Can Roma end Juve's dominance next season?

No offense to the Juve fans on here but I'd love to see Totti end his career with a 2nd Scudetto. I mean he's been runner up 7 *bleep* times since the last one. Enough is enough.

So is Roma's squad sufficient enough to overcome a 17 point lead? If not, what areas do they need improvement in?

I really like Roma's purchases.

They aren't your "Marquee" type of signings Chelsea/Man U seem obsessed with ,but they are doing their thing quietly.

Their team was quiet young, so they've added so much needed winning mentality experience this summer in likes of Keita, Cole, etc...while appearing to be keeping all their team from last year.
I think they are a ruthless striker away from being able to compete on all fronts.

Why a 17 point lead? Every season each club starts with 0 points.

Very unlikely, their best bet is that our alleged new change in formations sets us back a bit but even then I find it incredibly unlikely that Roma can get a similar point tally to the one they got last season, with European football now in the mix.

It's funny that before last season, no one ever on GL or anywhere else talked about teams with no europe having advantage in a title race, but since Roma/Liverpool last season, it's apparently the most important factor


I read a guy on RedCafe saying, Glad to be our of CL for a couple of years and Europe as a whole, to increase chance of winning the league. There is no point being in CL if we can't win it anyways...

Napoli will finish the league above Roma , you can sign it.

Lets wait and see how transfer market pans out.If Roma sell Benatia or Juve sell one of Vidal/Pogba ,that could be a huge blow for either team.

Juve are also aiming for young-ish signings and you can say we're in a bit of a transition period especially moving to a probable new formation and all like Tom says.

I expect the league to be more competitive next season for sure.I hope other teams strengthen well too cuz this league is losing interest quickly.

Natalie Portman wrote:It's funny that before last season, no one ever on GL or anywhere else talked about teams with no europe having advantage in a title race, but since Roma/Liverpool last season, it's apparently the most important factor


I read a guy on RedCafe saying, Glad to be our of CL for a couple of years and Europe as a whole, to increase chance of winning the league. There is no point being in CL if we can't win it anyways...

Plenty of people spoke about it in our first year with Conte.

The reason it's not always spoken about, is because it's pretty uncommon for a team with no European football to go from finishing outside of the top 6 or 7 to leaping into the title race within 1 season. So there's plenty of years where no team does that and it's not going to be discussed.

I think so, as long as they keep a hold of Benatia and all the other important players. And hopefully Strootman comes back at the level he was prior to the injury.

I should note there's a good chance we 'slip up' at the start of this season compared to the last few as Barzagli is out and Chiellini is suspended for 2 games so we'll have a makeshift back line, most likely including Evra too.

Licht - Bonucci - Ogbonna - Evra or something like that. By no means impenetrable against whoever we happen to be playing.

I live in hope

Really want a better title race. Napoli not selling anyone and doing more transfers. They will be even stronger.

Hopefully Roma keeps Benatia.

Also like Inter's transfers so far. Can be a 3 horse race(for a while anyways) with Inter dark horse for the 3rd spot.

InteRoma

pos

If Juve sold Vidal and played 4-3-3 all season it would be more interesting.

Milan will. I have faith in the Italian Simeone.

Milan will be looking to reinforce via free agents and lock down a top 9 position

Juve got 102 points last year, i'm sorry but if they repeat something similar no team stops them.

Have their signings really been that impressive? Most of them Paredes, Sanabria, that Turkish lad etc have been for the future aside from Ashley Cole or depth like Keita & Emmanuelson.

Like I said I could care less about their future plannings I'm mainly talking about next season. I want Totti to go out on a high.

Their midfield and defense is top class but is their attack really title winning quality? Erratic Gervinho & Ljajic, 37 year old Totti, Destro, Ljajic, *bleep* Borriello & a CM masquerading as a winger doesn't scream Scudetto quality to me.

Our aim is the do well in the CL this year and re-establish ourselves continentally. The scudetto is not the primary objective, just as it wasn't last season. The word for this season is going to be "balance". It'll be about trying to fight on 3 fronts and exceed as much as possible on them. It'll be about testing our depth and using the knowledge of proven winners like Cole and Keita to give us a better mental approach to crucial games where we simply didn't do enough last season. It'll be about learning from our mistakes last season and being more ruthless in matches we're expected to win. It'll be about furthering our progress towards becoming a self-reliant team that doesn't need Totti in order to win every game.

That said, last season was the best in club history. It'll be nigh on impossible to top that. The aim is to get to at least the Quarters of the CL, the final of the Coppa, and to stay in the CL places domestically. Anything better on any of those fronts is the icing on the top of the cake.

As for our players:

De Sanctis should continue to provide steady hands in goal for what will probably be his final year at Roma. Skorupski proved himself as well at the end of the season so he should be a reliable backup.

