re: AS ROMA 2014-15 Season Thread

Ha! I hear ya.. My gf toured for twenty years and quit playing music 2 years ago.. We can talk ourselves out of going to see almost any show, for the silliest reasons.. both of us are now in our 40s, but we did marry up a killer record collection! It's kinda funny to see that when I was into midwestern garage rock from the 80s, she was listening to Swedish Glam from the 70s and so on...

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considering arsenal have 5 healthy defenders right now, i'm very bummed we failed to land Manolas.

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Manolas looks pretty good but has only played 1 1/2 matches so far. He's not quite top notch reading the game but he's the fastest CB I've ever seen at Roma and good on the ball.

Roma isn't quite in the injury position of Arsenal but Castan left Saturday's match with the same nagging hamstring injury so we have 3 CBs that are all new.

LB Balzaretti is probably not coming back at all, LB Ashley Cole totally sucks so far and Holebas was bought the last day of the window.

At least Maicon came back from his Miami adventure and finally played. As long as he doesn't get wasted and put pepper jelly on Torosidis' a-hole RB at least looks ok.

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Retirement from touring is the way to go. She's just 29 but has lost interest in touring the US and will probably just keep doing Japan and Europe a couple more times since it's fun with the bigger turnouts and you actually make money.

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The last band (of 8 years) she lived in NOLA, but her band was based in Toronto... the commute was killing her

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Totti's record setting goal, and it was a great one. What impresses me is Totti's movement and how he gets open... Gotta think Totti saw Zabaleta was too far up field and his turn from Kompany was perfect (though Kompany probably could have done better) and when Nainggolan got the ball it left Kompany in no-man's-land. Radja's pass was pretty good as well, and the chip around Hart was magnificent.

Big point, especially without about half the regular starting XI.

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You effers are dangerous....not looking forward to Oct 21st...great team in rhythm

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They really are. Great team to watch. I love the way they play.

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You effers are dangerous....not looking forward to Oct 21st...great team in rhythm

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Our midfield is pretty damn good even with De Rossi and Strootman missing and the the way Totti drops so deep with forwards running wide and midfielders centrally isn't something teams are used to marking.

The Bayern v Roma matches will be pretty entertaining. Not expecting anything away but think we stand a decent chance at home.



I was worried about Silva, Kun, Zabaleta yesterday since De Rossi, Castan and Astori were all out and then we lost De Sanctis last minute and had to start the Polish kid in goal for his 3rd senior game ever.

However, with the way we cut through City's midfield for the first hour or so and then the clear Pjanic chance on the late counter later I was a bit disappointed to just get 1 point out of it.

All in all though, it keeps us in pretty good standing in the group if we can get all our defenders healthy.

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However, with the way we cut through City's midfield for the first hour or so and then the clear Pjanic chance on the late counter later I was a bit disappointed to just get 1 point out of it.

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Yeah we could have got all 3 but when lampard came on I got scared they would steal all 3

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I was worried as well since it would have been so disheartening in a typical Roma way after all the missed chances.

Since we've had so many injuries and had to play the same midfield so much the past 2 weeks we were really running on fumes in the last 15 minutes.


However, I would add that Pjanic's miss when Gervinho set him up on wide open at the top of the area on that counter late in the match was still probably the best chance either team had to get a late winner.



I really think Pellegrini underestimated Roma's midfield, which is odd considering that he's an excellent manager and it's not like players like Pjanic and Naingollan are short on hype even among the crowd of fans that mainly watch EPL.

Missing De Rossi hurt a lot defensively (as all the space Silva kept creating showed) but Keita has been an excellent addition and is very bit as good on the ball at DM.


Pellegrini's comments about the success City has had against good sides while playing the 2 man midfield makes me think he wasn't fully prepared for how good Roma were going to be passing through that porous of a defense (particularly on counter-counter attacks) if Silva and Navas weren't tracking back at full pace to defend like banshees or one of them being sacrificed for an extra midfielder like Lampard who could immediately press the ball high.

I even read on a City message board before the game a group of Bosnian Man City fans (who I suppose watch both sides a lot for Dzeko and Pjanic) warning precisely against thinking that a 4-4-2 would work like it does in England against Roma's attack.


Roma's midfield attacking patterns and quality of one touch passing on breaks is excellent but perhaps there's a key difference in how Roma plays compared to top EPL sides and it's something that has been giving Serie A sides fits as well:



1) The three forwards interchange not only positions but roles constantly (for example: the Totti goal came from Totti drifting and making the run I guarantee City practiced a hundred times to expect/cover from Gervinho/Florenzi with Totti playing the through ball).

Another feature is that the wingers actually defend and win balls deep in their half but don't do so just in desperate situations but with the midfielders rotating out and replacing them into positions for the counter. This usually involves Totti dropping deep to pick out a player in space. There's many times that Totti is deeper than any other outfield player aside from the 2 CBs. It's also why Garcia loves guys like Gervinho, Iturbe and Florenzi who actually try to defend like fullbacks and not the matador efforts you see from most forwards.

The intricacies of that position morphing is what defines Rudi Garcia's system. It's also why it's hard to replace a Totti with Destro or to replace Florenzi with a creative passer who doesn't defend well like Ljajic and still keep the movement so fluid.

This system give Serie A back lines and midfields a lot of trouble since Garcia arrived and it was interesting to see that it give City the same headaches.

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wm72

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It is going to be a great match. I can't wait to watch it.

Something in your last post sends me to the Ticket Exchange Board. Weird as frick.

Roma has nothing to fear from any squad in Europe or Serie A at the moment. I love the way they play. Getting Strootman back is going to fuel y'all to fear no team.

Do you think Pep will play Benatia?

It would be a real roll of the dice since I've noticed he hasn't been the lineup recently and the environment will be hostile to say the least towards him but he could certainly add the experience will practicing against Roma's attack for over a year.