Sorry for the late posting of this thread, gents. Been a busy week and a busier weekend so far.

It's been a mostly great couple of weeks for Roma and its players following our stunning rout of Inter and then Osvaldo and Destro goals for Italy as well as the news that De Rossi will not out as long as previously feared and that Totti has recovered from an ankle problem to be passed fit to start this match. The only bit of bad news is the loss of Balzaretti for at least a month as he recovers from a muscle strain. So on to the squad news and projected starting XI for this match:

Goalkeepers: There is no doubt that Maarten Stekelenburg will again start in goal. With the arrival of Mauro Goicoechea, Bogdan Lobont will be wary of his No.2 spot, but for now the young Uruguayan will be 3rd choice. Current Primavera keeper Tomas Svedkauskas has also been called-up as 4th choice.

Defenders: Ivan Piris, despite looking slightly shaky against Inter, will replace his spot at RB while Leandro Castan and Nico Burdisso will continue on at CB. Federico Balzaretti is still carrying remnants from his muscle strain against Inter, but he has been added to the squad, but it wouldn't be a complete shock to see Taddei deputize. Dodo is still not match fit and the only other option at LB is Marquinho, whom Zeman doesn't seem to rate there. Our recent acquisition from Corinthians, Marquinhos, will be in the squad along with fellow youngster Alessio Romagnoli to provide cover at CB.

Midfielders: With both De Rossi and Michael Bradley out, the midfield holding role is likely to go to Panagiotis Tachtsidis, who put in a sterling display against Inter. Flanking him in midfield is likely to be rising star Alessandro Florenzi and the returning Miralem Pjanic, to provide the dynamic running and sumptuous passing game that is becoming a feature of Zemanlandia 2012. Bench and reserve options include Jonaton Lucca, called up from the Primavera as well as the aformentioned Marquinho, who is likely again 1st choice off the bench.

Forwards: With Pablo Osvaldo out of this match with a suspension picked up against Inter, the stage is set for Mattia Destro to show why we paid 12m for him. He will be handed a starting berth in his preferred central position, flanked by Totti and Lamela, who will be keen to link up with the young Italian as much as possible. There was a bit of a scare surrounding Totti as he pulled up in training with an ankle problem, but he appears to have shaken that off and is fit to start. On the other flank, Erik Lamela is a lock to start again, but will be wary of a waiting Nico Lopez, who is itching for a chance to make things happen from the start. Lamela is going to need a good game, preferably with a goal. Junior Tallo and Nico Lopez will be our forward options on the bench.

Here's my projected squad for tomorrow:



The Opposition

The Coach:

Stefano Pioli



Bursting onto the Serie A scene with some eye-catching results with Chievo, former Fiorentina great Stefano Pioli is regarded as one the peninsula's best coaching prospects. His management in Verona ultimately earned the now ill-fated move to Palermo, where he was unceromoniusly sacked by crazed supremo Maurizio Zamparini before even coaching the team in a competitive fixture. From there, Pioli spent a great deal of the spring of 2011 linked to us before we eventually settled on Luis Enrique. Pioli then accepted an offer from Bologna and has not looked back. Very much like Chievo, this Bologna side under Pioli play a counter attacking style that exploits high line defenses like ours. They are also very solid defensively and are simply industrious in midfield, always craving to get the ball before the opposition. Thankfully for us, with Marco Di Vaio's departure, they have replaced him with a declining Alberto Gilardino.

Dangermen:

Alessandro Diamanti



Fresh off international duty for Italy and following his contribution to La Nazionale at the Euros, Diamanti has taken over from Di Vaio as Bologna's go-to guy. He's a tireless attacker, never giving up on lost causes and has a knack for making timely runs up the flank as well as showcasing some brilliant skill on the ball when his team needs him to. He has not done that yet for Bologna this season, following the 3-1 loss to Milan and then another loss to Chievo 2 weeks ago. Nonetheless he will be the attacker our defense must contain.

Saphir Taider



French U-20 midfielder Taider is a relatively new acquisition for Bologna, playing in his 2nd season with the club after joining from cash-strapped Ligue 2 club Grenoble Foot, but has found his feet and looks to be keen on replacing Gaston Ramirez and Gaby Mudingayi as Bologna's top midfielder. A powerful runner with a vicious long range shot, Taider proved an absolute handful for Milan on 1. Giornato as well as against Chievo the following weekend. He's not always the best passer of the ball, but he's very positive in possession, and I think he has it in him to cause a lot of problems in midfield if we don't give him the required mind.

Match Objectives

Avoid complacency

This is something we must avoid at all costs. Bologna are not at all a bad side and the 3-1 results against Milan is rather unkind considering they dominated the Rossoneri for nearly 70% of that match. Unlike Milan who were simply lethargic, we have the requisite energy and quality in midfield to avoid such play, but only if we take Bologna seriously.

Midfield must back track

We did this wonderfully well against Inter, but we equally didn't do it as well against Catania before them. Besides Taider, Bologna have a strong midfield with the likes of Andrea Cossu, Diego Perez, Andrea Pisanu, Nico Pulzetti and former Napoli man Michele Pazienza in support. They are fully capbable of bullying us off the ball if we don't fight for possession. As with all games, midfield must be won in order to win the match. We did it against a far better midfield in Inter's and we should be able to do the same tomorrow.


