Saturday, Oct 5th.

Inter: Handanovic; Campagnaro, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus; Jonathan, Taider, Cambiasso, Guarin, Nagatomo; Palacio, Alvarez


I'm thinking we'll take a similar approach to the Fiorentina game. Taider will get to start ahead of Kovacic unless Mazzari drops Guarin (i dont see it happening just yet)

I haven't gotten to watch Roma yet this season, but my understanding is that they are playing a 433?

Tactically our system does not match up well against such a formation, it will be interesting to see how Mazzarri will adapt to this challenge

In my opinion the play of Cambiasso will have a massive impact impact on the outcome of the matchup. Barring adjustments by Roma, Cambiasso should theoretically be the free player on the pitch, and he will be under intense pressure

He must both advance the play forward and begin attacking movements when we have possession of the ball, and also maintain strict defensive positioning to prevent a 1v1 situation between Campagnaro and Roma's striker

I believe if properly instructed that Cambiasso is capable of performing the defensive duty, but I am nervous about his ability to start attacking moves.

However the alternative is Kovacic, and the concerns with starting him are exactly the opposite

i think kovacic will start ahead of guarin, it is an important game and guarin has got many chances and never proved his worth

with their midfield it's no question that Roma will dominate possession and their wings are extremely good at cutting inside. We're most likely to implement reactive tactics with 5 3 1 1 with Alvarez tracking back for a 5 4 1 when we lose possession. However it will be interesting to see how we manage the counter attacking game. So far we have counted on wingers for counter attacks, but since we cant afford to leave gaps this time the midfielders will need to stay back and defend. I'm not sure cambiasso will be able to do that on his own so Taider will have to start. This leaves Kovacic and Guarin for the "advanced" midfielder role and we'll have to choose between a guy who can play the long pass but offers nothing near the box, or a guy who will disrupt the attacking moves with his passing but is a real threat near the goal.

zizzle wrote:with their midfield it's no question that Roma will dominate possession and their wings are extremely good at cutting inside. We're most likely to implement reactive tactics with 5 3 1 1 with Alvarez tracking back for a 5 4 1 when we lose possession. However it will be interesting to see how we manage the counter attacking game. So far we have counted on wingers for counter attacks, but since we cant afford to leave gaps this time the midfielders will need to stay back and defend. I'm not sure cambiasso will be able to do that on his own so Taider will have to start. This leaves Kovacic and Guarin for the "advanced" midfielder role and we'll have to choose between a guy who can play the long pass but offers nothing near the box, or a guy who will disrupt the attacking moves with his passing but is a real threat near the goal.

Theoretically speaking, I think we should be the ones to dominate possession, but that depends on Alvarez

If he is willing to drop a little deeper than we have 4v3 in the middle, and Roma has an awkward situation in terms of who defends our wing-backs

If Roma has its wingers defend the wingbacks, we will have 2 CB's who will be unmarked, and as I said we should have a 4v3 advantage in the middle, so the CBs should be able to start attacking moves by playing the ball into the available midfielder

If Roma has its fullbacks defend, they have to come high up the pitch to meet our wingbacks, which makes Roma's defensive shape more fragile and opens the possibility of our wingbacks getting in behind (and jonathan has been very good at that already this season)

The other option is that when out of possession, Roma could drop their ST onto our deepest midfielder, stopping our numerical advantage and leaving us with 3 unmarked CBs who do not have many options to play the ball into midfield. However this would likely hinder the effectiveness of Roma's attack


Offensively I believe the matchup of formations favor us, but I am worried that defensive difficulties will overcome this advantage.

For example, how do we defend Roma's 3 attackers? Do we have our 3 CB's match up with them? If so we lose our man-advantage at the back and place our centerbacks under extreme pressure against an attack that has been prolific so far this season..

Or, do we involve our wingbacks in defending Roma's front 3? If we do that we will have too many people at the back, which makes it easier for Roma to dominate us in the midfield, and invites their fullbacks to come onto us


In my opinion the best solution is to have Cambiasso involved in the defense of Roma's CF. To maintain our 2v1 at the back through Campagnaro and Cambiasso. If we do this, we remain 3v3 in center mid while preventing the Roma fullbacks from charging forward without leaving space that our wingbacks can exploit in behind...However, this plan relies on Alvarez tracking back, at the very least he needs to get ball-side of Roma's deepest midfielder

This is one of these games that will be won by the coach not the players. cant wait !

jonathan and Campagnaro out injured

Some interesting points from the prematch conference courtesy of google translate

You have doubts in midfield?
"If you were inside the locker room, the boys know what to do. Everyone knows their phases of the game, then of course it depends on player to player. It does not change the midfield but because we're missing Campagnaro, I make choices based on what I see. "


Guarin said he was not satisfied with its performance. How long until we see the real Guarin?
"It 's important to do self-criticism, I'm happy. He only needs to have continuity, it must hold the plug attached in both phases.'s working on this in training, should not pull the plug. If a mistake must dispose of it immediately, because his skills are important and must be important to the team.

You lose balance with a striker more?
"Between the first and the second time with Juventus and we corrected the things we played better, and it was there that I entered the second attacker. I saw that the players did certain things so high I entered Icard. Tomorrow comes Roma, who won 6 games they have the best attack.


Are Rolando Pereira will be the natural substitutes of Jonathan and Campagnaro?
"may be, in Cagliari have done well. Tomorrow can play, I also look at the contrasts. could also consider another situation


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Based on that i assume we'll field the following team

Handanovic; Rolando, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus; Pereira, Taider, Cambiasso, Guarin, Nagatomo; Palacio, Alvarez

i'm looking forward to this game guys. we don't have a 1st team out but mazarri's selection was logical so it will be good test to see what our team can do, and not just 1st 11!

im very concerned by campagnaro and jonathan absence  
i hope we get the 3 points, no matter how

we got raped.

Zizzle that last post killed me man.

this team has brought me more pain than gain. and every thing gets worse season after season just like the rest of italy.
we need mou back.

moutinho98 wrote:this team has brought me more pain than gain. and every thing gets worse season after season just like the rest of italy.
we need mou back.

It's our first loss of the season and we're still 4th place. Bit of an overreaction.