I'm not really a fan of just conceding possession and sitting deep against a team you were controlling most of the game, but they got the 3 points. Totti had concrete boots by the end of the match but he did a good job wasting time. Bradley played pretty well, probably completed a very high % of passes again and made some tackles. If Destro is injured, I'm not sure what they'll do with Lamela out too. They really missed Lamela today.
looked that way to me as well but still managed to do an impressive amount of work (and effective) with the ball in the last minute of play.
His work rate was high throughout, but the finer touches seemed to disappear there at the end. Seemed to indicate he was tired to me.
for roma going forward, maybe this is instructive. they have been scoring a lot of goals and not getting 3 points. hope zeman learns some lessons from the last two games and puts them into practice when he has to play the tougher teams.
Well your nephew was playing in it. Although he's the reason I tuned in and the reason I watched the whole thing, it was dreadful as sports entertainment. It was one of those plodding games that people who dislike our fair sport point to when criticizing it. I can respect the professional performance and bemoan the spectacle, can't I??? Don't the kids these days say something about hating the player and not the game, or vice versa, or something like that? [sarcasm]Maybe they should consider cheerleaders and jock jams in some instances. [/sarcasm] My takeaway was that Mike was very good in his role, staying tethered to his deep midfield spot, getting to good spots to pick up the ball and distributing well (one nice diagonal ball -- that Destro muffed bringing down -- stood out), getting good tackles in when he had to, and generally being good at soccer. My takeaway for Roma overall was, good for them if they've learned how to take an early lead and make it stick. That was a solid, conservative performance in a situation that called for it. Well done. But I jumped out of my seat 0 times.
race to the bar? Watching Roma lately has been a real treat, but as any sane person will say, they needed to learn to down-shift, because the human body cannot accept the level of punishment demanded by that constant attack. The first thing that happens: players grumble. second thing: injuries, third: loses. This team needs at least two speeds. Don't like to see MB as DM, mostly because he is not a born DM. he doesnt have that demented physical intimidation that is needed.
i agree that it is unpleasant for some of us to see mb so tethered to the defensive third. and it seems very unzemanlike. but mike is apparently doing what the coach has laid out for him to do and is very successful at it. face it. mb as dm has been part of the downshifted recipe that got them clean sheets in the last two games. so altho the roma posters who know him well indicate that he never goes the conservative route, the old dog might indeed learn a new trick and zeman might actually adopt this new approach when all the players are available again. we'll see.
Good game. Another good result, still not classic Zeman football but I will take points especially away from home. The only complaint I have of Bradley in this game today was he played too many horizontal passes, needs to go more vertical. Horrible runs from our front three so its excusable.
I dunno about this. He seemed to play into checking forwards feet plenty, especially in the first half. I fact it seemed Pescar a caught onto it and cut a couple of those balls off later in the match...
Here are the ratings from La Gazzetta dello Sport for Pescara 0-1 Roma: Pescara: 5 Perin: 5.5 Romagnoli: 5.5 Terlizzi: 6 Bocchetti: 5 Balzano: 5.5 Nielsen: 6 Togni: 6.5 (chosen as Pescara's best player) Soddimo: 5 Bjarnason: 5.5 Modesto: 5.5 Quintero: 5 Weiss: 6 Abbruscato: 5.5 Caprari: N/R Bergodi (coach): 6 Roma: 6 Goicoechea: 6 Piris: 6 Marquinhos: 6.5 Castan: 6 Balzaretti: 6 Pjanic: 6 Bradley: 6 Florenzi: 6 Marquinho: 6 Destro: 6.5 Osvaldo: 5.5 Totti: 7 (chosen as Roma's best player) Perrotta: N/R Tachtsidis: N/R Zeman (coach): 6.5 The comment with Bradley's rating: "The defense suffered less with him in front of it. Of course, he didn’t flourish when it came to laying out the play, but he didn’t give the ball away either."
highly doubtful, every press conference he mentions how Roma still has to eliminate the cancer of horizontal passing.
Headline is a bit strong for the quote, which is: The coach said: “Bradley is a central midfielder and for 40 years I have been playing with this type of figure in front of the defence. I don’t see this as an enormous change from Tachtsidis. We also had to control Juan Fernando Quintero and we did that comfortably. “The performance was better on a defensive level than attacking. At times Daniel Osvaldo and Mattia Destro keep the ball a bit too long, but they will improve their rapport on the field.” http://www.footballcourier.com/news...h-michael-bradley-in-new-role/full_story.html