All Roads Lead to Roma: Bradley in the Eternal City v. I

Did anyone post this super-short interview with Bradley (among others)?

http://www.asroma.it/en/news/news.html?id=5924

 

Bradley to start. Game can be seen on Fox Soccer and various stream sites.

AS Roma-Zaglebie Lubin​

ROMA (4-3-3): Stekelenburg; Rosi, Romagnoli, Castan, Taddei; Bradley, Tachtsidis, Pjanic; Lamela, Osvaldo, Bojan​

 

Will be interesting to see if Roma use him as a purely defensive mid again, or if he'll have more of a box to box role today.

Should give some indication about how Zeman's planning to use him this season.

 

I'm watching the Football Rivalries episode with Roma-Lazio on FSC and it is kind of scary how fanatic they are.

BTW with that midfield I bet he's the DM.

 

Lazio Merda.....

There's really nothing that compares in America or even in other top European leagues. Clubs that close in proximity who are so passionate. Milan and Inter have some heated matches, especially in the 90's but the vitriol isn't comparable.

The fans aren't as violent as they were in the 90's though.

With the Tachtsidis and Pjanic he'll be a DM.

 

I don't see a gameday thread, but it was 1-0 Roma 45 seconds into the match

 

I started a thread

https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/bradley-roma-vs-zag-7-22-r.1948669/

 

I remember a young Bradley matching an in-his-prime Kaka stride for stride during a Brazil-U.S. friendly years ago. It wouldn't shock me at all if he had above-average speed over long distances like that.

 

Bradley played better but he's still not sharp. He was inaccurate with a few passes, didn't seem to have ideas when he was on the ball, and he didn't close down players as well as I know he can. Like I said after the last match I think he'll improve but he needs to step it up because the competition for places will be fierce.

I was surprised by Tachtsidis. I was always under the impression that he's a more advanced midfielder. Zeman played him as a deep lying play maker and he was excellent. Seems like Sabatini has found another one. That should be concerning for Bradley's starting potential. If Tachtsidis continues to play like that Zeman might opt for a midfield of Pjanic/Tachtsidis/De Rossi. At the moment that seems like the best pairing, even though De Rossi isn't on the tour, I know what he can do.

The most concerning thing about that match was of course the defense. I don't think Castan had a bad match, Romanogli is too young. We need another CB, Burdisso can be useful in a rotation but we shouldn't be starting with him.

Rosi and Romanogli on that right side of defense is suicidal. That match showed why we need two good fullbacks. Taddei give maximum effort but he should be rotated, we need quality at the fullback position.

 

I felt the same way about Bradley, but I guess in his defense he's been with the club less than a week now, and he's probably only had a few days of training with them at this point.

 

That's harsh on Bradley and kind to Tachtsidis. Tachtsidis had a couple of brilliant moments that everyone will obviously point to and looked really comfortable with the ball but he had a lot of careless giveaways. If he can cut that out and translate the rest to serie A he could be really good. Bradley didn't do anything remarkably good or bad, but he generally kept possession and worked hard as usual. I thought he was better in the first half as a box to box midfielder than in the 2nd as a DM.

 

He did lose possesion a few times and a couple poor passes, still he was to me by far our most conformable player on the ball. You could clearly see the difference with how assured he was on the ball compared to Bradley, because he played in basically the same position when he went off. This was his first match, unlike Bradley he had zero time in training camp. His first day as a Roma player was open day at the Stadio Olimpico and he seemed more switched on then any of our midfielders.

He had a couple good balls knocked out to the fullbacks, he connected on one or two balls from deep. Still his most impressive passing were his simple passing. When he got forward and looked to play intricate passes a move often broke down.

His off the ball movement wasn't to good. He wasn't making himself available in the right positions to me. Too often he found himself in positions where the only option was a sideways pass or knock back to a CB, when if his movement was better he'd be better positioned to make a more attacking move or get the ball to a player in a more progressive position. I'm talking about the first half not the second.

Also when he did try and take players on a couple times he lost control or was dispossessed because he spent to long on the ball.

You say he worked hard but I think he could have done better on the defensive end.

I want Bradley to be successful like any American, he hasn't been terrible but he hasn't been great early. Still some time left but I don't think he's done enough to lay claim over a midfield spot. You say he didn't do anything remarkably good, thing is though he's not going to get selected much unless he starts to do some remarkably good things.

At the moment:

AM - Pjanic/Florenzi/Tachtsidis
CM - Tachtisidis/Bradley/Marquinho/Lucca
DM - De Rossi/Bradley

Also De Rossi can play CM.

 

He assuredly passed it to the other team more than a few times. Bradley was being safer with the ball and Tachtsidis was looking to thread through balls every time and it seemed like they figured that out and were cutting them out. It's still early and we'll see how the chemistry in the team develops, especially when everyone is available and the opponents are tougher. Hopefully Liverpool plays a stronger team than they did against Toronto.

 

So did Bradley the past two matches, so if anything their even.

Saying that Tachtsidis scored and played a part in a goal.

