THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

[Deini]

Lineup for tonight:

Doni; Burdisso, Mexes, Juan, Riise; Taddei, De Rossi, Simplicio, Brighi; Menez, Borriello

[RomaShield27]

So its senza Totti. Very cautious from Ranieri, lets see how this one works out.

[Lupa]

[RomaShield27]

Yeah I was thinking that too, Lupa. 'Member what I was saying earlier about giving out a prize to whoever predicted the correct line-up Ranieri will select for tonight? Well who would of guessed this:

Milan-Roma, Adriano in campo con Menez e Borriello. Fuori Totti. FORMAZIONI UFFICIALI
http://www.forzaroma.info – Sabato 18 Dicembre 2010 17:39

Novità dell'ultima ora. Ranieri ha deciso di tenere fuori Totti, in campo al suo posto giocherà Adriano. A centrocampo fuori Taddei, Pizarro, giocheranno titolari Brighi De Rossi e Simplicio. Nessuna novità invece per la difesa, ci saranno Burdisso, Mexes, juan e Riise.

Milan (4-3-1-2): 32 Abbiati, 20 Abate, 13 Nesta, 25 Bonera, 77 Antonini, 8 Gattuso, 21 Pirlo, 23 Ambrosini, 27 Boateng, 11 Ibrahimovic, 70 Robinho.
A disp.: 1 Amelia, 76 Yepes, 17 Oddo, 52 Merkel, 14 Strasser, 10 Seedorf, 80 Ronaldinho.
All.: Allegri.

Roma (4-4-2): 32 Doni, 29 N. Burdisso, 5 Mexes, 4 Juan, 17 Riise; ,16 De Rossi, 33 Brighi, 30 Simplicio; 94 Menez; 8 Adriano 22 Borriello
A disp.: 27 Julio Sergio, 2 Cicinho, 3 Castellini, 7 Pizarro,11 Taddei, 10 Totti
All.: Ranieri


No Totti, no Pizza, certainly no fecking party. What the hell is Ranieri thinking?

[ASR1927]

I'm getting sick of him not playing Pizarro! I know Pizarro was injured but he shouldn't lose his spot that quick should he? You have to play one or the other. Totti or Pizarro.

[pocari_fenrir]

what the hell?! Adriano is starting?! fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

[aba_bab]

We look so blunt.. WHAT THE FUCWK IS UP wITH THE LINEUP?!??!?!?!!!???

[maro]

Menez is fooking quick; the surface looks dodgy; Adriano is fat as fuck but still quicker than Totti; why would you not pick Taddei and go a proper 4-4-2 (if, that is, you're going to make all the other calls Claudio has made)?

[RomaShield27]

I guess playing Adriano makes sense if Pizza wasn't going to play and considering we've little support going forward from the full-back positions with Burdisso there and Riise been told to stay put. He done ok I guess, but we'll need changes, namely Pizza and Totti, to get something from this, I feel. Menez is going very well but he cant do it all himself (and he has to realise that too) and needs to link up more with others.

[Lupa]

Don't question Ranieri's tactical genius. He's a master, according to the commentators.

Totti and Pizarro or Totti or Pizarro would step things up a bit in creativity and linking up play. Make it happen, Claudio.

[RomaShield27]

[maro]

So Ranieri got his selection right? Or we'd have won by 5 or 6 had Pizza and Totti been playing?

[RomaShield27]

We were just resting Totti and Pizza for the xmas break. And Adriano's gonna eat 10 turkey coop's for Xmas so he needed a bit of a run out.

[pocari_fenrir]

Wow i can not believe my eyes. This is a wonderful week, to draw Shakhtar in the pool and then beat Milan down on their turf

Following my outcry on Adriano's inclusion in the starting XI, alot of plays broke down went it went through him. However, he played alot more physical and emulated the form of Totti under Spalletti's strikerless formation. Adriano got just about every foul, made whatever layoffs, he garnered ample amounts of time for our midfield to move around and cluster into Milan's half. What Totti couldn't provide in physical presence, Adriano made up with his physicality. One misdemeanor though, Adriano didn't do well to link with Borriello nor did he make it easy for our players bombing down the wing. He kept trudging through the center where Borriello was already fighting to make runs past Nesta & co. Since a win is a win, his efforts won't go unapplauded, especially when the camera showed all the times he bit his lip and swallowed his pride for the team. Right now, i cant tell who is whinier between Adriano struggling with Ranieri's requests or Totti struggling to get a foul. Food for thought, this bit.

I also saw some VERY promising performances, so i will try to be concise. Menez deserves Man of the Match here. He was running like a man changed. He was consistently running, getting scrappy balls, drifting wide to let other midfielders move up, dropping back to play the long ball in place of Pizarro/Totti, EVERYTHING RANIERI PROBABLY ASKED FOR AND MORE. Menez looks every bit of a complete player out there tonight and that's not a compliment he's ever deserved in our shirt. Best thing he did all game, was injure Pirlo. I think that was the turning point that disrupted the way Milan usually play and they struggled to find that well-timed pin-point pass to send Ibra and Robinho off to the races.

Another person who deserves an honourable mention is De Rossi. He looks to be back to his old self. I saw very good shots from far out and a spectacular performance as our anchor against every and any Milan player coming his way. By the end of the match, the disruption him and Mexes caused to the Milan midfield was incredible. When it seemed as if no one wanted to step into midfield and tried to get into our box, De Rossi brushed aside most players and made those all important interception. Quite a few made from the backline too but De Rossi was crucial in helping out at the right time and place. Thanks to De Rossi, our backline played with some trust in Doni as well. Job well done Captain Futuro ~

Last but not least, i personally thought the tactics spent in our backline was impressive. Not sure if anyone noticed, but with Burdisso - Mexes - Juan - Riise lined up at the back, we looked like we were playing with 3 in the back. If you watch every offside trap (anyone believe how we trapped them on EVERY play??) it was always Burdisso - Mexes - Juan moving that line. Any time Mexes had to step out and do a sweep on Ibra and Boateng, Riise would step back into the line and form the trifecta again. For us to pull this off against the top side of Italy is a very beautiful thing. I also thing that with Cassetti in our line, we would not be able to pull this off. Whlie this was make-shift to start, it is pure genius upon the players to be able to pull this off.

As for the match on a whole, we played fairly solid, but not many goalscoring opportunities were offered to Borriello. I would say we got lucky with the goal and lucky not to concede. Milan looked too afraid to play physical and went down easy quite a few times. We frustrated them well with that trifecta offside trap but so did the pitch. Something about the dew there had them sniffing the grass a few times. Doni also overcame his fear of Ibra and managed to block the one shot Ibra continually reamed us with at Juve. This match here... a thing of beauty ~

[Deini]

Wow cannot believe this. First thing tomorrow is to look for the highlights. Milan, thanks for giving us Borriello.

[The MAN]

[ASR1927]

Ed,
If you happen to come across a copy of last nights match would you mind posting it in the multimedia thread? I'd love to watch it again.
Grazie,
Jeff

[RomaShield27]

[Lupa]