It's much harder to break down defenses in this league. But the top clubs can do it. Without Dzeko playing in top form we simply have no regular way to score goals.
Focus seems to be on our poor defensive play and that's completely fair but... we still can't score so even if we had pitched a shutout we still only draw and that's not good enough.
There have been 3 international breaks so far, here are the games after for Roma Roma - Chievo 2-2 Roma - Spal 0-2 Udinese - Roma 1-0
Just incredible that we continue to find ways to lose these games. How many of these kinds of defeats is too many?
system doesn't work as long as we have kolarov & fazio in the team. EDF calls for posession, but once we're dispossed kolarov & fazio are just too slow to do anything significant. How many times did we concede through counter attack? Not to mention we can't finish for shit. I have no idea how we're so futile in the final third this season. System work in the CL because they don't park like a bus. But 70% of the teams park a bus in Serie A ffs, please do something before it's too late EDF
Same story. we don't have the consistent quality up front to capitalize on limited quality chances we get , and our defense isn't able to stay firm for the duration of matches. People can stop saying Jesus is good enough for Roma anytime now. Monchi needs to be aggressive in January. If that means moving an established player to create the necessary funds - so be it.
This game basically showed what we've known for months now. We need a new starting CB to have at least one reliable defender in case Manolas gets injured and we need Pastore on the pitch and in form soon. Besides that our build up play is definitely getting better so I'm not as pissed off as I was after the SPAL game. Looking at the schedule I'm still kind of confident we won't be further than 3p away from 4th spot come January and I'd stick with EDF in this case (especially if we might top our CL group).
we should look how liverpool is playing atm. we need mobile players to cover the defenders when they move forwards. when Van Dijk & Lovren are in Watford's penalty box, TAA, Henderson & Robertson were ready to cover
I agree regarding our CB situation. Fazio is no longer capable of being a full time starting CB, while JJ needs to be partnered with someone of great quality like Manolas in order to perform decently. When Kostas isnt out their our backline is a complete mess, plain and simple. Kolarov is also definitely showing his age as well. The guy is still as dangerous as they come when playing the ball, but aside from that he just shouldn't be counted upon to start regularly. As for pastore, it would be nice to have him available. However, Pellegrini has been playing so damn well that it would almost seem unfair to see him forced played in a different role or even relegated to the bench just to accommodate Pastore. Can they both start in our midfield while playing in roles that plays yo their strengths?
After the squad was significantly weakened during the summer I don't think any other coach would perform better with the players available. This is a 6-8th position squad and it will finish in one of those positions.