I meant to mention earlier that Osvaldo has been sporting a Guy Fawkes facial hair style tonight. 
I’ve really warmed to Pablo, a good player with a great attitude.
2-0 Roma, FT.
Good result for us. Played well in the second half, hopefully with the international break coming up our injury list will begin to wittle down.
At the moment we have Totti, Borini, Kjaer, Cicinho, Juan and Pizarro out injured. Totti should be back after the break.
Could really do with Kjaer back as the defence is very weak and he’d be our most robust centre half option, we defend set plays extremely poorly.
A welcome win though and hopefully should ease some pressure off Enrique. If Napoli could get the 3 points against Juventus tomorrow, it would be a great result for us. Milan have a tricky tie at home to Catania and contain a number of selection problems, they are missing Pato, Cassano, Gattuso, Flamini, Nocerino, Boateng, Nesta and Mexes. The losses of Boateng and Nocerino will hae a big impact for Milan and Catania have been going well under Montella, so they have every chance of getting something out of that game.
Some news on possible January movement.
Fenucci has said that we are in negotiations for Uruguayan ‘wonderkid’ Nicolas Lopez. He’s 18 and a flexible attacker, he was formerly dubbed the ‘new Saurez’, it’s now ominously the ‘new Fonseca’. I hope that’s down to Roma connotations though. It’s pretty much a done deal I’ve heard.
Enrique was speaking before the game last night and said that the squad is far too big and we will need to trim the squad before we get anyone in January. He also said that a few of the youngsters are playing really well and it’s unfortunate on them as they’d be involved only for a lot of the deadwood hanging around. I’d imagine the players Enrique would like to get rid of are Cassetti, Cicinho, Borriello, Pizarro, Perrotta, Simplicio, Juan and Taddei. It’s going to be very difficult however as they are old and on large contracts.
Freddy Guarin is out of favour at Porto at the minute a and his agent has said we were interested in the summer and Roma would be a great move for him, also hinting it’s most likely that Guarin will leave Porto in January.
While we’re on the subject of talented young footballers elsewhere I think it’s important to mention out own bright talents coming through the Primavera.
We are the reigning champions after winning it last year and currently bolster a number of Roma-owned members of the national u-21 side. This season we are currently topping our respective group as we look to make it 2IAR.
Check out holding midfielder Federico Viviani’s hattrick against Ascoli. Looks a brilliant talent, started both Europa league games earlier this season, when he’s better developed phsyically he’ll be a wonderful player.
Uruguayan wonderkid Nicolas Lopez is in Rome to complete his move.
We’ve been strongly linked with a number of right backs for a January move, the most strongly linked is Isla. Van Der Wiel, Azpilcueta, Montoya and some Hamburg right back are the other names mentioned.
Teams of the Decade #10: Roma 2000-01
February 9, 2010
Into the top ten we go! And to start the top ten, it’s the oldest side on this list, the superb Scudetto-winning Roma side of nine years ago. Roma played wonderful football, had a XI packed with really likeable, talented players, and a manager (Fabio Capello) who consistently got his tactics spot on. And it was the best side in the final season Channel 4 showed live games on Football Italia.
In one sense, there was no secret why Roma suddenly became title challengers – spending £50m on a new spine for the team – Samuel, Emerson and Batistuta – is always going to improve your side considerably. But, although these three had wonderful seasons, the real reason Roma became title winners was because others stepped up and became truly top-class players. Vincent Candela went from being an average left-back to a rampaging wing-back, Damiano Tomassi and Cristiano Zanetti had the seasons of their careers, and Francesco Totti became truly world-class.
Indeed, it was Tomassi and Zanetti who were Roma’s first-choice central midfielders until the new year, thanks to Emerson picking up a serious injury early on in the season. Both were unfussy, unspectacular and unfancied players, but their discipline allowed Francesco Totti the license to create without having to worry about leaving the centre of the pitch open for counter-attacks.
The wing-backs were a joy to watch all season. Cafu was just Cafu – motoring up and down the right wing for 90 minutes, acting both as a right-back and a right-winger, tackling and crossing equally well. The afforementioned Candela did a less spectacular but equally important job on the left.