Thoughts and Predictions

We have traditionally struggled against Bologna at home so if you're expecting something like the Inter game,it's not going to be that easy against Bologna. What I fear is if we don't start clicking right away in that first 20 minutes of the game, we may relapse into the Enrique tactics and become susceptible to devastating counters from the Felsinei attackers. We have to keep the ball moving forward and our play positive.

I also will be keeping a keen eye on how a De Rossi and Bradley-less midfield will perform. All 3 midfielders have shown penchants for scoring goals, but do they have the grit to keep Bologna from opening up our defense at will? That remains to be seen.

And finally, I fully expect Destro to take advantage of the opportunity he has here. It's the first of many he's likely to have and he's going to need to make an impact. Bologna are certainly not Malta, but this kid has scored some sumptuous goals against all kinds of sides so while I'm not much of a betting man, he's odds on to open his Serie A account tomorrow.

Prediction - 2:1 Roma

Looking forward to see what Destro can offer us at CF tomorrow.He looked completely lost and out of place against Inter on the wing 2 weeks ago.

Totti has a decent goal scoring record against Bologna so fingers crossed he gets on the scoresheet,it's been a while since he last scored

It is important we don't underestimate Bologna,they've caused us plenty of problems in the past at the Olimpico.


I'd like to see this lineup.


.................................Stekelenburg..........................
Piris..............Castan..................Burdisso...........Taddei
...................................Tachtsidis...................................
...................Florenzi....................Marquinho...................
.......Lopez..................Destro..................Totti..................

DAJE ROMA

Going with Lopez over Lamela I see there, Dave.....that's something else we need to look out for. Lamela hasn't set it alight yet and while it's still early in the campaign, Nico Lopez has already made the impact that Lamela hasn't been able to make in a far shorter time on the pitch. If he can do that regularly ,Zeman won't be able to overlook that for long.

Lamela has the pace and the talent. He wont improve if not played. Biggest talent in Roma i belive (if we dont count DDR and Totti)

Hope this is a trashing. Need to get that confidence high if this is going to be a title-challenging season

I would like to stab Gilardino. Thats all.

Yikes. Was a great game to watch, but we had no business in this game in the second half.

Bologna's side was organized, and our defence couldn't contain Diamanti/Gilardino.

Pioli knows how to motivate a team, esp against "big" sides, and I wasn't in the least surprised when they drew level and went ahead.

I'm not sure I was a huge fan of substituting Lamela, who was arguably our best player in the first half.

The first 15 mins was electrifying, as we seemingly picked up where we left off against inter.

Fatigue seemed to be a factor in the end seemingly.

Totti should have scored two headers.. bad finishing..
Diamanti? Useless pensioner, who for some reason is in Italy squad.. just a cock with ears.

flameas wrote:Totti should have scored two headers.. bad finishing..
Diamanti? Useless pensioner, who for some reason is in Italy squad.. just a cock with ears.

Oh comon now. You know the man is mint. He had a masterclass of a game today.

What did he do? just cocked around with his stupid haircut.. get a life

and what fatigue? we cant play a 90 min game after every TWO weeks? wtf man

When we play 2 halves of good football like we did against Inter, wins like that are going to happen.

We played 1 half of good football and this is what's going to happen.

I'm not surprised we shipped some easy goals today, but I'm quite disappointed that we lost. That said, the loss is fair being that we didn't come out correctly in the 2nd half. We expended all of our energy in that first 30 minutes of the match and had we scored 4 goals or more, we'd be fine for the rest of the game, but 2 is nowhere near enough.

This is clearly the downside to Zemanlandia....it's reckless attack. The goals are great, but the defending? We saw a bit of everything today. Only 1 of Bologna's goals couldn't be stopped, the other 2 were the fault of our defense and our goalkeeper.

As I said in the preview, we have never had an easy ride against Bologna. We were never going to just smash them like we did Inter either. We're not going to do that with any of these provincial sides. These are exactly the sides we failed to beat last season and the season before that. If you thought that would change with Zeman, you're mistaken. We'll score more goals, but we're gonna concede a whole lot more as well.

That said, if we can play like that first 30 minutes for the other 2/3s of the game, then we'll have something to cheer about. We'll do it in fits and starts, but I don't count on any type of consistency. It's not a feature Roma has ever had.

Lamela class finish, es un crack.

Ughhh, same old story. As soon as Bologna pulled one back, I knew we weren't going to get those 3 points.

Good first half display, with Totti and Tachtsidis being two of the best players on the pitch. Totti with his cuts onto his right foot, asking all sorts of questions of Agliardi and Tachtsidis with a number of good passes forward, generally dictating play well.

Credit to Bologna for picking up the pieces in the second half and coming out with real hunger. Pioli made excellent adjustments, managed to expose us by stretching out our midfield and back line. What's most unfortunate though is that all of Bologna's goal came through our individual errors rather than any tactical misinterpretations. Piris had no business being beaten to the ball on the first goal, Gilardino should have never been able to pull off that header. The second goal came off an awkward bounce, but once again Piris was slow to react. As for the third goal, we sent 9 men forward in disorganized fashion, desperate to grab a winner. We were left backtracking and Burdisso, scrambling back, was unlucky to collide with Stekelenburg.

We didn't have that continuity in our play like we did against Inter. That's something that has to improve. If we're going to play this caution to the wind style, we need to be alert for 90 minutes, no matter what the scoreline is. If not, we'll pay like we did today.

When can we expect DDR back??

sukrut23 wrote:When can we expect DDR back??

Against Juventus fore sure