco hands us over to a new owner and hopefully get new administration, we could buy our way back into contention or something. at least things didnt get ugly at the end, we were just beat.

[RomaShield27]

I only seen bits of the first-half and most of the second (the bro has Sky Sports Xtra) and I have to say I was impressed with what I saw for the most part. I guess I was fearing the worst and a heavy defeat, but the boys played well and didn't look out of place at all. We were pegged back in the second-half and I guess you could say the goal was coming the way we were so defensive, but on another day we could of held out till the end. Muller's goal was class and after the second was a real killer, just a pity Boriello couldn't convert that glorious chance right after they scored the first. No doubt Vucinic would of made a difference, or indeed a more fluent Totti or a more fit Adriano, as really we had little to come off the bench aside from Menez (and Totti was never going to last the 90). A solid performance but disappointing not to get anything out of it.

Oh, and Rosi did very well indeed. Fair play to him, that performance will do him the world of good, and nice to see another romanista making what could be his big breakthrough for us.

[pocari_fenrir]

maybe we'll turn things around against Bologna. i hope Greco comes on. either one of Pizarro or Perrotta needs to be phased into the bench this season. their defensive play isnt doing us much good and we're no longer getting forward like we used to. De Rossi also no longer looks as motivated to keep to his defensive duties. the longer he keeps that beard of his, the more sad he looks. i dont think ive ever seen him smile with it.

[RomaShield27]

Pizarro phased on to the bench, Pocari? Good thing its past Maro's bedtime or he'd give you an earful. Pizarro is and will continue to be a key player for us, perhaps Perrotta not as much so.

[maro]

Pizarro had a poor game with the ball for sure, Pocari, but that was in part because he had no-one to pass to. The whole team got hammered back by a pretty bloody impressive performance from Bayern at home. Bayern are a bloody good team. I can understand why there's some disappointment that we didn't come out and play a little bit more and certainly I would give Ranieri a bit of stick for not having been braver, but Bayern played like a top-drawer team. They are technically excellent, they press the ball very hard, and players like Van Bommel (much as I dislike the cnut), Pig-Sticker, and, at the moment, Mueller, are absolutely top, top class. Of course they were without Ribery and Ribery which ought to have made life easier for us, though it also made them a much harder working side and Kroos and Altintop are much better second-stringers than we can boast. Without Vooch and Taddei and Okaka and any alternatives at fullback, and with Adriano and Simplicio evidently not fit, we were down to the bare bones. I'd like to have seen Ranieri trust Menez earlier - that was a mistake. But then I suppose he will point out that the goal only came in the end from a piece of magic.

[pocari_fenrir]

i agree that Pizarro is and forever will be a key player for us but i think his pairing alongside De Rossi cements the look of our midfield to play a certain way. it also limits us because i feel that we dont get the full potential out of our bench and players, especially Totti. Pizarro's play would benefit if he had wing players and post strikers to play into. trouble is, with this transfer season, we've sufficiently gotten rid of any wing players we had in Guberti + Esposito and signed post strikers in Adriano and Borriello, which effectively phases Totti out of the position. while Totti can still play the post, we need Vucinic + Taddei starting to back him up fully. the most obvious change i could recommend is swapping Perrotta's starting spot for Taddei, but injuries have limited us for the millionth time.

back to my point on phasing Pizarro. a substitution on Pizarro for someone more defensive than De Rossi, say R. Faty/Barusso/maybe Brighi (he seems disciplined enough), could force De Rossi to blossom in a role similar to Steven Gerrard. this being said, it could provide us with a certain dynamic going forward and linking up with Totti once again.

[pocari_fenrir]

btw, going back to older posts. who is Gayhair and Pig-Sticker??

[maro]

Pigsticker is Schweinsteiger.

[pocari_fenrir]

oh. why is that??

[maro]

It's what "Schwein-steiger" means in German (or, at least, it's one of the things that "Schwein-steiger" means (steiger, I gather, means a number of different things), but my Djerman friends call him the pigsticker.