Upfront, Batistuta was in his last great season as a footballer, but he was superb. 20 goals in 28 games at a new club is pretty special, and most sides simply weren’t able to deal with the tridente Roma played. Against a 4-4-2, this side worked brilliantly. The three centre-backs marked the opposition forwards with a man to spare, the Roma 4 sat deeper than the opposition 4 in midfield, and negated their ability to counter. Totti played inbetween the lines – with two strikers upfront, the opposition could only mark him with a holding midfielder, which then created room for Tomassi or Zanetti. It did leave the opposition full-backs free, but they were effectively playing against two full-backs playing high up the pitch (Cafu and Candela) who were both defensively very aware. The three-man defence worked because if one wing-back got bypassed on the flank, the centre-back closest to him was comfortable covering in a wide area, and the wing-back on the opposite side would tuck in, to make a back four. So if Candela got beaten on the overlap, Samuel would come to meet the winger, Aldair/Zago and Zebina would cover in the centre, and Cafu would defend the back post.
The only real debate in this side concerned Batistuta’s partner. Marco Delvecchio was the tall, gangly targetman who rarely scored but supposedly did a great job for the team; Vincenzo Montella was the small, pacey poacher with an incredible scoring record. Capello favoured Delvecchio for the first half of the campaign, protesting that his all-round game was better for the rest of the side, but in the end Montella simply scored so often as substitute that Capello couldn’t leave him out. And then, with a tridente of Montella, Batistuta and Totti, Roma had as lethal an attacking three as any club has had in the decade.
It was a rare appearance of a back three in a successful club side, and the key was that the three were all suited to their roles. Samuel was left-footed and therefore happy to play on the left-side of a three; he and Zebina were the physical man-markers, whilst either Brazilian, Zago or Aldair, was the spare man and the one who distributed the ball forward.
The final word must go to Totti – at 24, the captain of his hometown club, and the best player in their first title campaign since 1983. He had the most wonderful season imaginable for a player in his position, and contributed so well both in terms of goals and assists. He has a reputation as being overrated in Britain, and at 33 that’s unlikely to change, but he is a truly remarkable footballer – and quite possibly the most consistently brilliant attacking player throughout the decade. This might not even have been his best season, but it will probably prove to be his only league title.
[left]There’s a relative lack of YouTube footage of Roma’s victorious season, but that side’s finest moment probably came the next campaign in their astonishing 5-1 derby victory over Lazio, with Vincenzo Montella scoring four, and Totti rounding it all off with a stupendous chip.
[/left][left][/left]
Teams of the Decade #5: Roma, 2007
March 5, 2010
Some great inventions were the result of years of design and graft, eventually producing something roughly approximating the design brief. Others, like Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, were an happened upon [color="#cc0000"]by complete accident. In that sense, Luciano Spalletti is modern football’s Alexander Fleming, and the 4-6-0 was his great discovery that he never intended on inventing.
An injury crisis upfront was the reason Roma were forced into this highly unconventional shape – a modified version of their standard 4-2-3-1 system – since their attack had no focal point, with no fit player in the squad capable of holding the ball up. The only solution was to play Francesco Totti upfront, but rather than remaining upfront alone and waiting for service, Totti effectively played his usual trequartista role, moving into the gap between opposition defence and midfield and receiving the ball to feet. Perhaps 4-6-0 is an exaggeration, but it was certainly 4-5-1-0.
And this created an entirely new problem for opposing defences (because their centre-backs were suddenly left without anyone to mark) and opposing midfielders (who found Roma effectively playing four players in the centre of midfield, and yet still using two wingers). It was almost impossible for Roma not to dominate possession, and with the midfielders flying forward to exploit the space left by Totti, the Roma side almost played exclusively on the counter-attack, regardless of where the side won the ball.
http://www.zonalmarking.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/roma_palermo_totti_de_rossi-600x375.jpg
Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi
The system worked so well that even when Roma’s fit forwards returned, Totti continued to be deployed as the furthest forward central player, with Mirko Vucinic – a striker in any other team in the world – converted to an outside left to ensure a goal threat from the wings. But whilst Totti is perhaps not natural a ’striker’ per se, that does not mean he is not comfortable operating there. His 26 goals in 2006/07 were enough to [color="#cc0000"]win him[/url] the European Golden Boot, and his position on the[url=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_records_in_Italy#Goalscoring”][color="#cc0000"] all-time Serie A goalscoring table proves what a fine finisher he is.
