Roma v Siena: Post-match discussion

So we've managed to elude another victory today, boys.

First off, full credit to Siena. As Mike said in the buildup to this game, Sannino has these guys playing very organized football. They looked genuinely dangerous tonight, especially in the second half where they had several opportunities and if not for Kjaer, would be going back to Tuscany with 3 points. They were tough at home against Juventus and they were tough tonight in Rome. This is a good point for them.

For us however, this was 2 points dropped simply put. We're still very much a work in progress, as we'll be for the better part of this season, but now I think it's more a matter of mental progression. And that's what worries me about the game today. We played very good football in the first half. The passing game was tight, the runs were crisp and we even got a goal out of it. Still one problem though: Very little meaningful chances were created.

This problem carried on into the second half, but two even bigger problems surfaced: We began to tire and Siena came out looking stronger and hungrier.

The high-line that LE plays us in at the back fared fine generally in the first half, but in the second, with Siena's renewed energy, it became increasingly more and more exposed. De Rossi, playing as the auxiliary 3rd defender did his part well and admirably, breaking up plays at the base of midfield and carrying the ball forward, but Burdisso and Kjaer still saw a lot of the ball and while Kjaer generally played the ball out of the back well enough, I had my heart in my throat once again when Burdisso had the ball at his feet and that proved justified as he gave away possession cheaply more than once, with Siena almost benefitting on one instance. Jose Angel is a contender for MOTM along with DDR today. Very solid on the left, and drove us forward at times with great runs and has shown that he's not at all afraid to have a shot from distance when the opportunity presents itself. Quickly becoming our best piece of business thus far. Perrotta looked good on the right as well, expending a lot of energy in the first half, but picked up a knock in the middle of the 2nd half and was replaced by Cicinho, who also looked pretty good as well in the time he had.

As for midfield, I was disappointed to see Pizarro come off with a knock as he'd looked very good in the first half, doing what he does best, but I think the difference this year is now we have a capable guy off the bench in Gago, who can come into the game and pick up right where Pek left off and that's exactly what he did today. I was highly impressed with his movement, his passing game and his willingness to win back possession quickly. De Rossi shared that last trait with Gago, but Pjanic did not. It was a rather average night for the Bosnian IMO. He looked good in flashes. He needs to be bursting into the final third with regularity and I didn't see enough of that. Defensively, he was ok, but didn't show the same willingness to press the opposition that DDR and Gago showed.

Up front, Totti-Osvaldo-Boriello had a fairly decent first half. The 3 linked up reasonably well, with Boriello proving the assist for Osvaldo's first goal for us. Totti was his usually self today, dropping deep for the ball and playing it around to the full-backs expertly. He continued that in the second half, creating some very promising attacks for us in the process. With Boriello tiring, Borini was introduced to add pace and guile to our attacking game he did just that after taking a few mintues to get into the game. He provided a lot of cut and thrust on our right flank and regularly gave Siena problems with his movement on and off the ball, providing very telling crosses near the end of the match that the other players should've been keen to get on the end of. It's really 50/50 if he'll start at the weekend, but I really hope he does. The buzz around this guy has been great and with a goal due for him soon, it's going to be quite justified.

Sorry for the long read, boys. Game gave me a lot of food for thought.

What are yours?

Excuse me for not posting here, as I have been lurking in this section for quite a while, I registered on this forum a while back, but after reading this piece, I just had the motivation to post here.

To start up, great piece of works Mclewis, great points and thanks for this review on the game.

We must respect all our oppositions, even the low class squads. Watching Novara shows how developments in Serie A swift through when they defeated Inter, seeing Siena today and against Juventus putting out great struggles for both squads, Atalanta who is one point away from being in the positive numerals in only 3 weeks of playing and sides like Bologna and Chievo who tied with Juventus and defeated Napoli. Serie A is very competitive, and so these results are very familar up to this date for us fans. Concluding this, Siena is a side I have great respect for, as we send many of our players there for developement. A team well respected.

