Re: The Official Roma Thread

[Arquitecto]

And can someone tell any Roma or Azzurri coach who is on board to STOP playing Florenzi as RB

It began as a crisis make-shift idea and now he is a starter RB.

He is wonderful in attack and zips past the line efficiently but he is NOT a defender by nature especially in wide areas and simply does not cut it 1-on-1.

Waste of a genuinely good midfield box-to-box talent who has his own brand of command there and one that is especially needed in the departure of the Lion De Rossi.

And season begins instead he is playing box-to-box RB smh

[McLewis]

I was defending Florenzi on the Roma subreddit for the majority of the morning because people were blaming him for one of the goals (it was Mancini who lost his man actually). The permanent shift to RB is one of the most unforgivable decisions I've seen foisted upon a Roma player. It has stunted his development, especially as an attacking player. He was a crown jewel of a midfielder before this and could've played in a pivot like Pellegrini does now. He's got the passing range and engine to do it. It's unbelievable how people have turned on him. He didn't have to take up the RB position, he could've told every coach who wanted him to play there "no", but he did it because he's a team player and he'll do anything for this club. And all he's gotten in return is scorn. It's disgusting.

Zappacosta looked good in his 15 minute cameo. He's no better at RB than Florenzi was, but at least he's been a defender his entire career (I think that probably makes him worse than Florenzi actually). If he's good enough for to not leak goals down that side this season, we need to make this transfer permanent next summer.

[Vibe]

[McLewis]

Yeah pretty much lmao.

[Kick]

[Arquitecto]

OMG my rectus abdominis



And I wholly agree with you McLewis it is frustrating to see a club I like, have so many fans as Roma can who are often blinded by their emotion in making such judgements and often pointing fingers simply at the wrong suspects.

Florenzi's sacrifice whilst utterly noble on any human level and an indication of his character, only near the twilight of his career will be highlighted as what he could have been if not forced into this ridiculous role.

Travesty by now all the seasons he has remained in it.

[iftikhar]

Brutal

[McLewis]

Whoever put a bet on Chris Smalling being the CB we end up signing before the end of the window is set for life, I imagine.

Talk about out of left field.

[McLewis]

So the Smalling transfer is , predictably, controversial among Romanisti.

I'm perusing the comment sections of Chiesa di Totti and pretty much there are 2 camps:

Camp A: "This is a shit transfer! WTF are you doing, Petrachi?!"

Camp B: "This is the perfect transfer for our situation. Well done, Petrachi.".

Personally, I'm in Camp B. I don't understand why those in Camp A thought paying Juve 30m plus our best youth players for their 5th choice CB or shelling out 25m for an injury-prone player like Lovren were better deals than paying 3m and 80k/week in wages for a fitter defender on a dry loan. Consider how close we are to the end of the window, this is good business Petrachi, even if Smalling doesn't work out. It's low cost and low risk. It's what I expect given our current situation.

[Firenze]

You get a pretty good defender (on his day, one of the best in the PL as a pure defender, but IMO he's given to lapses of concentration often and shit at every other aspect of the game) on loan for a season, he's instantly your best CB with all the other tripe you have. If he doesn't work out, you don't have to buy him. I don't think you would find another CB on his level for under 30-35M tbh. If he's good for you I'm sure we'll let him go for like 25M next summer.

It's good business from you. I would have much preferred to keep him because IMO he's not far off Lindelof's level and better than our other CB's by far (not counting Maguire)

[Arquitecto]

Chiesa di Totti has to take the award for the most emotionally rancorous club forum on the internet.

Well above the likes of RedCafe & Red & White Kop.

It is basically a cyberspace punching bag for the most fervent of Romanisti. OF COURSE they will oppose to what is the best CB they got above all options; more closely Lovren and Rugani, the former who is just a bad defender.

Smalling if he fails will not cost Roma much and United are rather generous to afford Roma a chance given their options for CBs.

Firenze has it correct, when he does concentrate and does not have his brain fog he is quite the impenetrable CB. I still won't forget his two very good seasons. If he can replicate that again in a new and refreshed environment (and country) then Roma should buy him outright. The talent has always been there and no one knows how he just dropped off the way he did, whilst his counterpart Jones was always incredibly overrated from the beginning.

I'd say he is better than Lindelof but definitely not Maguire he is underrated in my opinion and will come out to be a success in United, on that note.

[McLewis]

So, as always seems to be the case with Roma, we're on the cusp of an injury crisis. This time it's the wing. Both Spinazzola and Zappacosta are out for our next match against Sassuolo along with Perotti and Under. This forces Florenzi into the RB spot while Kolarov would've probably kept the LB spot anyway as he's been in good form. Beyond them, we have only Santon, who is serviceable on either flank, but not one we'd want to rely on in a pinch.

Further up, the situation is a bit more dire. Under was in reasonably good form so his injury and 5-week layoff is particularly brutal given the timing. Perotti has always had injury issues, but is such a creative influence from that left side that he's a miss as well. This leave only 1 natural winger left in the squad who is fit and has fair amount of first team experience: Justin Kluivert.

He has not been convincing in his first 2 outings, but if he can make smarter decisions in possession, he's the answer on the left. RW is far trickier as this was a tough position for Petrachi to reinforce. Mkhi has to be in the conversation for a starting spot given his form with Armenia. He seems to have 0 problems playing for his country though. It's his club form that has not been great so there's still question marks over whether he can bring that form to Serie A. He can play anywhere behind Dzeko and has more experience in general than both Kluivert and Mirko Antonucci (our only other natural winger, though he lacks Serie A experience) so he should be starting on the right.

