Roma’s coaching conundrum

PS- We still have Zeman under contract...

There goes Massimiliano Allegri http://www.football-italia.net/34857/allegri-said-hes-staying-milan

and at the same time Blanc is edging closer to PSG

and the fans want leaders out

I have no idea what Allegri is thinking, I understand it's Milan, but the ownership have shown their cards. If he even slips up during the season he's going to get sacked. Why not just move on?

it hurts to say it but Allegri is actually making sense by not facilitating his move to Roma and choose Milan even with this situation and sub par squad

Andddddd Allegri is staying put. All points to a foreign coach, ughhh.

whats the situation with Montella ? how about Manuel Pellegrini?

Montella's a no go and Pellegrini will be joining Man City soon.

It's looking like Bielsa or Blanc at this point.

Bielsa is Luis Enrique 4.0, but would be the better coach for a younger side.

Blanc would ensure a stable defense, but our football would not be high quality attacking-wise if he sets us up like he did with France. If we get him, I'd like to see Bordeaux's Blanc.

The 4 names now being strongly linked to us are Bielsa, Blanc, Garcia and Rijkaard. My pick among the 4 would be Blanc, the most balanced and has Serie A experience has a player. Rijkaard also has that experience, but I really doubt how well he would do with this team (dubbed Enrique version 2). Bielsa is asking for a lot of money and Garcia has no experience.

If we're going to go with these guys, might as well go with someone who knows the city well as I've been saying these past couple of weeks. The same names again, Panucci, Di Francesco, Giannini, heck even Colantuono or Cosmi at this point.

The worst thing out of this story is that we just repeated the same mistake as the past two seasons, that of having to fall back on a third or fourth choice coach, thus already starting off on the wrong foot.

McLewis Bielsa is far more similar to Zeman than Enrique. His teams value possession as a defensive tactic but not for the sake of holding the ball, his teams are very vertical. They are very high-energy (I believe SAF said that they ran numbers and his Bilbao side are the one that ran the most miles at Old Trafford, ever); it is common knowledge Pep 'stole' his pressing tactics from Bielsa. Like Zeman, he is also very good about developing players, which i think suits a side so young. Look at the influence he has had in this golden generation of Chilean players, on Llorente, Muniain, Javi Martinez.

He has two main weaknesses. One is that he is a very good under-dog coach but very bad at managing success (see Argentina before he took over, when we became favorites we lost, Bilbao past season and this one). The other is that he is a perfectionist, which affects the club in two ways: he needs a high degree of control of the institution and he will sacrifice performance for his view of ideal football. He is also arrogant.

That said, nearly every player that has played under him speaks about him as the best manager they've ever had (llorente might change that though, lol). His spell at Argentina was recently voted as the 2nd best NT side in our history, in spite of only winning an olympic gold, because of the quality of his football. If you sign him you will get a workaholic who will spend every moment under his contract working for the best of the team. I'm obviously a huge fan of him, but I think he would be a great fit for Roma's culture.

Some reading on him:

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/08/marcelo-bielsa-chile-world-cup-2010-tactics/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1381408-why-marcelo-bielsa-employ-the-most-bizarre-tactics-in-football

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/sep/07/newsstory.sport16

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/03/08/manchester-united-2-3-athletic-bilbao-pressing/

How much money is he asking for? If it's not outrageous he is by far your best option being considered.

Sky Sport said , we are going to know the manager in the next 24 hour

I'm afraid the fans will turn against bielsa as soon as his first defeat

My only hope about Bielsa is , He might be able to help DDR get out of Rut

Thanks for the correction and analysis, BC.

However, I don't think Bielsa is what we need. If he's truly like Zeman then the defense is in for more suffering as that type of possession-based attacking football is easy to defend against if you're Siena, Chievo etc etc. And those are the teams that were taking points off us.

Our coach must be able to get max points against sides like that. LE struggled massively with it and Zeman couldn't do it consistently. AA even had his own problems, but that was down to his tactics and selections more than the opponent's.

If Bielsa is that much like Zeman then he will encounter similar problems with us dropping leads and failing to rally from deficits like we did under Zeman. Not the answer tbh.

There are reports in France that Blanc met with Roma today... offer him anything more than 1 year and he'll sign imo.

McLewis wrote:

Spoiler:

.

I didn't mean to say he was a clone to Zeman, only that Bielsa's style had a stronger resemblance to Zeman's than Enrique's due its vertical nature. Bielsa would definitely be a step up from Zeman in defensive terms, he plays a high line with man-marking and very intense pressing. You should read the zonal marking article I linked as to how this worked vs United. I've seen some Bilbao games where they never looked like conceding because whenever they lost the ball they recovered it very quickly. The downside of this approach is that it is very physically taxing so the team might run out of steam by the end of the season, especially if you don't have a large bench. But he's definitely not as naive as Zeman. If Zeman's attitude towards defending can be summed up as "who cares, we'll score one more goal" Bielsa's would be "don't worry about losing possession on scoring chances because we'll get the ball back immediately". You can see the influence this had on Pep, it's very similar to what Barca does; what Barca does different is have a more patient game with higher ball retention. Enrique was never able to get Roma to press well.

Some stats:
- In the 2002 WC qualifiers Argentina conceded the least amount of goals at 15 in 18 games.
- In the 2010 WC qualifiers Chile conceded 22 goals in 18 games placing them at about half-table in terms of goals conceded.
-In 2011/12 Bilbao was 9th in the league in goals conceded
-In 2012/13 Bilbao was 16th in the league in goals conceded

So you will concede but he will have a far superior plan to Zeman. I agree Blanc would be a more balanced coach.