 

I didn't see the first game, but Bradley kept the ball a lot better in this game. I don't want to seem like I'm overly biased but it just seems like youre just glossing over a lot of sloppy play because he had a couple of spectacular moments. All I'm saying is he'll have to clean that up. If he does that and keeps creating goals I'm sure he'll start.

 

I'm not, he gave away a couple balls in critical positions considering he was playing so deep. Off the top of my head he had like 3 or 4 instances, 2 could have led to goals against a better side. Still he showed more going forward then the goal and the pass that led to the goal, he had a few good passes going forward and showed some good vision in general. Roma looked better attacking with him on the field playing as a deep lying play maker, which might be what was missing from our midfield last season.

If he makes better decisions I think he'll be just fine. He only got to the club 3 days ago.

Bradley did play better than the last match. I'm just pointing to things he needs to improve to demand some starts under Zeman. He wasn't one of the bad players today.

Romanogli - The kid clearly has potential but he's only 17, he needs some experience.

Taddei - Is a hard worker but he's not providing what he used to from the fullback position

Rosi - Has a great engine but he consistently was beat and his crosses were poor. Twice Bradley picked him out in a good position to cross and he delievered a poor ball. We absolutlely need a new RB.

Lamela - Not really a complaint just a mention, he scored a great goal but he started the game very poorly.

Totti - Didn't look good, though he probably should have scored. (that's as critical as I get with Capitano )

 

Bradley Shines at Wrigley Field in Roma Debut

 

Michael with the fast group again

 

I'm actually surprised by your impressions. Watching the match I paid particular attention to Tachtsidis's touches and his pass completion percentage was poor- he seemed very lackadaisical. In contrast Bradley was fairly sharp. I think you may be giving Tachtsidis a lot of credit for a very well-taken goal and that may have papered over some of his deficiencies. His game doesn't seem very disciplined to me- but I've only seen him once and in a preseason game nonetheless.

I agree that Bradley didn't close down as well as we're accustomed to seeing from him, but it is still early in preseason and fitness and/or coaches instructions may have played a role in that. From his comments Zeman seemed to think he played well.

Edit: I see someone else beat me to it.

 

Bradley was a bit lackadaisical on the ball in the recent friendlies. He hasn't been showing for the ball that well either. His play kind of reminds me of his time at BMG near the end. Of course, this is just preseason. Bradley is never gonna be great really sticking to players, so I hope Roma is relying on him for that. I think Bradley has to get used to playing with how quick most of the attacker on this team like to play. With Chievo and the National team things are done more methodical.

Bradley needs to keep his play around the level it was during that Italy friendly if he wants a good chunk of time with Roma. That's the expectation.

 

I really don't think I am, also he set up the first goal. Bradley has had the most praise on this board. I'm not really hearing the universal praise from Roma fans. Though no negative comments like after his first match. I think he played much better than his first match but he still has to show more. Pretty much all Roma fans were impressed by Tachtsidis.

Zeman he made a point to note while Tachtsidis was good, he can play much better. He like many of the players including Bradley haven't had a full camp. Tachtsidis literally just got to the club a couple days before, coming from Verona where he was one of the best players last year on that level. Which is why he can only play 45min and it looked like he was conserving energy. Bradley seemed to do the same with his 45min in his first match and his passing was much worse than Tacht.

That's what we bought him for, if he can't close down players or provide more in attack he's going to struggle to find starts. Realistically there's only one midfield spot open. Pjanic has proven he deserves to play in that #8 role and he'll be backed up by Florenzi. De Rossi when fit will play, he can either play as a true DM or as a Regista. Zeman says he prefers him as the anchor in the midfield. So that last spot presumably given the history of Zeman will go to a deep lying playmaker like Verratti last season at Pescara. Short of a few balls out to the fullbacks Bradley didn't show much by way of attacking movements, just my opinion. If Zeman plays a box-to-box player in that midfield he'd still be competing with Marquinho for starts who was one of our better players at the end of last season.

Looking at the situation when everyone gets match fit and has had more time, I can see Zeman starting like this....

Pjanic-----Tachtsidis/Bradley/Marquniho
-----De Rossi

Bradley can could get the nod but he needs to show more imo.

 

Roma have reinforcements coming on the defense, Paraguayan defender Ivan Piris from Sao Paulo will be confirmed shortly. I don't know much about him but I'm told he's pretty good. Everyone knows him for the duel with Neymar where he twisted him up pretty badly. Still he's managed him pretty well since.



I still think we need at least 2 defenders, we might buy 3.

 

A very fascinating read on AS Roma, their finances, ownership and recent history . . .

If you might not be familiar with Swiss Ramble you might enjoy the excellent information (probably a bit more than you might have ever wanted).

 

The Swiss Ramble is usually quality.

I will say though that article was written before the change from the Sensi's. Our most recent annual report still showed were still struggling financially but I think next years report will start to see us turn the corner in some areas. We need to get CL football back to for a couple seasons to take that next step.

Here's a recent article from Bloomberg about AS Roma currently.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...u-s-owners-tap-nedved-mentor-in-overhaul.html