The last option is Zaniolo, but I just don't like him as wide player. I really really hope Fonseca doesn't go there, but if he does, the balance of that is that we see Pellegrini play in the 10 role instead as a pivot, where he's less effective. This also frees up one or both of Veretout or Diawara to play in front of the defense, giving us a bite to our midfield that has been missing.

So we're on the cusp of an injury crisis, but I don't think we're there yet. Fonseca just needs to get a bit creative with how he fields the squad.

Sassuolo have a nasty habit of nicking points off us at home and De Zerbi has them in pretty good form, so this will be an excellent test of our depth and Fonseca's ability to improvise.

I think Fonseca will roll out this lineup:

[McLewis]

And down goes Smalling.....tweaked a muscle in training

[McLewis]

Official 3rd Kit:















God-tier kit tbh. I actually like the women's version better, but even with the sponsor logo it's an instant classic. My monthly budget about to get blown wide open.

[Arquitecto]

Unreal how Roma (& Fiorentina more so arguably) churn out such aesthetic kits year after year. The 2015-17 kit series its peak for the club.

And better yet having worn them the quality is better than it even looks as is the case with most Italian jerseys.

Melts onto you like butter.

[McLewis]

I mean it's like we're perfectly compensating for the lack of winning in football by winning everywhere else

[adun101]

Eh, I still prefer the first kit. And this one still has that shitty font.

Thank god that Fiorentina ditched the stupid black shorts, they were messing the whole look

[McLewis]

It's available to buy today. Literally bought a Diawara one as soon as I got up this morning.

[McLewis]

Easy win against a very poor Basaksehir side. I feel like Roma twitter are growing big heads because we stuffed 2 sides at home who were pretty poor. I can't really take any result seriously when we keep a clean sheet with Jesus-Fazio as our CB pairing.

Fonseca football looks good, but I'm not entirely convinced yet. We have much tougher tests coming up as this is the 2nd of 7 games in a 3 week stretch. That's going to really put not only Fonseca's management ability to the test, but his tactical flexibility and our squad depth as well.

Bologna away will be a good test against a team that defends deep and isn't afraid to counterattack. If we can beat teams like this with Fonseca ball, I think I'll warm a bit more to it.

Right now, it reminds me of Zeman's style, but with more control. Still not enough emphasis on defending for me.

[McLewis]

Missed the Bologna game over the weekend, but a good win from what I've seen and heard.

I'm still not entirely convinced of Fonseca's style and probably will remain skeptical until we claim the scalp of larger, more talented clubs than the ones we've beaten so far, but the most important thing is that the players appear to be buying into it. That's a lot more important than my skepticism.

Tactically, I believe Jordan Veretout is as important to how this team functions as Pellegrini, Kolarov, and Dzeko who are (rightfully so) getting a lot of praise. I've always had a soft spot for defensive-minded players so I'll always make sure those players never get forgotten in our success or failure. Watching Veretout in this squad should remind folks of what Strootman looked like in Rudi Garcia's first season. He's a washing-machine (Garcia nicknamed Stroots this during that season) of a midfielder, rinsing the ball deep and sending it forward either through dribbles or good passing. An injury or dip in form to him will definitely impact this squad.

I just worry his success combined with forming a stable partnership with Cristante will mean a stunting of development for Diawara, who is also very talented (I expect to see him get a lot of Europa league minutes).

This is was a gritty performance though. Atalanta at home will be a good one.

[iftikhar]

Just stunning. I mean those kits . That midnight blue is simply mystic yet aesthetic and goes so well with the yellow/gold.

[McLewis]

1 loss against a very good side and our fickle fan base go to pieces

One look at Roma twitter and you'd think the sky was falling.

Wasn't a good performance, but Atalanta are also a damn good team and have one of the best attacking trios in the league against a defense that still doesn't have its starters nailed down. I'm not sure what we thought was going to happen here, but a loss is not at all a surprise.

We're in the middle of a 7 game stretch in the space of just a few weeks so it was always going to be tough to win them all.

What matters is how we respond to this and we have a good opportunity against Lecce this weekend.

[iftikhar]

My dear friend, I understand that Atalanta isn't no pushovers; but we have to win these games if we are to maintain our stature. But most importantly it's that second goal that punched the air out of my lungs. It underlines the evil that lives among us. The disorganization bordering to apathy was unbearable.

[McLewis]

It's just not realistic to expect us to stat pad against an Atalanta side that hasn't changed much over the last few season when we've literally signed 20 players in that same span of time. We're still (re)building our chemistry whereas Gasperini's core players (Papu, Duvan, Ilicic, De Roon, etc) have played over 100 matches together.

We have to stay realistic with results like this. This is a core problem for Roma and its fans. This squad gets blown up every summer and yet fans seem so surprised and outrage when that newly (re)built team struggles against very talented opposition that have been playing together for years.

This is what happens when we do not maintain continuity and consistent chemistry within the overall squad.

[iftikhar]

It's not the result that bothers me, it's the performance. Don't you feel the team (as a whole) lacks determination, hunger?

[McLewis]

I don't think either of those factors matter when there's little to no chemistry. I mean how many players have come in over the last 2-3 season who have said these words - "I came to Roma to win trophies". Yet no trophies. I don't think it's from a lack of effort, determination or hunger. I'm sure these players want to give their all, but every season the ones who stay are at an disadvantage because they see players they've built a rapport getting sold and having to start over with their replacement.

I really don't understand how anyone can expect glittering champagne football under such conditions. I truly can't think of a team anywhere in Europe's Top 5 leagues that chops and changes so many players every single summer. I think we're the only club that makes such wholesales changes with that type of frequency.

It's like building a car 50%, getting mad that it won't drive like a Ferrari, scrapping it, and then starting over again...and again...and again...and again...it's maddening.

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