[pocari_fenrir]

ooooooooooooooooh interesting. anyways, im not so much disappointed in our players but more in our administration who hasn't addressed these problems with our new signings. so far, i dont see what Simplicio could add or how we could get Vucinic, Totti, Menez and one of Adriano/Borriello playing together without conceding another 5 goals by default. also, why do we still own Loria?!?!?!

[romawi]

Good performance from the players, not so much from Ranieri. I liked the formation he put out, but I didn't like the selections so much. We had absolutely no pace out there, and it hurt us. Very rarely did any of our midfielders get beyond Totti so there really wasn't an attacking threat to worry Bayern. I just don't understand why he didn't start Menez. I thought he would bring him on at the start of the second half, but he didn't bring him on until we conceded. We were playing not to lose, and it wasn't good.

[Carlo Romano]

Awwwww.....bugger it!

I said we couldn't hope to hold a 0-0 over 90 mins and inevitably we paid the price, though having said that, containing Bayern in the first half was the wise move. I had hoped we might try to surprise them with a quick start to the second half and a goal but it seemed riding our luck was the order of the day and it had to give out sometime...had Bayern's shooting been better it would have happened earlier!

Yes Fahad, too conservative!

The Rai commentator wanted to criticise Julio Sergio for the second Bayern goal and if he seemed a little slow to try to get back across his goal, he had, as far as I was concerned, already earned his night's wages before that with some very good work. Again I'm going to say it's obscene he only gets €.7mil in salary when we depend on him so much yet others earn far more for much less effort!

Like Tommaso and Ed, I also think we gave a pretty fair overall account of ourselves despite the scoreline, and that if we had been a little more adventurous in the second 45 we may have really frustrated Bayern. Being beaten in the way we were was no disgrace though it must be stated Bayern are really missing Ribery and Robben and aren't the force they could be. Nonetheless the gap in class between ourselves and some other CL competitors shows. James said in a recent post he wishes we were in the EL which is more our present standard. Much as I hate to put us down, unless we show more willing to attack, he will have his wish soon enough.

But there were other minus points apart from tactics. I've been concerned since back in January that De Rossi is becoming more capable of making mistakes with poor passes, and Pizarro twice already this season, first against Cesena and also against Bayern last night, has tried to be over elaborate in clearing the ball from his own penalty area which could have dropped us right in it! I can't add more on those two that hasn't already been said by both Pocari and Tom.

Looking at Adriano and Simplicio last night on the bench, I now know someone has done some faking/retouching on those photos Jeff and I posted of them from Trigoria. Adriano has made progress but not to the point those images showed and as for Simplicio, he still looks like a damn Pillsbury Doughboy!

Did anyone notice the VIP box? At half time we saw Rosella do a bad job of trying to cover a huge yawn...so much for her show of solidarity with the lads! I suppose those around her should be grateful it wasn't a ripper of a fart!

Gio, if you missed that shot, she was there with her elder sister and her mother, not her husband. Also, Cafu and his missus were sitting with them.

[pocari_fenrir]

i dont think you've been watching long enough Carlo, but Pizarro pulls quite a few of those every season because he simply spends TOO much time on the ball. not even Pirlo in the same role spends that long. it's much wiser to simply pass the damn ball and keep it moving. hell even players like Sneijder and Schweinsteiger have managed to fit into that mold during the World Cup. De Rossi probably realizes this season is about as futile as the last. he could be frustrated from playing the anchor for so long, which was something Spalletti forced him to excel at initially.

[Carlo Romano]

I have buddy, I was trying to be charitable after yet another negative result. I've noticed it in Pizarro before and wished I hadn't...it just seems more obvious at the moment as these things tend to look when they happen during a bad spell.

Strange thing, you know what else was going through my mind? During the training sesh we had in the Allianz stadium, we were told Totti, De Rossi and Pizarro practised taking a few penalties. Totti and DDR scored each of their two and our little pizza man missed both of his. He's missed a few that I can think of now and though he was never a regular goalscorer, at least he used to get the odd one. He hasn't done that either except in a friendly or training for ages...but we need him, that's for sure!