Defensively, I worry about keeping Benatia as his frustration with not leaving could have a negative impact on the chemistry within the squad. The team's togetherness was a huge reason why they did so well. We didn't have any Osvaldos in the locker room. Benatia could well become one and that's a problem for me. Beyond him, Leandro Castan will continue being our most reliable CB, Maicon returns from the WC possibly mentally affected, but hopefully not physically. Cole should slot in well on the left, but I'm not sure how he'll do tactically. Further back, Romagnoli will provide valuable cover at CB, Urby at LB, and Torosidis at RB so I like our options there. Really think we need at least another CB to really feel a bit more secure as Benatia is prone to injury. Wouldn't mind either of Marko Basa or Eder Balanta in that regard. Basa is probably the better option as he's a former Garcia-guy.

Midfield remains Roma's biggest strength as we've permanently signed Nainggolan and have a fit and rested Pjanic returning as well. DDR is the worry as he returned from the WC pretty banged up. His fitness and health is crucial to how the midfield works. Keita is going to probably play a big part here. He's not here to simply be a benchwarmer. Then there's Ale Florenzi. Didn't get a lot of time in midfield, but with at least 2 forwards expected to come in before the summer window closes, this is where he might likely get the most minutes. The problem here is that he's not solid defensively and that's why Garcia doesn't like him there. If he can improve this, then we have another good option to use there. If not, he's going to continue to not get much time up front and that's an issue as he's one of Italy's brightest young talents. Beyond him, Strootman is the last crucial missing piece. I think he'll return from his injury stronger than ever. His mentality is too indomitable for that not to happen. The worry is that he will not want to listen to his body, which may not be at the same level as his mind. He's going to have to pace himself and really listen to his body. Hopefully the physios and trainers work with him in that respect.

Up top, the arrival of Carrasco should give us an excellent additional wing option. I would prefer Adem Ljajic stay personally as I think he's shown enough to warrant further time. Gervinho will be Gervinho of course. He'll miss 492913 chances, but the worry here domestically is that opposing defenders will now know what to expect from him. He's predictable that way and that makes it easy for him to be snuffed out. He's no Robben in that they'll know what he's going to do, but can't stop him anyway. They definitely can and that's a concern for me. As for striker, we're pretty thin here. Totti and Destro are the only recognizable strikers we have. One is unfortunately in the twilight of his career and the other is still recovering from being out nearly a half of a season. That's problematic and we need to address that. As much as I don't like Eto'o attitude, he would be an excellent option to bring in as it's expected that Boriello will go to Genoa. Either way, I think we need to bring in someone up top that can give us options and depth as it's going to be a lot to ask from 2 strikers to play on 3 fronts.

So overall, we have a good squad with slight improvements everywhere. There are still gaps to fill, but the summer window is still pretty young and I have full faith in Sabatini to get us set up right to be competitive. That said, I still have my reservations about where we are as a squad, but we appear poised to do the biggest thing we can this summer, which is keep our star players. Will we be able to push Juve? Perhaps. Will we beat them? I really don't know.

I'll keep looking at this the same way I have for 3 seasons now. We're still a work in progress. Getting the CL was our objective last season. Now the objective is do well in the CL, make the money from it, and do well enough domestically in ensure that we stay in the CL when our new stadium is ready for use. Then and only then will we be able to truly challenge Juve and step up to their level. We're not there yet.

It's way too early to say what will happen. It it possible? Yes.

Juventus are at a crucial juncture. Their players are ageing and European success will be their no.1 priority next season. Conte will survive not winning Serie A, but another European failure will see him labelled as a domestic coach and prevent him from being considered as one of the world's best coaches until he does.

Roma are still on their way to building an elite team. They have the cornerstones of a great team in Strootman, Benatia, etc. In addition to adding players of high quality, Roma now has to compete in Europe, so increasing the depth of the squad is pivotal.

Most importantly, we are still yet to see the transfer market deals which will shape these 2013/14 teams into 2014/15 teams.

Noone of 2 will get same league ,Juve can't do again 102 points and Roma same thing. We have to consider also that Roma hadn't cups last year and this helped much.
They will play without Strootman at the beginning  of season too

and yes Gil you 've hit the center of matter , that attack is limited

I am most confident about Napoli to stop Juve's dominance, although I ' d like Roma to do it. So many 2nd places in these 10 years , they would deserve it

Why we talking about how good or bad Roma are lol? It's about the rest of the leagues inability to compete with Juve.

The rest is utterly irrelevant.

No one should forget Fiorentina, who managed 65 points, without Gomez & Rossi for a large chunk of the season. They could be very scary.

The army of Pippo shall rise and claim the calcio throne. Our left side with Kevin Constant aka "Constantine" aka "Freestyler" and the Pharao will cause demise all over Italy in 2014/15

You are not prepared...

Milan, like Juve pre-Conte are absolute scrubs who missed out on Europe all together

Milan, like Juve bring in a very well respected ex player with hardly any legit experience.

Milan, like Juve will go from nothing to league winners straight away. Forza Milano

When Juve face Milan in 2014/15,

Conte: "Milan are clear favourites for this game, as they dont have the CL group stages to worry about, but we will try to make our fans happy. I also brought my prettiest blond wig for Pippolino, I hope it is worthy of his presence."

Humble Conte