vs.

If Catania had your hearts in your throats with the way they ripped up our defense at times last weekend, prepare for more of the same against Inter, because they looked damn good against Pescara, fellas. And yes before anyone says it, I know it's just Pescara.....a very Zeman-less Pescara , but what was more interesting is how cohesive Inter looked, especially with both Sneijder and Cassano on the pitch and weaving some wonderful play, cutting Pescara up with impunity. We're going to need to vastly improve our defensive performance if we're to avoid a repeat of Sunday night. Consider Zeman's indifference to defensive tactics, I'm not too optimistic on that front. So let's look at who's available for this encounter:

The Squad

With Hugo Lloris' projected move to London to join Tottenham, the links with Stekelenburg have subsided and the Dutchman looks set for a 2nd season as undisputed #1. He looked decent against Catania and couldn't really do much with either goal so we should look for more of the same from him.

The jury's still out as whether Ivan Piris did enough to warrant a 2nd start at RB, but me personally, I liked what I saw from the diminutive full-back. He's got quite a bit of pace, his crossing ability looks decent and he's got quite a bit of stamina, but what I worry about is his positioning. Quite suspect against Catania, especially on Gomez's goal where he was allowed to get pulled in towards the middle by Bergessio. He's going to stay more disciplined against a wily duo like Cassano and Sneijder. As for the CBs, it will be Castan and Burdisso again. Castan acquitted himself well in his first official game for us. Commanding in the tackle and looked assured when stepping out with the ball at his feet. It was veteran Burdisso who looked off the pace and he's going to have to improve markedly against his former side. At LB, Balzaretti will absolutely be back to bomb forward down the left. He enjoyed a fine match last weekend and looks to have unsurprisingly settled quickly to life in Rome.

Marquinho is expected to step into midfield along side De Rossi and Pjanic, replacing Bradley, who has picked up an injury and will not feature. Alessandro Florenzi looked very good in his cameo last weekend so it's quite possible he'll get more time in this game. Panagiotis Tachtsidis still appears to be recovering from a muscular problem and will probably miss out again. This is where the game must be won by us. Inter have a very strong midfield in Guarin, Cambiasso and Gargano who offer plenty of industry, grit and drive going forward. Our boys are up to the task however so keep an eye out on the match up and duels that will pop up.

Forward line looks ripe for a shake up and Zeman's going to have a bit of a headache to contend with. Mattia Destro is now clear to play and is expected to start the match, but at whose expense? It looks likely to be Osvaldo and it's unfortunate because of the goal he scored, but Zeman has apparently seen Destro as the preferred centre forward, due to his ability to link up better with Totti than Osvaldo. Lamela and Totti are both locks so unless Zeman starts Osvaldo and brings in Destro and Lopez later on, I can only see him starting Destro from the start with Totti and Lamela flanking him. It's the line up that everyone wants to see after all. This is what may see:




The Opposition

Inter have done some impressive business this summer just when it looked likely that Massimo Moratti would disappoint them with a stale summer campaign. The acquisitions of Samir Handanovic in goal, Alvaro Pereira at full-back, Walter Gargano in midfield, and Antonio Cassano up top are likely to rejuvenated a side that really looked down and out.

The Coach

Andrea Stramaccioni



What a night it should be for Roma coaching product Stramaccioni. It's frankly quite unbelievable that this guy was coaching our Allievi Nazionali just 2 years ago, winning 2 national titles, before moving on to lead Inter's Primavera to an amazing cup-winning run in the 11-12 NextGen Series. It was this success that convinced Moratti to give the 36-year old a crack at the first team bench after the dismissal of Claudio Ranieri. Stramaccioni has not looked back since and the energy he brings to the Inter set up is clear for all to see in their play. He's just one of the many emerging talents that will form the crux of the next coaching generation for Serie A.

The Captain

Javier Zanetti



Will this guy ever quit? Hardly likely if he keeps going like he has. Watching this wonderful player in full flight, you'd never guess he's just a year off 40. It's frankly frightening that he regularly bests players half his age, but that's also the great thing about Zanetti. As Inter's all-time leading appearance holder with over 750 official appearances as well as serving as the only non-Italian captain in the league, Zanetti is well and truly in a realm of his own this season and he shows no times of wanting any company. He has been deployed at a RB so far this season against Pescara and looks likely to continue on there with departure of Maicon. His lung-bursting runs up the right-flank are going to cause us problems so Balzaretti as well as Totti and Bradley will need to work together to limit his influence, if that can even be done.

The Danger man

Wesley Sneijder



At the heart of Inter's on-pitch rejuvenation is the re-emergence of Wesley Sneijder as a playmaking tour-de-force. The Dutchman looked back to his brilliant best against Pescara, linking up deftly with newboy Antonio Cassano, tormenting the Pescara backline all night long. With his new partner-in-crime out due to fatigue, it will fall to Sneijder to lead Inter forward and open our backline with his incisive passing range. If last weekend is any type of indication, De Rossi and our midfield are going to have some work to do to get near him.