I'm also thinking we have Bologna then Brescia next to try to get our act together on, and we had better do just that as we have our home game against Inter to follow on with, and right behind that is our next CL game, home to Cluj.

[pocari_fenrir]

yah we have two straight-forward matches in Bologna and Brescia to pick things up for sure. the match against Inter will be something we'll just have to tough out, if the boys can actually hold out for a draw, ill be more than satisfied. Cluj is where the madness begins. we should have them figured out by now and know better to not take them lightly. i dont mind if we struggle to get things started against Cluj but for the love of God, come out winning. if we cant manage to topple Cluj, i think our team is slowly deteriorating and you can just about write off our entire transfer season as inadequate.

nice stat there on Pizarro and his goals. it's true that he hasnt scored in what seems like ages but i could say the same about Perrotta. with all the half chances we give him, he can barely get a shot on target. playing Brighi/Taddei ahead of him might do us some good. with the odd penalty miss from Totti, im slightly more inclined to see De Rossi start taking some over Pizarro.

[Giacomo]

I thought the tactics and selections were wrong. Why settle for a draw from the kick-off and why use Totti when his main asset - passing - was of so little use with so few teammates getting into attacking positions? Totti was basically on the field for free-kicks and possible long-range shooting opportunities, neither of which came his way mainly because of the overly defensive tactics. More mobility in attack was required to play in this overly defensive way or, preferably, more liberty should have been given to the midfielders to get forward when we had possession. In fact, given the tactics, it is arguable that we did not even utilsie our strengths because Pizarro's effectiveness will always be reduced when he has so few passing options, a factor which contributed to him losing possession so frequently. It was depressing for me to watch Roma play like this.

Rosi was excellent though. I think he can become the starting right back quite quickly.

[RomaShield27]

UEFA bars Munich fans' Monty Python sign, cited as 'provocative'
– Wednesday September 15, 2010 7:26PM ; Updated: Wednesday September 15, 2010 7:44PM

NYON, Switzerland (AP) -- European soccer's governing body barred Bayern Munich fans from displaying a Monty Python-inspired banner at Wednesday night's Champions League match, fearing the sign might offend visiting fans from the Italian club AS Roma.

The Union of European Football Associations said the banner reading "Romani ite domum'' - Latin for "Romans Go Home'' - was considered provocative. The slogan references a scene in the movie comedy Monty Python's "Life of Brian.''

UEFA did approve the German fans displaying a "Life of Bayern'' flag at the Allianz Arena. In a statement, UEFA said: "Anything that may cause offense to a fan base or ethnic group, and therefore pose a security risk, including banners or symbols, is carefully vetted.''

Bayern won 2-0 on goals by Thomas Mueller and Miroslav Klose. The German club lost last season's final 2-0 to Inter Milan.

[maro]

When we were playing 4-3-1-2 last season, Pocari, DDR had licence to get forward much more as Pizza was playing as the deepest of the midfielders, just in front of the back 4. I think we'll see him there more this season too; I thought he excelled there last season, offensively and defensively. Giacomo, we weren't, of course, hemmed back quite so completely in the first half - so we saw a bit more of Cassetti and Rosi getting forward. In his post-match comments Ranieri said the boys were a bit timid - I don't think the tactics were for us to defend quite so totally as we did in the second half. The boys went into their shells a bit, Ranieri suggested, and, of course, credit to Bayern for the way they pushed us back. I just felt Ranieri should have reacted - we were under the cosh for a long time before the goal came. And for me the brave move would have been to bring Menez on for Brighi or Perrotta or De Rossi. Had we gone on to concede Ranieri would have taken stick for breaking up the structure of the side which had withstood for so long, but I thought we needed someone with a bit more quality on the ball - to give Pizarro a quicker outlet, if necessary to hold onto the ball and win a freekick or two, and just to allow us to keep the ball for a bit longer and so get our defensive players another two yards up the pitch. I can understand why he didn't make the move and certainly he didn't have too many other options, but I think it's been a feature of both Spags and Ranieri not to trust the bench outside of a few 'core' substitutes.