I had a look at the Zonal Marking article. Compelling stuff, indeed.

Ok so Bielsa's much better than Zeman. This much I will concede. I think his football, his mentality and approach fits Roma better than any coach we're still linked with thus far. His football is quite romantic in a way and that fits a team like Roma like a glove.

But can he win silverware? Can he teach these young players how to prepare themselves for a Coppa Italia final like the one they just played in? These are questions that remain to be seen with Bielsa and though his football for Argentina and Bilbao was visually stunning and tactically aesthetic, he doesn't have much to show for it tangibly and for a Roma fan culture that hasn't tasted success or held silverware in 5 years now....that's just not going to be enough.

Blanc's more balanced approach will be far more boring to watch, but I could easily see us grinding out results when we need to whereas with better football, we might actually lose those same kinda games. Roma need results right now to pacify their supporters and the notoriously fickle Roman media. If Bielsa can accomplish this with his style of football, but then great, but if its more of the same, he will last no longer than Enrique or Zeman.

Bielsa has won 3 league titles in Argentina, reached a libertadores (CL equivalent) final where he lost on penalties, won an olympic gold and took Athletic to two finals. Yes he can definitely win titles.

Was going to kindly correct Neal, but Alfred wonderfully covered it.

What Bielsa has had to go through within the pressure cooker atmosphere of Athletic, that'll only prepare him for the Romanisti, the environment within Trigorria and the experience to come along with it. A team like Roma would be endear to a leader like Bielsa, since the man's philosophy literally is side-by-side with Roma's historical philosophy. And thats only a good thing.

Roma lost a good chance in acquiring a very good manager in Allegri. Bielsa must be 2nd choice. Blanc doesn't have the characteristics to be their manager while Montella has it all, but his affiliation and ALLEGIANCE to Roma is a stumbling block.

Thank you both for your contributions and I apologize for my ignorance. We Romanisti are used to coaches who come into this job with huge reputations, popularity and pedigree only to leave Rome, cowed by the fans and media. Rome is a cauldron the likes that you just don't see elsewhere in Europe so while the pressure on Bielsa in Bilbao was palpable. Rome is a different monster entirely I feel. It humbled a 12 time Iron man like Enrique to the point where he still hasn't taken another coaching job after all. This job should not be taken so lightly. Bielsa's insistence on perfection will likely alienate someone in the squad and will definitely be seen as stubborn bull-headedness by the media as well. What worries me even more is that our management has not shown the requisite backbone to get behind our coaches. They would've stuck with Enrique, but he wasn't quite the right horse to back and yet they completely panicked and abandoned Zeman when they probably shouldn't have. This could easily happen to both Blanc and Bielsa if something goes sideways.

Really not a fan of Blanc. He will definitely make the old school Serie A fans happy with his defensive approach but that's never been Roma's style. I guess i am speaking from a football purist point of view because Blanc can win trophies with his style as it's been proven in the past.

Bielsa would be a great choice. His style will bring out the best in the players like Florenzi, Lamela, Destro and will even help nurture Nico Lopez and the other youth players. His philosophy will fit Roma while progressing with the team to bring them back where they were in the past.

no more managers using higher defense line please lets keep the defense back where they belong , Both zeman and L.E wanted to press hard , L.E to get the ball and confuse opponent by passing it , Zeman to get the ball and attack with 11 men , but regardless of both this team couldn't do that . Unless they bring a different midfielders all over again . AA kept defenders at the back but he made mistakes , if i consider blanc=AA+experience then he can really help Roma , its serie A after all where 80% of the league is doing counter attack only


I really miss spaletti now

One point of worry is Totti if Blanc becomes the manager... Totti is the antithesis of what Blanc wants a forward to do in terms of work rate. Blanc is a total football kind of guy in its very basics where he needs everyone to defend and run. If you can't do that, he will bench you. That's why with France NT you had a bunch of really hard workers in the middle as opposed to the more technical guys.

It's going to be a massive culture shock for a lot of the Roma players if he comes. Management better be ready for backlash because there is definitely going to be some.

Blanc's recurrent phrase was "You can't lose a game if you don't concede ag goal."

Well, if Blanc had a good defensive record with players from Bourdeaux then with Benatia and Marquinhos we should be quite good too. Ofcourse, if we manage to sign some sidebacks.
Florenzi should love Blanc

Actually the year Bordeaux won Ligue 1, they had the 2nd best attack and 4th best defense...Gourcuff led the team back then.

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/laurent-blanc/spiele/trainer_4589_40_2007-07-01_2010-05-20.html

all matches in Bordeaux for blanc / mostly4-5-1 /4-2-3-1

Rumors linking us to Blanc are heating up, with Garcia remaining the second choice. Meanwhile Rijkaard has been discarded and rumors on Bielsa have calmed, probably due to the 4 million euro figure he was previously asking. Giuseppe Giannini is reportedly being looked at if all else fails. This is a guy that I would back 100%.

I wouldn't mind a balanced coach like Blanc, but I don't know enough about him to back him entirely. There's also word that Vincent Candela will join him either in his technical staff or as a team manager. Bielsa was always an interesting option, but I think we'll be in for more of the same. Though, that point that BC made about him wanting total control isn't a bad thing, since our management seems to be in total confusion and we need a guy who could really take the whole club on his shoulders and basically say "I'm the boss here".

Deschamps in his press conference for the France NT tomorrow said that Blanc to Roma is almost done.

You'll get a lot of people who don't like him out there... i personally like him. Very pragmatic. He will utilize the tactic that can get the best result from the squad. He's not married to one way of playing.