You could be right, I'll have to rewatch it. I caught most of the game at a café. I'm not a proponent of abandoning the 4-3-3, however. Mixing it up worked today, but if teams prepare game-plans exclusively for a 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 , we'll still be stifled occasionally. Cristante and Pellegrini had shit games, that doesn't mean it will continue to be the case. They're 22 and 23 years old. We're gunna figure it out , and the kids will get better with more game time. Just gotta stay patient , and possibly not start them together if we can prevent it. Nzonzi was really good, exactly as advertised. There was only one occasion where I thought he could've moved the ball , yet carried it into traffic on the break. Other than that, he was positionally sound and made clean decisions.
Edf injured his hand punching the bench in frustration on how shit we played Hope he punched them at half time too
His keeping was not the problem. He's solid. I dont think its unfair to say that his kicking needs some work. That's I'll though, I'm expecting that to greatly improve as the season goes forward.
We were down 3-1 and managed to tie it up in the 2nd half against a good team that has had our number for the past 4 years...but Yes, "weaker squad" and so forth...
No doubt his kicking isn't great but I'm a bit old school. First and foremost your job is to keep the ball out of the net; that just doesn't mean making reflex saves, it means commanding your box. If you can get a GK that can do the above and is good with the ball at his feet, all the better. Personally, I would never sacrifice 1 iota of a GK's ability to be a GK to get one that's better with his feet.
so i'm only 21 minutes and the first two atalanta goals in and while the team looks like hot garbage it gives me a feeling that Roma just didn't take this game seriously until it was far too late. EDF included with his slow change in tactics... maybe I'm being too nice but it looks like they just didn't think it would be a match and got their A$$ handed to them until they had no choice but to respond... even so... that is the weak minded nonsense that we aren't supposed to let happen anymore... disappointing
Wow, just started the game and I didn't realize Atalanta rested so many of their starters for this. This is pretty close to their b-team, lol. That's actually really pathetic on our part. And also stupid on Serie A for scheduling this on a Monday when they have crucial EL game on Thursday.
The first half was hard to understand. I think the team simply did not respond well to the early goal. We utterly underestimated them and their front three destroyed us, especially Zapata. You can see that clearly in the second goal. Zapata steals the ball from behind Manolas and moments later, Fazio simply watches the ball go past him. You are a central defender, slide in and stop that pass for fukc sake. EDF was furious for a reason. You simply can't relax like that. But maybe his midfield choices didn't help the defence either. And while I'm on that, can anyone explain to me what are Lorenzo Pellegrini's strengths? That question has been puzzling me since last season. Sure, you can tell me he's still young, but young players still show some promise to make themselves worth keeping . I don't know what Pellegrini has shown. I think I would have been feeling a lot better if Kevin had been on the team sheet instead of him.
And some people think Strootman is not good enough to start for Roma, lol. I was surprised to see that people here thought Kluivert did better than Under. Kluivert was invisible all game.
Strootman would’ve been more defensively aware than Pellegrini..... ...and it would’ve made no difference, he’d get bypassed as well.
I am a bit shocked that many hadn't already worked out as soon as we signed N'Zonzi that a midfield three of Pastore,DDR and N,Zonzi is the way to go, with Pastore as a trequestra. Having Pastore play as a mezzala or on the left wing is the sort of decision that makes me doubt EDF as a manager. It shows a lack of understanding of the strengths of the players he has and how to setup to get the best out of them. At least in the end he worked it out. Those three have to be first choice and only one be rested at a time.
I am strongly of the belief that you can't drop points against the bottom 15 teams if you want to win the scudetto. So that is 2 dropped already, assuming Atalanta don't finish top 5, which is a real chance of happening.
Atalanta aren’t Bologna. They can compete with anyone and give them a run for our money. We haven’t beat them at home since 2014. I thought maybe with their weakened lineup we could take advantage and recoup points we’d likely drop. If they played their full team we probably lose this game.
Seeing Florenzi's goal reminded me of how wasted he's been as a right back. If they just kept him in midfield and worked on his positioning, he could have become so much more. Maybe something similar to Marchisio. He probably still could do a better job than what Pellegrini and Cristante did today.
To be fair it seemed that Roma avoided the left side of the pitch the whole match. Be it Kolarov waving his arms around because there were acres of space between he and any opponent only for Olsen and Fazio to completely ignore him; our MF and CFs thinking every attack needed to be ran through Under - when they weren’t too busy taking one touch too many and losing the ball; even with Pastore on the LW I only remember him being involved by making runs into the box and center of the pitch.
Pellgrini has no strengths. He's a jack of all trades, and does all his jobs to something like a 6.8 degree standard. Neither the player to win nor lose games - but you'd win more if a better player was in his place. Anyone solid defensively - who has unique traits going forward. A Rafinha type. Pell is just 'there', being carried - probably because of the effort in bringing him to the club - it'd be embarrassing, awkward, potentially unsettling to not play him.
The best results & entertainment this season if EDF persists with 4-3-3 would be to abandon Europe and let DDR play as many games as possible alongside N'Zonzi and probably Pastore *shudders*. A midfield needs character, mentality, high football IQ. In Pellegrini all those lack - and in Cristante they do too. How then is the team expected to keep a consistent tempo for anything longer than 4 minutes? Better to just take them out and turn the midfield into a wall. Even so, that means the midfield is all 30+ year olds next season - which makes the question beg - who the hell replaces these great players? It won't be Cristante, Pellegrini and Coric taking this team on deep runs of dominance. So much money wasted.
Let me just say I think many people are being unfair to Cristante and Pellegrini. We have been talking for almost 2 years about our MF problems and essentially EDF created another MF not dissimilar to DDR/Strootman/Radja. EDF did not put them in a position to be successful and that was the problem. We have tried countless CM in the 4-3-3 and for the most part it's not been successful. Play to their strengths and I have no doubt they'll be successful.
I loved what I saw from Nzonzi. We are much better than what we saw in the first half yesterday. EDF needs to make sure we don't relax and underestimate opponents so heavily ever again.
I'm not sure about this. Last year's squad doesn't come back from 3-1 down to get a draw there. You can argue last year's squad doesn't go down 3-1 to Atalanta's B-team either, but Atalanta has always given us problems. That Di Francesco was able to bring ob Nzonzi, Kluivert, and Shick to change the game speaks to the strength and depth of this squad. The chances that Pastore was creating would not have been created by anyone who we lost from last year.