Today's game, both squads played great football from their perspectives, both tactically and status. Siena played some great football as they managed to play an organized 4-2-4 and only conceded one goal, and scored a late one in. As for Roma, we dominated in possesion, but failed to finish our productions. Disapointing, but the result is a fair one for both sides. Not totally impressed with our current results, three games without a win, but we are a new squad and we need to grow as a unit. I really hope the tactics will work out soon, because even as the society is being behind Enrique, we can't go on without winning any games. I think we will soon as recently in the past, we've struggled in the beginning.

I'm glad to see Borini like this, he has impressed me a lot, proved Ranocchia how much potential the prospect has and now once again today, gave problems to Siena when he got to the pitch. I hope Bojan does grow and get use too our style of play. Surprising, but finally Osvaldo scores a goal. Let's hope we win the next game!

Forza Roma!

Thanks and welcome, Romanista99.

I agree with your points as well.

Thank you for the welcome

Meeh, its always the same story with us, aint it?

We had a good game, created couple of chances, but not enough because Siena isnt that good oponent, but they were very motivated.

Firstly I think that Lobont could have done better when Siena scored that lucky goal.

In the defence, Burdisso was good, not excellent but solid.Kjaer a little shaky, he gotta get his confidence back.He saved a clear goal though, again.
Jose Angel, awesome player.Im in love with this guy, been our most highlighting player this season.Great work, especially when attacking.
Perrota, mm dunno, not that attack minded, but solid job considering its not his natural position.

Pizarro, was very good, dunno why he got subbed off, De Rossi our best player this season (till now), very good in comanding, im very pleased by De Rossi.
Pjanic, meh not that comfortable as other 2 games, didnt provided much.
On Totti I dont want to comment (status LEGEND).
Boriello was good today, tried hard, a lot of effort and payed off with that assist.
Osvaldo was very good, a little bit selfish, but im sure Enrique willl sort this out.

Pathetic performance tbh yes we dominated the game but when couldn't even craft up any decent goal scoring chances against Siena at home (bar the goal) By right Siena should have scored at least 3 or 4 goals. to much passing back to the defence go forward ffs.Even in the 90 th minute when we needed a goal what do we do? pass it back to the CB's ..

The first half we did have a lot of the ball but their was no penetration and any time we lost the ball in Midfield or in forwards positions we were caught on counter by Siena this is mainly because we don't have the players to play this possession football..to sloppy..

One thing i noticed about the 2nd half was Siena put a man marking ddr so he couldn't get things flowing for us and with defenders who can't pass the ball out of the back we started making to many miss placed passes...what a waste of such a talented mid playing so deep..

Now this was Siena at home in the Olimpico imagine what the better sides in Serie a will do to us..They'll *bleep* kill us...

And what's with LE hardon on for Perrotta at rb,he offers us nothing going forward ffs....

You have 3 decent rb's on the bench ffs..

The usual scenario which hasn't changed since the days of Spalletti; complete control and domination, followed by a late equalizer and whistles.

Anyways, nice post Mclewis. As usual I very much agree with you.

Just a couple of points I wanted to add. First issue, Perrotta. I finally understand (or I think I do) why Luis Enrique has been starting him as a right back. Aside from the fact that Enrique thinks having a midfielder in our backline would help us keep possession (not really a great reason because Rosi, Cassetti or Cicinho could do it just as well), it's simply in Enrique's philosophy to use his players in many different positions. I was listening to Alessandro Costacurta before the match who said he played Enrique three times in his career. In all those three matches, Enrique, who was usually an attacking midfielder with a great sense of positioning, was playing a different position and once, as a fullback. They were talking about Enrique as a player, and in my head I kept comparing him to Perrotta, as they both had, as mentioned, a great sense of positioning and were both deadly when making those late runs to goal. I think Enrique in a way sees Perrotta as a player very similar to himself, who could therefore adapt to any position on the field. Still a strange decision to deploy him as a fullback, but I could see LE's reasoning. And in the end, we can't really say that Perrotta was at fault for anything tonight.