Key Match Objectives

Target the CBs

Young centre-back Andrea Rannochia looked surprising assured against Pescara, something that has been missing from his game for quite some time. That said, he didn't have too much to do and was rarely tested. This will not be the case for him as he will be up against fellow Primavera graduate Mattia Desto, who will no doubt know all about Rannochia. New signing Matias Silvestre is considered the better of the 2 CBs and so will provide sterner resistance to our attack ,but as he shown at Palermo, the Argentine is capable of moments of assurance coupled with moments of complete ineptitude. This should work in our advantage if we can go to work on his early and often enough to get him off his game.

Positive football

Zeman was not at all happy with how we played last weekend obviously. The remnants of the reign of Luis Enrique endured as we appeared entirely too content to simply hold on to the ball and knock it around Catania. This would be fine if we didn't lose it so often, only to be hit on the counter and punished. This scenario is what lead to both goals we conceded and to avoid that we must be more progressive with our play. That means more forward passes and less lateral and back passes. We have an abundance of vision, technique and creativity in our squad so there should be no reason why we can't get in behind any side, let alone Inter's.

Take Our Chances

For all of our attacking talent, flair and ability, this is all for nought if we can't put the ball in the back of the net. We had a plethora of chances last weekend to win the match and we didn't take them when we needed to. Inter are a sterner test by far than that of Catania and in games like this, which will define a club's season, chances afforded must be taken with ruthless efficiency. Failure to do so will be evident for all to see.

Match Prediction

2 attack-minded sides + 2 vulnerable backlines=goal fest. Here endeth the math lesson for the day. Our record at the San Siro is not great, but it's not terrible either. A win may be a bridge to far, but a loss is lot closer. My preferred result would be another scoring draw.

3-3

Fine preview Neal.This match should have a ton of goals.The last time Zeman took on Inter with Roma this happened lol




Your lineup I don't fully agree with though.Marquinho was terrible against Catania so I don't think it would be wise for him to start this one.I'd go with Tachtsidis in the centre of midfield and DDR to play box to box.I'd also prefer to see Osvaldo in there instead of Lamela.

Im not quite sure as to what to expect for that starting front 3. With Lopez coming on and scoring a fantastic late equalizer against Catania, he may be in line for a start this time around. That being said, Lamela seems to be considered the starter for the moment and Zeman doesn't usually tinker with his starting 11's all that much.

Another rumored solution may be starting Totti, Destro and Osvaldo. This one is a pretty big risk, but one that could pay off in certain situations. We would lack that bit of flair that Lamela or Lopez have to offer, but would definitely have a greater presence in the opposing third. With Destro's ability to pick his runs and Osvaldo's physical presence, Totti would have a field day in launching his teammates forward.

Patrick Bateman wrote:Fine preview Neal.This match should have a ton of goals.The last time Zeman took on Inter with Roma this happened lol




Your lineup I don't fully agree with though.Marquinho was terrible against Catania so I don't think it would be wise for him to start this one.I'd go with Tachtsidis in the centre of midfield and DDR to play box to box.I'd also prefer to see Osvaldo in there instead of Lamela.

Well Marquinho was used as a forward against Catania, which isn't his natural position. He absolutely has to start from a deeper position and make his late runs forward.

Lamela must start. I strongly believe that he is the star of our campaign, not Destro. Although, i prefer Destro over Osvaldo anytime. Already we are looking somewhat short in midfield, Marquinho isnt first XI material.
Against Catania we lacked pace and directness, hopefully we will improve.

Well the only other alternative to Tachtsidis and Marquinho is Florenzi. I think he's well deserving of a shot as well.

As for the front 3, Destro will start. I think that much is expected and confirmed. Zeman will play his strongest attack line and if pre-season is anything to go by, one of Totti-Destro-Lamela is exactly what we should expect to see.

First huge game of the season... Serie A madness!

Serious problems with offside-trap.

Daje Roma, Forza Lupi, sò finiti i tempi cupi

The only way the day could have been better is if we demolished Juve instead of Inter.

That was fun to watch.

Totti was epic today.

The presence of Totti makes everything better. Good game from Castan too. Im pretty pleased with todays game.

Thank u Rome for kicking inters arse. It was fun watching Cassano on the bench with no smile on his face. Totti was pure class today.

narbeZ wrote:Daje Roma, Forza Lupi, sò finiti i tempi cupi

The only way the day could have been better is if we demolished Juve instead of Inter.

That was fun to watch.

Totti was epic today.

you're right... Totti was faboulos. What a legend
Roma played great today!

Congrats to Roma for beating Interistits.....

Fellow romanistas let's hope this victory signifies the end of the mediocrity of previous years.

TOTTI!!!

Respect to Inter fans.

Lovely play all game from the boys.