![[color="#cc0000"]win him[/url] the European Golden Boot, and his position on the[url=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_records_in_Italy#Goalscoring”][color="#cc0000"] all-time Serie A goalscoring table](http://footyfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/totti_and_golden_boot.jpg){kind=link}
Initially Daniele De Rossi was given the ‘holding’ role in midfield, although later on it became David Pizarro charged with this task, whilst Mancini ocassionally operated on the left, with Rodrigo Taddei coming in on the right.
Roma perhaps lacked the quality across the pitch to make it work consistently, and it’s fair to say that the system was a sporadic success rather than a consistent one. The astonishing 6-2 Coppa Italia Final defeat of Inter (who won the league by 22 points that season) demonstrated its ability to completely outwit opposing managers (and flat-footed centre-backs) but the crushing 1-7 defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League demonstrated the danger of the system self-destructing.
Oddly enough, it was the first leg of that tie that demonstrated how effective the system was, and was heavily drawn upon by Sir Alex Ferguson for United’s shape the next campaign. Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown were baffled about who they were supposed to be picking up, as a system with four or five Roma midfielders constantly running at the opposition defence was genuinely a revelation in tactical terms. Quite why it failed so spectacularly in the second leg remains unclear.
But the system will go onto be the most influential system of the decade. That the shape was adopted and improved upon by the side who won the Champions League the next two seasons (Manchester United and Barcelona) illustrates the potential in the 4-6-0, and it could well dominate football for the next ten years.
[left]Roma’s 4-6-0 was at its best in that 6-2 against Inter. In fairness, none of the goals really show the system in operation that well, but you don’t win 6-2 in a Cup Final every season.[/left][left]And for an individual moment to show off the counter-attacking ability of that team, look no further than Mancini’s legendary goal away at Lyon:[/left][center]
[/center][center][/center]
A major blow for us as Burdisso picked up a serious injury for Argentina and could be out for 6 months.
Nico’s our best defender. 
Just after seeing Burdisso’s injury there. It’s a shocker.
Christ that’s a bad one - looks like he’s out for the season alright.
Our captain’s thoughts are with Nico.
Roma captain Francesco Totti has admitted that the injury to defender Nicolas Burdisso is a major blow for his side.
Burdisso damaged knee ligaments while playing for Argentina in their 2-1 away victory over Colombia in a 2014 Conmebol World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old is now reportedly set to undergo more tests in South America to determine the exact extent of his injury and the recovery time before flying back to Italy.
Don’t Miss
[list]
[]Rodrigo Taddei’s agent hints at Roma exit
[]Roma’s Burdisso facing spell on sidelines
[/list]
[list]
[]Roma’s Conti reveals €70m De Rossi snub
[]From football star to politician - Romario
[/list]
Totti is understandably frustrated with the setback suffered by his Roma team-mate and encourages him to come through these difficult times.
“What a terrible thing that happened to our Nicolas Burdisso,” wrote the veteran Italian on his personal website.
“He is a pillar for Roma and a reference point for the locker room and the defence.
“It will be a truly heavy absence. Nico, you’ve got grit to spare and we know that well. You are a warrior.
“Roma are waiting for you.”
Luis Enrique’s side are currently seventh in the Serie A table with 14 points from 10 matches and host Lecce at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Sunday.
It’s very saddening that Nico has suffered such a serious injury, after the two sons of Rome he is my favourite Roma player, his attitude is endearing and it is one of a true son of Rome - a gladiator. There is nothing Nico will walk away from and he will come back strong.
Lovely words from Totti and it shows the respect that Nico has earned from his general and the football cub.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhnxOdwbXW8[/media[
We’re away to Lecce tonight.
Totti is back in the squad after injury, don’t know if he will start though.
Pizarro, Burdisso, Borini, Simplicio, Juan, Cicinho all miss out through injury.
I think we will get a 2-0 win.
Stekelenburg; Rosi, Kjaer, Heinze, Taddei; Gago, De Rossi, Pjanic; Bojan, Lamela, Osvaldo
Interesting to see Taddei keep his place. Angel has been one of our best performers this season. Shop window maybe?
We’re actually at home tonight.
Pjanic has given us the lead after lovely play by De Rossi and Taddei.
We could do with getting Totti in here, Lamela hasn’t done much.
We continue to look vulnerable on the break, Heinze has no pace and is getting exposed with the high line we play. We’re really going to miss Nico this season.
Gago makes it 2-0 with a good strike outside the box.
Lamela should have made it 3.
We were threatening to run riot and then we conceded a soft goal. Now it’s not so secure looking, we’re creating chances but look vulnerable.