Roma's tremendous form and momentum hit a brick wall last night, and against Lazio of all teams. Was the team tired? Complacent? Overconfident? Or was it just a bad day (night) at the office and a particularly good one for the opposition? Should LS have rotated a little more and taken a slightly more pragmatic approach with his teams tactics? Perhaps, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Lazio defended well in numbers and countered effectively, meanwhile Roma struggled to create enough good chances to capitalise on and defended poorly. Sure DDR's defensive abilities were missed here, but Fazio, Rudiger and Manolas all had poor games by their high standards and that's never likely to end well. Roma need to pick up the pieces and quickly, that much is for sure. One game doesn't suddenly make a team bad. Roma are a very strong and dangerous team. Lets hope they demonstrate that once again on Saturday.
This is a HUGE game. Win and, barring a total collapse, Roma lock up 2nd place and a guaranteed CL spot. Lose and its a battle until the end of the season.
The thing is, Napoli are absolutely deadly on the counter and this makes up for how weak they are in possession, that's not to say Hamsik, Allan or Zielinski are weak or anything, but they very much so rely on the other midfield not taking it to them. Our midfield are specialists in exactly that, I just hope we can hold firm in the midfield and that the wingbacks keep Insigne and Callejon as wide as possible, as the closer they are to goal/Mertens, the more effective they are.
Just don't lose. A win all but locks it up, but a draw is far from the end of the world. It would be a real kick in the pants to come this far and then lose to Napoli at home, especially after the big win in Milan last week and the big win in Napoli in the first half.
Given that we just need to not lose, the ball is in Napoli's court. That could either mean they leave themselves open or we have a snooze fest on our hands.
Nothing would make me happier than to see Strootman score a screamer to win it and end Napoli's season.
The match against Lazio, was frankly one of the worst in Spalletti's history. Diabolical, horrid, pathetic - whatever you call it, we were terrible. If we play like that against Napoli, prepare for a heavy defeat.
Don't know what others think, but I'm thinking JJ might have earned a starting spot in our back 3 and I think there's a very good chance he'll start today. Last two games Manolas has played on the left and Rudiger on the right. I prefer Manolas on the right side and right now I feel like JJ on the left might be a better option than Rudiger. Not so much for defensive reasons but more for the reason of getting the ball forward more accurately.
JJ has become a very reliable player for us and I'm no longer worried when he's playing. I like being able to rotate; Fazio, Manolas, Rudiger and JJ in the back.
SES may start in place of Salah today. http://www.forzaroma.info/news-as-roma/roma-napoli-le-probabili-formazioni-live/
I saw that! I paused it at the moment when you see Spalletti and the banner in its entirety and the colours, our colours... ...it gave me the chills, so beautiful... God I miss that sight...
This line-up looks very much like a back 4 with JJ at left back......... I hope this works LS........