That's what I was hoping to see. The key to winning games like this is that we must play 2 halves of great football and we did just that yesterday.

Moreover, going back to my Keys Match Objectives section in the OP, I think we met all of them with aplomb:

- We ran at Andrea Rannochia and Matias Silvestre whenever possible and both CBs, as a result, looked quite shaky and unsure of how to handle Osvaldo's hold up play, Destro dynamic dribbling and Florenzi's ghost runs into the box. That said, we will come up against far better CB pairings and this type of play will need to continue from whomever is spearheading the attack line.

- Positive football's a rather vague statement, this much I can now see. The way we played last night, positive is a gross understatement, we played imaginative, boundless, enthusiastic football. Inter inevitably had their chances, but our backline looked rarely ruffled by this and that's quite encouraging. Midfield was where we were seriously impressive though. The trio of Tachtsidis, De Rossi (later Marquinho), and Florenzi was just too much for Inter's Cambiasso, Gargano and Guarin. We had endless energy, technique and a relentless drive towards goal. Tachtsidis, in particular, had an eye-catching debut, though at times I think he played within himself. Michael Bradley's injury appears to have been ill-timed for him as he may face a struggle to get back into the team with both Tachtsidis and Florenzi putting in scintillating displays, Pjanic faces a similar challenge as his absence was quite conspicuous yesterday. And then there's Totti. What can we say about him that the pundits and writers haven't already said? The man was the pure definition of GOAT: Irrepressible on the ball, incisive in the pass, and intuitive on the move. Played his role as winger-playmaker to perfection and is deserved MOTM. He epitomized everything about that "positive" football that we saw tonight. Here's to many more.

- Usually in matches like this, we not only get a lot of chances, but we miss even more. This match was no different, but with the key difference being that we actually took enough of these chances to guarantee the win. 2 goals leads are generally not ideal, but you got a distinct feeling that Inter could not get back into this game once we got that 3rd goal from Marquinho and when you have that type of feeling consider how porous our defense can be, that's always a great indicator of what's to come. Some may argue that the game may have been beyond them even at 2-1 considering the lost of momentum they had been building at 1-1 with Osvaldo's goal. That was well and truly a sucker punch, but for me, that was a chance that had to be taken, especially considering that Osvaldo was chief among the attackers who fluffed so many chances previously.


Overall, if this is Zemanlandia in full flow, then it's certainly impressive. We may not get results like this everytime we got out and play like that, but that doesn't concern me too much. These guys were clearly hungry, motivated and ambitious. That's what Zeman's football is all about and as long as we continue to have those traits, I'm sure we'll continue winning over fans and plaudits, even if the result aren't always there.

Didn't get a chance to post about this game yet, but what a win! Great way to bounce back from a somewhat disappointing result against Catania. We controlled the match and played some great football. Can't wait to see more of that.

Our passing was much more direct and purposeful compared to our first match, so already that's a huge improvement. Totti put in some lovely touches and ended the game with two great assists, the second one being a through ball that very few people in this world could have pulled off. Osvaldo was good at losing his defenders and creating space from himself; he took his goal well, was a little wasteful in other situations. Destro seemed a little confused at times and wandered into Osvaldo's territory, but all in all it was a decent performance.

Florenzi was a breath of fresh air, great to see one of our primavera boys put in such a good performance against one of the top clubs in the league. Aside from taking his goal well, he was very lively, barely putting in a foot wrong all game. Tachtsidis also did well, he missed a pass here and there, but generally played well. Castan I also have to mention played a very solid game, making some well timed tackles.

All in all, one step closer to Zeman's ideal display, even though we didn't use his usual 4-3-3; with Totti, Osvaldo and Destro, it did seem more like a 4-3-Totti-2, as our friends from As Roma Streaming put it :p. Either way, if we continue playing like that, we're going to be in for some very entertaining matches as expected this season.

On a more negative note, we have to fix up our defending. Inter too was wasteful on a couple of opportunities, they didn't counter attack us as they should have. Against faster opponents, we will be caught out way too much. I noticed Piris and Balzaretti getting caught in no man's land a little too often for my liking.

You guys pretty much summed it up. If Florenzi can continue playing like this I dare say we might have our next next capitano, after Totti and DDR. He was awesome on the weekend. Tireless running, amazing off the ball movement, as well as great touches and that superb goal. I was extremely impressed with him and can't wait for him to continue flourishing under Zeman.

Destro seemed a little lost out on that right side. It's pretty clear to me he would prefer to be on the left wing where he can cut in and shoot or dribble off his right foot. We should see him in the center next game free flowing back and forth with Totti due to Osvaldos Red. I think Destro may have had a goal or two was he on his right foot cutting in instead of the left foot.

Castan looks to be a great signing. Thought he was very solid and will only get better as the season moves on and he and Burdissondevelop a stronger working relationship.

All in all things are looking up, hopefully they stay that way.