Kjaer: mixed review for him tonight. A few too many mistakes, but put in a number of excellent tackles and a fantastic block on the goal line (second game in a row). The Kjaer-Burdisso partnership is going well so far though, especially considering that they've barely played together.

De Rossi, a lot of people say he's being wasted. But really, he's playing in the position that he prefers. He's a certainty guarding the defense, so we can't really abuse that point too much.

Totti played a great game. I can't recall him ever defending so much. He chased players until our own box and his tackling was even pretty good. Unfortunately, he's only shooting on free kicks, we have to create more space for him as well which I think will only happen once someone like Lamela is integrated into our front line.

And finally, I had mentioned Pjanic before the match. He didn't have the effect I hoped for. His movement off the ball has to improve. On the ball, his skill is undeniable; he's always calm and puts in good touches. But, either he's not being used to his potential and/or he still has to adapt to this team. Imo he's being played a little too far back for his liking, kind of like Sneijder at Inter until Tuesday.

I was kind of hoping that Enrique would take off one between Borriello and Osvaldo to put on Gago, and then move up Pjanic (or to put Cicinho on, put Perrotta in midfield and then put Pjanic up front), but Pizarro and Perrotta picking up knocks and tiring complicated things a little. We therefore left a gaping hole between our backline and our strikers which Siena took advantage of.

If you guys managed to catch a hot girl in the crowd you might've seen my girlfriend

BarrileteCosmico wrote:If you guys managed to catch a hot girl in the crowd you might've seen my girlfriend

Umm... Maria Sensi??

My predictions were right on the money for this game an unlucky 1-1 draw.

On to the game now..
Burdisso needs some serious help on his passing, he was a disgrace at times and its not just this week its been happening during all the games he has played in this season.

Jose angle was a real bargain buy and is a gem of a player when he has the ball in his feet, he's also in my fantasy team.

Why Lobont why not curci, i think lobont should have done better and probably saved the siena goal. Never liked lobont nor do i like him now.

Perrotta at right back when players like rosi,cassetti are available (cicinho is shit who he brought on) made no sense, utterly rubbish.

p.s.--Ship the guy back to spain he is a disgrace,if the europa matches werent a warning for the roma board may be the siena game can get them to think faster.

sukrut23 wrote:My predictions were right on the money for this game an unlucky 1-1 draw.

On to the game now..
Burdisso needs some serious help on his passing, he was a disgrace at times and its not just this week its been happening during all the games he has played in this season.

Jose angle was a real bargain buy and is a gem of a player when he has the ball in his feet, he's also in my fantasy team.

Why Lobont why not curci, i think lobont should have done better and probably saved the siena goal. Never liked lobont nor do i like him now.

Perrotta at right back when players like rosi,cassetti are available (cicinho is shit who he brought on) made no sense, utterly rubbish.

p.s.--Ship the guy back to spain he is a disgrace,if the europa matches werent a warning for the roma board may be the siena game can get them to think faster.

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that you either watched one half or no halves of this match. None of your points make any sense apart from Jose Angel, but that one's redundant.

I've had to hide from this board for a few says until I could catch up and watch our midweek clash.

We weren't crisp enough and fast or compact enough against Siena. There was two much space on the pitch. Watching burdisso try to start the play to derossi in the second half was frustrating as neither of our central defenders are that great with the ball. I also noticed more and more long balls as the game wore on. Enrique frowns on this. We seemed lethargic and tired and times. Osvaldo and and Borriello barely ran at the defenders. There was not much movement towards goal when angel was able to use his pace down the left.

I specifically watched Pjanic this game and it seems like he isn't being utilized by his teammates. He was open alot and we always seemed to pass back our defense.

It was definitely frustrating to watch to say the least. I'm not a fan of subbing off FB's or CB's unless absolutely necessary. When Cicinho came on he provided nothing and got beat down his side.

Enrique needs to play Rosi at right back. Cicinho is not starting quality.

To me this game was a bit of a step back from the inter game. I'm optimistic for Parma though.

