re: Inter 1 - AS Roma 3

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Osvaldo's performance, an emoticon-essay:

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Those emoticons pretty much sum up the range of Osvaldo in general. He seems right on the verge of being an elite striker but needs to keep his head about him. Point of Osvaldo interest: Of late, he's taken to comparing Roma's form to periods of the Rolling Stones' recording career. Needless to say, there's hardly an easier way for him to stay on my good side.

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How does the performance of, say, Florenzi affect Michael Bradley's position in the team?

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I've always thought that you'd see a lot of rotation anyway since Zeman specifically asked for Tachtsidis and for Florenzi's loan to be recalled. Zeman's the least likely of any manager ever to ask for young players he's not going to give significant playing time. Add to that: Marquinho is a real spark plug as a late sub.


Tachtsidis' development may be more the concern long term for Bradley than Florenzi getting a start and subbing him here and there. It seems Zeman prefers to push De Rossi forward (the role he plays most often with the Italian NT) and sees Tachtsidis as the purer prodigy at regista.

The small chance that Tachtsidis just outright takes over the regista role with De Rossi moving forward into Bradley's MF slot is the only bad scenario for Bradley's PT long term.

All in all, I'm not too worried as I think once Bradley's healthy he'll continue to figure prominently in Zeman's plans. Even if that means not starting every single fixture, it will mean the team is excelling, so Bradley will still be a mainstay on CL caliber club under a coach that values teaching above all else.