McLewis wrote:

sukrut23 wrote:My predictions were right on the money for this game an unlucky 1-1 draw.

On to the game now..
Burdisso needs some serious help on his passing, he was a disgrace at times and its not just this week its been happening during all the games he has played in this season.

Jose angle was a real bargain buy and is a gem of a player when he has the ball in his feet, he's also in my fantasy team.

Why Lobont why not curci, i think lobont should have done better and probably saved the siena goal. Never liked lobont nor do i like him now.

Perrotta at right back when players like rosi,cassetti are available (cicinho is shit who he brought on) made no sense, utterly rubbish.

p.s.--Ship the guy back to spain he is a disgrace,if the europa matches werent a warning for the roma board may be the siena game can get them to think faster.

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that you either watched one half or no halves of this match. None of your points make any sense apart from Jose Angel, but that one's redundant.

lol... tell me how lobont is better than curci? also tell me the reason behing selecting a keeper who is on the bench most times rather than curci who played almost all matches at sampdoria and siena..

damn! guys why dont you understand that at roma the minimum expectation is to finish 3 or atleat 5 and not 15th fr cryin' out loud, especially when 60 odd m is pumped into the squad

see ya when i 'WATCH' the parma game or after it...

p.s.-- 2 more games and le gonna work at mcdonalds..

sukrut23 wrote:

McLewis wrote:

sukrut23 wrote:My predictions were right on the money for this game an unlucky 1-1 draw.

On to the game now..
Burdisso needs some serious help on his passing, he was a disgrace at times and its not just this week its been happening during all the games he has played in this season.

Jose angle was a real bargain buy and is a gem of a player when he has the ball in his feet, he's also in my fantasy team.

Why Lobont why not curci, i think lobont should have done better and probably saved the siena goal. Never liked lobont nor do i like him now.

Perrotta at right back when players like rosi,cassetti are available (cicinho is shit who he brought on) made no sense, utterly rubbish.

p.s.--Ship the guy back to spain he is a disgrace,if the europa matches werent a warning for the roma board may be the siena game can get them to think faster.

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that you either watched one half or no halves of this match. None of your points make any sense apart from Jose Angel, but that one's redundant.

lol... tell me how lobont is better than curci? also tell me the reason behing selecting a keeper who is on the bench most times rather than curci who played almost all matches at sampdoria and siena..

damn! guys why dont you understand that at roma the minimum expectation is to finish 3 or atleat 5 and not 15th fr cryin' out loud, especially when 60 odd m is pumped into the squad

see ya when i 'WATCH' the parma game or after it...

p.s.-- 2 more games and le gonna work at mcdonalds..

Hard to pick between Curci and Lobont. They both have their qualities and their shortcomings. And just because a keeper sat on the bench doesn't mean that he's worst than another who started. Julio Sergio was third in line for years and then made his case for saying he was one of the better keepers in the league.

And there's no minimum nor maximum expectation, we've repeated that all summer. The goal is to get the team settled first and then to challenge for as high as possible. That could mean anything really. Look at the players we bought, all very young. We're trying to build a squad for the future, this season is just a stepping stone.

And ps- Mcdonalds is actually a very stressfull job...

ohh well if you think there are no minimum expectations so be it.. but do u expect to ddr would to stay if we finished 10th or even worse or could we attract still a certain quality of players finishing that bad..

p.s.-- S.O.S. CARLO

sukrut23 wrote:ohh well if you think there are no minimum expectations so be it.. but do u expect to ddr would to stay if we finished 10th or even worse or could we attract still a certain quality of players finishing that bad..

p.s.-- S.O.S. CARLO

Then find me a quote of someone saying what the expectations are...

Everyone repeated that patience was necessary, president and sporting director especially. Their expectations are to get the team playing well, to keep everyone on the same page and to build a squad for the future. Even Enrique said that we will stumble, but that the important thing is to pick ourselves up when we do go down. You're once again exaggerating over some sort of problem that doesn't exist. We started slowly, yes, but it's going to take time to build a strong team and absolutely everyone at Trigoria knows that.